Coming into the final table as the second shortest stack, veteran poker professional J. C. Tran used all of his experience in outlasting his opponents on his way to winning his second World Poker Tour championship at the Rolling Thunder event on Thursday.
At the start of the day, Quoc Pham held a slightly more than one million chip lead over Preston Harwell as the remainder of the table looked to play catchup. Benjamin Zamani, Mimi Luu, Tran and a short stacked Ken Jorgensen filled out the other seats on the table and it was obvious that, if one of these players was to win the event, they would have to come out of the gates fast. Luu would do just that, doubling up through Pham on the twelfth hand of play, but it wouldn’t work out so well for another all-in move.
Jorgensen popped his stack to the center from the button in an attempted blind steal, but Tran wasn’t ready to get out of the way out of the small blind. Jorgensen had the edge pre-flop with his A-3 over Tran’s K-Q, but that all changed on a K-8-4 flop. After sweating out a five on the turn and a trey on the river, Tran garnered some much needed chips as Jorgensen headed to the rail in sixth place.
The chips would continue to circumnavigate the table as several players would get double ups to keep the leaderboard fluid. Zamani’s chip stack would never reach its start of day apex as he made an attempt to rebuild against Pham and Tran. Pham and Tran would check down an 8-8-4-4-A board and Pham showed pocket Jacks. Tran had him bested with his A-4 for the full house and all Zamani could do is muck his cards and head into the California sun in fifth place.
The four remaining players then settled in for a slog that would reach more than 100 hands before another player would be at risk. Luu would be the unfortunate victim of the knockout as, on a Q-10-9-4-J board, she pushed her chips and Tran quickly called the bet. Luu had rivered a straight with her 8-7, but Tran’s K-J had flopped the nuts in eliminating Luu in fourth place.
Tran’s surge to the top continued as he brought the table to heads up play. On Hand 137, Pham would push all in pre-flop for more than 700K in chips and Tran looked him up. It was an unfortunate move for Pham as his 7♦ 6♦ was behind (but alive) against Tran’s Q-10 off suit. A ten on the flop extended Tran’s lead and, although he had flopped a gut shot draw on the K-10-8 board, Pham would not find any magic in a second eight on the turn and a deuce on the river to finish his run in third place.
Coming to heads up play, Tran was still looking up at Harwell by almost three million chips, but he ramped up his aggression to take over the lead only about ten hands into heads up action. Harwell fought back and the twosome swapped the lead back and forth before Tran pulled away in a key hand. On a K-7-2-2-4 board, Tran would get three streets of action from Harwell before unveiling a K-Q for two pair. After Harwell mucked (what could be conceivably construed as a weaker King), Tran’s second title was within his grasp.
Four hands after that clash, the tournament was over. Harwell moved all in pre-flop and Tran, with a dominant chip stack, made the call and showed only a K-4. It was good enough to have the lead pre-flop as Harwell could only muster an 8♠ 5♠ for battle and, after the board ran out 6-4-2-10-9, Harwell found none of his outs and J. C. Tran captured an unlikely victory at the WPT Rolling Thunder.
1. J. C. Tran, $302,750
2. Preston Harwell, $200,030
3. Quoc Pham, $127,140
4. Mimi Luu, $100,240
5. Benjamin Zamani, $80,130
6. Ken Jorgensen, $60,180
