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December 11th 2006
WPC: Tran triumphs on all-star table as “The Dragon” multi-tasks
Three champions have been crowned at the World Poker Classic since I last updated the news here, but with all due respect to Quach and Wong there was only one that was being discussed.
J.C. Tran’s victory in the $2000 NL Hold’em event was special not so much for the way in which he played, but for WHO he played. The final table of Event #7 read like a who’s who of the poker world, causing a huge crowd to swell around the table despite there being no provisions for an audience. You simply don’t get people watching these preliminary events!
But then again you rarely see a final table that features J.C. Tran, Barry Greenstein, David “The Dragon” Pham, Men “The Master” Nguyen and two 2006 WPC finalists in Justin Bonomo and Peter Gould.
To further excite the crowd these were also the last six men standing (or sitting rather), with the four lesser known players getting out of the way in the early stages. Of the remaining six Gould was the first out, harshly losing with K-Q against Nguyen’s J-9 when “The Master” hit a straight on the river. Greenstein was next to go, eliminated by Pham when “The Dragon” hit a flush with Ac-Ks to beat Greenstein’s pocket sixes.
When Justin Bonomo was knocked out in fourth place, losing with 8h-9h to Nguyen’s pocket jacks, three of the four most celebrated players were left with almost identical chip counts to battle it out for the title. Pham, Nguyen and Tran are all of Vietnamese origin, and the three men were clearly delighted to be in the final three together. Indeed the mood was so good that Jack McClelland the tournament director didn’t bother enforcing the English only rule as the men chatted away in their native tongue.
Tran and Nguyen even agreed to an extended break after level 15 that allowed “The Dragon” to rush off to Event #8, the $2500 tournament that started at noon, to try and double up before returning to the final table.
When they resumed it was all over in a hurry. “The Master” was the first to exit, making an ill-timed all-in steal from the button and running headfirst into Pham’s Ac-Kc. Nguyen revealed his steal attempt when he turned over Tc-7c and failed to hit his outs.
With barely a minute passed since Nguyen’s exit the tournament was over, Pham pushing all-in with pocket tens and Tran calling with the same hand that did for Nguyen. The Ac-Kc proved unbeatable once again, and Tran had his second six figure tournament win in two months. Add in the $700,000 Tran collected for winning the WCOOP main-event on PokerStars in October and it has been a very nice lead-in to Christmas for the unheralded pro.
Pham meanwhile had no time to collect his $149,050 second place prize as he had business to attend to in the $2500 tournament. Still on a roll after his great finish in Event #7 “The Dragon” promptly went on to book another second place and another six figure paycheck. He bettered the 2006 WSOP main-event 5th placed finisher Rhett Butler (4th) and the 2006 WSOP player of the year Jeff Madsen (3rd) but lost out to Danny Wong, who recently finished second to Shannon Shorr in the Bellagio Cup II main-event for $561,000.
Event #9, the $3000 tournament, saw another star studded final table. Eric “The Poker Princess” Schoenberg sat next to Card Player editor Jeff Shulman, along with 2006 WSOP bracelet winner Jason Lester and Daniel Quach, who won $1.2 million for his second place finish in the 2006 LA Poker Classic.
This time Quach went one better, holding off Patrick Madden to collect the WPC ring and the $325,525 first prize. Just three days to go now till the WPC main-event.
Submitted: 11/12/2006 11:24:47
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