2012 PCA Results

Player Lists

• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 5 players.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 4 players.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 3 players.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 2 players.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 1b survivors.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 1b players.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 1a survivors.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Day 1a players.
• 2012 PCA Main Event - Total players.

Payout

A total of 1072 players entered this year's PCA Main Event, creating a total prize pool of $10,398,400. 160 places will be paid with $1,775,000 million for first place.

Place	Name	Prize ($)	Status
1	John Dibella	1,775,000
2	Kyle Julius	1,500,000
3	Faraz Jaka	755,000
4	Xuan Liu	600,000
5	Mark Drover	468,000
6	Anthony Gregg	364,000
7	David Bernstein	260,000
8	Ruben Visser	156,400
9	Lee Goldman	101,000
10	Martin Jacobson	101,000
11	Phil D'Auteuil	85,000
12	Daniel Shiff	85,000
13	Nikolaos Alafogiannis	70,000
14	Alex Fitzgerald	70,000
15	Sam Greenwood	58,000
16	David Granados	58,000
17	Daniel Schmieding	52,000
18	Byron Kaverman	52,000
19	Charles Furey	52,000
20	Maxim Semisoshenko	52,000
21	Corey Burbick	52,000
22	David Peters	52,000
23	Alex Venovski	52,000
24	Danny Chevalier	52,000
25	Barry Greenstein	46,000	Team PokerStars Pro
26	Roberto Rivera Serrano	46,000
27	Gabriel Thomas Patrick	46,000
28	William Luciano	46,000
29	Warren Strong	46,000
30	Luca Pagano	46,000
31	Lawrence Greenberg	46,000
32	Andrei Cristian Folescu	41,000
33	Peter Draxl	41,000
34	Nikolaev Kolev	41,000
35	Richard Washinsky	41,000
36	Jesus Sanchez Ruber	41,000
37	Bill Chen	41,000
38	Jan Heitmann	41,000	PokerStars Team Pro
39	Robin Lindqvist	41,000
40	Eddy Sabat	41,000
41	Rudy Blondeau	37,500
42	Sam Chartier	37,500
43	Erik Cajelais	37,500
44	Luis Jaikel	37,500
45	Artem Kachnyy	37,500
46	Marc Tschirch	37,500
47	Andrew Badecker	37,500
48	Viacheslav Igin	37,500
49	Max Leonhard	35,000
50	Casey Kastle	35,000
51	Sergio Garcia	35,000
52	Yevgeniy Timoshenko	35,000
53	James Seletzky	35,000
54	William Reynolds	35,000
55	Spencer Hudson	35,000
56	Alex Kuzmin	35,000
57	Nicholas Grippo	32,500
58	Arnaud Mattern	32,500	PokerStars Team Pro
59	Jannick Wrang	32,500
60	Ami Alibay	32,500
61	Chris Klodnicki	32,500
62	Alex Casals	32,500
63	Rodrigo Abellán Vivancos	32,500
64	Galen Hall	32,500
65	Mikhail Shikhworich	30,000
66	Nikolai Senninger	30,000
67	Jens Patzner	30,000
68	Ryan Julius	30,000
69	Vadym Umerenko	30,000
70	Andrey Romanov	30,000
71	Alexey Sudarikov	30,000
72	Nick Jamieson	30,000
73	Patrick Jann	27,500
74	Oscar Trestini	27,500
75	Roch Cousineau	27,500
76	Lothar Meier	27,500
77	Jonathan Grubb	27,500
78	Leo Fernandez	27,500	PokerStars Team Pro
79	James Moore	27,500
80	Gani Weiss	27,500
81	Elliot Smith	25,000
82	Brian England	25,000
83	Adam Geyer	25,000
84	Phil Collins	25,000
85	Steve Westlund	25,000
86	Thomas Laviano	25,000
87	Mikhail Semin	25,000
88	Johan Hermans	25,000
89	Eric Wasserson	22,500
90	Christian De Leon	22,500	PokerStars Team Pro
91	Martin Debruhl	22,500
92	Patrick Cronin	22,500
93	Arash Moghaddam Maragheh	22,500
94	Carlos Mortensen	22,500
95	Anton Astapov	22,500
96	Evgeniy Zaytsev	22,500
97	Richard Bruning	20,000
98	Stephen Reynolds	20,000
99	David Assouline	20,000
100	Pierre May	20,000
101	Chad Eveslage	20,000
102	Connor Drinan	20,000
103	Kevin Bromfield	20,000
104	Tommy Vedes	20,000
105	Andrew Lichtenberger	20,000
106	Osman Mustanoglu	20,000
107	Gualter Salles	20,000	PokerStars SportsStar
108	Pavel Chalupka	20,000
109	Robin Van Gils	20,000
110	Shawn Klassen	20,000
111	Fuad Rahimov	20,000
112	Todd Flanagan	20,000
113	Veselin Mareshki	17,500
114	Javier Dominguez Gomez	17,500	PokerStars Team Online
115	Harrison Gimbel	17,500
116	Mark Herm	17,500
117	Joao Nunes	17,500	PokerStars Team Pro
118	Tom McCormick	17,500
119	Bolivar Palacios	17,500
120	Randy Lew	17,500	PokerStars Team Online
121	Peter Dragar	17,500
122	Jasper Wetemans	17,500
123	Vladimir Faubert	17,500
124	Adel Jo	17,500
125	Vinny Pahuja	17,500
126	Noah Boeken	17,500	PokerStars Team Pro
127	Dan Hirleman	17,500
128	Gregor Thomas	17,500
129	Daniel Nielsen	17,500
130	Shawn Buchanan	17,500
131	Michael Frazin	17,500
132	Ashley Mason	17,500
133	Liv Boeree	17,500	PokerStars Team Pro
134	Nicolas Walters	17,500
135	Philippe Rousseaux	17,500
136	Francisco Picasso	17,500
137	Helio Chreem	15,000
138	Simon Christensson	15,000
139	Anthony Gargano	15,000
140	Mike Dietrich	15,000
141	Anders Berg	15,000	PokerStars Team Online
142	Luke Nettles	15,000
143	Peter Eichhardt	15,000
144	Adam Levy	15,000
145	Stephen Chidwick	15,000
146	Brent Sheirbon	15,000
147	Antti Mattila	15,000
148	André Bergdølmo	15,000
149	Leif Force	15,000
150	Thomas Markussen	15,000
151	Marius Pospiech	15,000
152	Arben Zenuni	15,000
153	Constantin Florin	15,000
154	Tobias Hagedorn	15,000
155	Juan Manuel Pastor	15,000	PokerStars Team Pro
156	Shane Schleger	15,000	PokerStars Team Online
157	Robert Cooper	15,000
158	Paul Muller	15,000
159	Kambiz Kashi	15,000
160	Thomas Miller	15,000

Final Table

SEAT	NAME	COUNTRY	STATUS	Chips
1	Mark Drover	Canada	PokerStars qualifier	1,430,000
2	Tony Gregg	USA		1,160,000
3	David Bernstein	Canada		1,960,000
4	Ruben Visser	Netherlands		4,400,000
5	Faraz Jaka	Chicago/Las Vegas/Europe		6,470,000
6	John Dibella	USA		6,470,000
7	Xuan Liu	Canada		6,355,000
8	Kyle Julius	USA		6,450,000

 

PCA 2012  - FINAL TABLE PLAYER PROFILES

 

Seat 1: Mark Drover, 24, Newfoundland, Canada - PokerStars qualifier - 1,430,000 chips

Mark Drover is taking a masters in political science at Memorial University in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. He qualified for the PCA on PokerStars after reaching stage 5 in the Steps programme and joining the $700 qualifier, meaning he’ll now get a great return on his investment. Two of his friends from St John’s also qualified for the PCA on PokerStars, and they have been railing Drover since being knocked out themselves.

Drover, 24, normally plays mid-stakes online multi-table tournaments, but he has made four Venetian Deepstack final tables in Las Vegas as well as one WSOP cash, giving him total live tournament earnings so far of $34,497. That figure will be eclipsed once the final table here is over.

Seat 2: Tony Gregg, 25, Maryland, USA  - 1,160,000 chips

Tony Gregg started playing poker at age 18. Once an online cash game specialist and mid-stakes regular, the young man from Maryland in the United States made his biggest live poker score right here at the PCA at age 22. In 2009, Gregg finished in second place to Poorya Nazari in the PCA main event. At the time, Gregg was on a complete freeroll after cashing in 800,000 of his Frequent Player Points for a seat in the main event. His score was worth $1.7million. Gregg’s appearance at the 2012 final table will be the first time anyone has made two PCA main event final tables.  Now 25, Gregg has been focusing on playing live games in the Washington D.C. area. He said, “It's really cool making the PCA final again. I don't think anyone has ever done that. I'm the short stack for tomorrow so not really under any pressure.”

Seat 3: David Bernstein, 30, Canada - 1,960,000 chips

David Bernstein is the only PCA finalist who effectively got to the Bahamas for nothing at all. Back in December, the 30-year-old took part in a special PokerStars promotion for Canadian players which involved nothing more strenuous than depositing money on PokerStars via the online payment company Ukash. Everyone who took part in the “Ukash Ultimate Experience” was entered into a draw – and David Bernstein was the player selected at random just three days after Christmas. The prize included free flights to the Bahamas, nine nights’ accommodation, a live tutorial, a meet-and-greet with a member of Team PokerStars Pro and – most importantly – a seat in the Main Event.  A week ago he told the PokerStars blog: “The feeling of winning the competition was surreal. It felt like a dream. Now I am going to try and win the tournament and take the money home to my family."

Seat 4: Ruben Visser, 22, Rotterdam, Netherlands - 4,400,000 chips

Visser took up online poker while studying business and marketing at college. He is still at college but now combines studying for a masters in entrepreneurship with playing poker. His first live cash came in 2008 when he made the final of a €500 event in Prague. At the time his online career was also hotting up and results included winning the PokerStars Sunday Warm-up event for $113,000.

In 2009, Visser finished 20th in a PCA side event and in June came 11th in the WPT Barcelona Main Event, before winning a €400 side event a few days later. His biggest cash to date was runner-up in a €5k side event during the Season 6 EPT Grand Final for €171,450.  Last summer he finished 44th in the WSOP Main Event for $196,174 and only a month ago he took down a €1k event in Venlo, Holland, for €42,000.

Visser was born in Amsterdam and had a childhood in which sports played a large part; he excelled at hockey, tennis, football and snowboarding. He has made more than $600k so far in live tournament winnings - and considerably more in online poker tournaments. 

Seat 5: Faraz Jaka, 26, Chicago/Las Vegas/Europe - 6,470,000 chips

Jaka, poker professional, entrepreneur and fashion figure, has dominated large swathes of this tournament having built a huge stack early on Day 2. He has relinquished the chip lead at times, but only briefly, and it never seemed that it was going to lose it for long.

“I’ve been playing professionally for around three years but I’m going to slow things down to focus more on www.axiscasterboarding.com, which I’m really pushing as a sport,” said Jaka, a player known to be as creative with his dress sense as he is with his poker play. Jaka has racked up $2,394,969 in live tournament winnings over the last five years with his largest single cash being $774,780. To make a career high score the American will have to get heads up. “Only the top two will do it,” said Jaka.

Seat 6: John Dibella, 43, New York, USA - 3,465,000 chips

John Dibella is a 43-year-old stock trader and hails from Westchester, New York. He qualified for the Main Event in a $1,000 satellite earlier in the week and has parlayed that into a seat at the final table worth – at least - $156,400. His third time at the PCA, Dibella previously cashed in the Main Event in 2008 when he finished 60th for $16,000 (his largest cash on record).

Seat 7: Xuan Liu, 25, Toronto, Canada - 6,355,000 chips

Xuan Liu is the first woman to ever appear at a PCA Main Event final table. Her breakthrough came when she won PokerStars’ Italian Poker Tour San Remo €1,000 side event in December 2010 for €48,000 and then, only a few months later finished third at EPT San Remo for $524,705, a stand-out result in total career winnings so far of $655,886. She is already guaranteed $156,400 here, but she looks a good bet to get much more as the final progresses.

Liu, 25, has always been fascinated by games of skill and chance, and used to play hands of poker against herself from six years old. But it was at Waterloo University back home in Ontario, Canada where she started playing regularly. It was a poker hotbed that was also home to the likes of Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, former EPT Grand Final winner Glen Chorny, Michael Watts and Steve Paul.

After university, Liu switched from cash to live tournaments, a move which now looks like the best decision of her life.

Seat 8: Kyle Julius, 25, Chicago, Illinois, USA – 6,450,000

The PCA Main Event final table is guaranteed to be a career-high live score for Illinois native Kyle Julius, but the poker pro has plenty of experience on his side, not to mention a big stack, heading into today’s action.  Julius, who made a name for himself online under the screenname “KJulius10”, has over $1 million in winnings on PokerStars, including a win in the Sunday 500 in January of 2011 worth around $87,000.  His previous best live score was a third place finish in a 2010 Venetian Deep Stack event worth $65,861.  He also made a deep run at last month’s Five Diamond Main Event at Bellagio, finishing in 12th.

Julius first learned to play poker when his older brother, Ryan, 27, came home from his freshman year of college and told the younger Julius he should take up the game.  Little brother listened to his big brother and, after a brief stint studying at Northern Kentucky University, Kyle started playing poker full time. Kyle says Ryan, who was playing in the PCA $25k High Roller today, is the better player of the two, but both are well known in online poker circles as tough competitors.

Player Lists

• 2012 PCA Super High Roller - Day 2 players.
• 2012 PCA Super High Roller - Day 1 players.

Payout

Total prize pool: $3,136,000

POS	NAME	COUNTRY	STATUS	PRIZE
1	Viktor Blom	Sweden	PokerStars Team Pro	$1,254,400
2	Dan Shak	USA		$846,700
3	Galen Hall	USA		$470,400
4	Jonathan Duhamel	Canada	PokerStars Team Pro	$313,600
5	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	PokerStars Team Pro	$250,900

Final Table

PCA $100k Super High Roller final table

Seat 1 Humberto Brenes, Team PokerStars Pro, Costa Rica, 343,000
Seat 2 Scott Seiver, USA, 556,000
Seat 3 Daniel Negreanu, Team PokerStars Pro, Canada, 1,230,000
Seat 4 Jonathan Duhamel, Team PokerStars Pro, Canada, 1,336,000
Seat 5 Mike McDonald, Canada, 360,000
Seat 6 Dan Shak, USA, 1,199,000
Seat 7 Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, Team PokerStars Pro, Sweden, 1,228,000
Seat 8 Galen Hall, USA, 1,748,000

Player Lists

• 2012 PCA High Roller - Day 2 players.
• 2012 PCA High Roller - Day 1 players.

Payout

Place	Name	Prize ($)	Status
1	Leonid Bilokur	1,134,930
2	Jonathan Duhamel	634,550	PokerStars Team Pro
3	Isaac Haxton	380,730
4	Jason Koon	271,950
5	Nicolas Fierro	217,560
6	Govert Metaal	181,300
7	Michael Telker	145,040
8	Randy Lew	108,780	PokerStars Team Online
9	Nick Yunis	79,770
10	Terje Augdal	79,770
11	Matt Marafioti	72,520
12	Eli Berg	72,520
13	Leonid Vichman	65,270
14	Kunimaro Kojo	65,270
15	Bill Perkins	58,020
16	Elio Fox	58,020