Molson finished second to Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in 2009 and to Will Reynolds in 2010 before finally coming out on top.
Molson navigated through a tough final 12 which included 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Erik Seidel, 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year Tom Marchese, EPT Player of the Year Max Lykov, 2010 WSOP Main Event final table bubble boys Brandon Steven and Matt Affleck and fellow 2009 PCA $25k finalist Matt Marafioti.
The only bump in the road was a huge suckout by Fernandez with seven-nine versus queens all in pre flop that had to have Molson thinking he was cursed and destined to finish second again.
"That was definitely going through my mind," he said. "I was pretty down at that point, but luckily I had my Dad here to encourage me and make me hang in. I just had to grind through it."
"When I got heads up I tried not to think about it too much, but it was hard. I really put a lot of pressure on myself. I wanted to lose that second place tag."
"When I got heads up I tried not to think about it too much, but it was hard. I really put a lot of pressure on myself. I wanted to lose that second place tag."
The $25k buy-in event drew a record 151 players, almost doubling the size of last year's 84-player field and creating a massive $3,995,500 prize pool.
Final 12 making the money results:
1. Will Molson $1,072,850
2. Leo Fernandez $544,925
3. Max Lykov $369,950
4. Erik Seidel $295,950
5. Govert Metaal $240,470
6. David "Bakes" Baker $203,475
7. Matt Marafioti $166,480
8. Jason Mercier $129,480
9. Shander de Vries $110,985
10. Brandon Steven $110,985
11. Tom Marchese $92,490
12. Matt Affleck $92,490
(Photo courtesy of PokerStarsBlog)
