J.C. Tran finally accomplished Monday night the one thing that had avoided him during his professional poker career: He earned his first World Series of Poker bracelet.
Tran bested 2,717 players to pick up a $631,170 payday in Event 49, the $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event. It wasn’t an easy task, especially going into heads-up play, where Tran had to overcome a 6:1 disadvantage in chips to eventual runner-up Rasmus Nielsen.
In the end, though, Tran got his money in ahead, with a pair of queens and king kicker to trump Nielsen’s queens and jack kicker and watched his hand hold up on the river to claim victory. He joined a list of fantastic players including Eric Lingdren, John Phan and David Singer to win their first bracelets in 2008.
The final table was Tran’s third of this World Series. He took seventh place in Event 7 ($2,000 No Limit Hold ‘em) for $94,166 and fifth in Event 30 ($10,000 Limit Championship) for $128,075. Tran’s most impressive accomplishment came in 2007, where he was named the WPT Player of The Year while winning three WPT tournaments. He has more than $6.7 million in career live earnings, as well as over $1 million online. Tran won the 2006 World Championship of Online Poker on Pokerstars for nearly $700,000.
Rasmus Nielsen, who had a sizeable chip lead heading into the final table, earned $389,557 for his second-place finish. Also at the final table was Joe Pelton, who took fifth for $191,068.
The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship played down to its last nine players late into Tuesday morning. At nearly 5:00 a.m. PT, Michael Mizrachi eliminated David Benfield in 10th place to conclude play for the day. Benfield’s pair of aces had Mizrachi’s top-pair-top-kicker beat when all of the money went in on the flop, but the Grinder made two pair on the turn and was able to fade a slew of outs on the river to win the pot.
Mizrachi is the chip leader going into the final table, which will kick off at 3:00 PT on Tuesday. He will be joined by veterans Marty Smyth and Kido Pham, who are third and fifth in chips, respectively. Established pros Shawn Buchanan and Josh Arieh joined Bennefield as final-table bubblers, each earning more than $53,000 for their efforts. The nine players who did reach the final table, however, will be vying for a first-place prize of $859,549.
There’s an unusual buzz surrounding the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E event. Phil Hellmuth, not known for his mixed-game talent, is the chip leader heading into Day 3 as the original field of 803 has thinned to 21. The “poker brat” is focused in on winning his 12th bracelet – which would be his first ever in a non-holed ‘em event. First, though, he’ll need to get through a tough field that includes Victor Ramdin, Jens Voertmann, Randy Holland and Keith Sexton, among others. Chad Brown and Joe Hachem were eliminated early Tuesday morning, just missing the Day 2 cut in 22nd and 24th place, respectively.
Action in the H.O.R.S.E. event will resume at 3:00 PT on Tuesday. A prize of $256,412 and the gold bracelet will be on the line as the event will play all the way down until a champion is crowned.
It was another crazed scene Monday afternoon as nearly 2,700 players filed into the Rio for yet another $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event – the final one of this World Series. Only 233 players made it through Day 1, with Keith Carberry the chip leader at 203,000 chips. Some notables coming back for the 2:00 PT restart include Cody Slaughbaugh, Mimi Tran, Matt Matros and Vanessa Rousso, who tripled up to 34,000 on the final hand of the night when her pocket kings held in a three-way preflop all in.
The final nine will be decided Tuesday evening (or early Wednesday morning) when all is said and done. The winner will be decided on Wednesday and will take home $635,443.