On a Roll: J.C. Tran Wins WPT World Poker Challenge

Apparently, Sacramento’s J.C. Tran likes World Poker Tour (WPT) events.  Before this week, he had won a preliminary event at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, made the final table at the World Poker Open, and finished runner-up at the L.A. Poker Classic.  Tack on the event he won at the World Poker Finals in November, and he had made close to $1.9 million in the last five months on the tournament circuit.  Make that over $2.5 million now that he has won the World Poker Challenge at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada, as he just added $683,473 to his total.  For his tournament career, Tran is now approaching the $5 million mark.

Tran started the final television table in third place out of six and in good shape to make a run, especially considering that the blinds were relatively low for a WPT final table.  With $904,000 in chips and blinds at $8,000/$16,000 with a $2,000 ante, he had plenty of room to play.

Tran went to work almost immediately, knocking out Danny Wong on the fourth hand of the day when his Q-Q trumped Wong’s A-Q.  That put another $450,000 into Tran’s stack.

On the very next hand, the short stack, John Hom, fell to David Pham, who was the chip leader to start the day.  Once again, Q-Q was the winning hand, beating Hom’s K-T.  Despite this, Tran was now the chip leader after taking a bunch of chips from Pham on the first hand and eliminating Wong.

Mark Seif, the chip leader only a couple days earlier, was the next to fall, on the twelfth hand.  Needing to make a move, Seif decided to make a stand with A-6, only to get picked off by Tran’s pocket 9’s.  On the next hand, Tran took another big pot from Pham, giving him $2.5 million with only three players left.  At that point, Pham had $1.4 million and Juan Carlos Alvarado had $850,000.

Things slowed down for the next hour, but then again it was hard not to after three players were eliminated in less than an hour.  Around the end of hour two, Alvarado doubled through Tran, which virtually evened out the chip stacks, as there was now only $400,000 separating first from third.

Another hour passed, and like before, the action picked up as the next hour started.  Within five hands, the tournament was over.

On hand sixty, a short-stacked David Pham moved all-in pre-flop and was called by Tran.  Pham had the lead with A-8 versus K-Q, but Tran nailed his Queen on the turn to send Pham to the rail in third place.

J.C. Tran began heads-up play with a commanding 5-to-1 chips lead over the other J.C., Juan Carlos Alvarado, so he could afford take a chance on doubling-up his opponent, which he did on the first hand.  No matter.  Four hands later, Alvarado moved all-in pre-flop with A-6 and Tran finished him off with pocket Ten’s for his first ever WPT title.