PROFILE
Name: J. C. Tran
Age: 36
Birthplace: Vietnam
Current Hometown: Sacramento, CA
Ruling the roost of the “November Nine” combatants is one of the most dangerous players on the tournament poker circuit, Justin Cuong Van “J. C.” Tran. He has been murderous on the field in the run-up to the 2013 World Series of Poker “November Nine” final table, amassing 38 million chips to hold a slightly more than eight million chip lead over Amir Lehavot. He can’t rest on his laurels, however, as he has Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (26.525 million) and Lehavot (29.7 million) on his immediate right. To his left, David Benefield’s short stack (6.375 million) is right next to him, but Jay Farber’s 25.975 million will be in the big blind when Tran is on the button.
It would probably be easier to say what Tran hasn’t done in the poker world than list what he has achieved, but we’ll give it a shot. With over $8.3 million in lifetime earnings, Tran earned the title of World Poker Tour Player of the Year in 2007 after making three final tables and winning the WPT World Poker Challenge title during that season. In addition to those accolades, Tran is the proud holder of two WSOP bracelets, taken in 2008 (in a Texas Hold’em event) and 2009 (in a Pot Limit Omaha tournament). If he is able to take down the WSOP Championship Event, he would move into the Top Ten in career earnings and firmly etch his name into tournament poker history.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day 1(C): 33,100
Day 2(C): 119,300
Day 3: 217,000
Day 4: 1,141,000
Day 5: 3,280,000
Day 6: 11,970,000
KEY HAND
Tran may have struggled a bit early in the 2013 WSOP Championship Event, but he has come on strong in the end. Moving into the Top Five on Day 6, Tran raged through the final 27 players on his way to the top of the leaderboard for this fall’s “November Nine” battle.
Tran was responsible for bringing the field down to those final nine combatants and it was against a foe that he has faced many times over the years. After 2001 World Champion Carlos Mortensen raised out of the cutoff, Tran defended his big blind to see a 10-6-3 flop hit the felt. Tran would check-call another bet out of Mortensen to head to the nine turn, which is where the fireworks would go off.
Tran bet out enough to put Mortensen all in and, after some deliberation, the Spaniard made the call and tabled an A♣ 9♥ for second pair and a club flush draw. Tran had hit magic on the turn with his 8-7 for the turned straight, but he still had to fade Mortensen’s flush outs. Those outs didn’t come for the short stacked Mortensen with the 2♦ on the river, eliminating Mortensen in tenth place and sealing Tran’s spot on the top of the “November Nine” table.
