Tran had begun the final table as the chip leader, and despite a period of crazy, non-stop rollercoaster action, he remained as one of the tables biggest stacks when disaster struck. A few hands after Michael Woo, responsible for most of the action thus far, had taken a big chunk out of Tran’s stack and then doubled up Alan Goehring, Tran looked down to see two beautiful aces.

Tran chucked out the standard $600,000 raise and Goehring, possibly still flying after his recent double-up, came all-in over the top with pocket fives. Tran of course insta-called and smiled as the flop came down 8s-7s-2s, pointing out to the rail that this meant Alan had just one out left (Tran had the ace of spades, so the five of spades was no longer an out for Alan.)

As Tran paced around by the rail the dealer flipped the turn card; a second deuce. This meant the five of spades was now back in play (it would give Alan a full house), but it was still a ridiculously long shot; $6 million + chips were surely coming Trans way.

But as Goehring stood contemplating his imminent departure, perhaps thinking how he had just thrown away his chance at a $2.4 million pay day, the dealer burned a card and revealed the river card: a five! The Commerce erupted, Alan Goehring exploded, and J.C. Tran disappeared. It was the cruellest of blows. The man who had arrived at the final table with the chip lead, and who had ostensibly played the best poker up to this point, was out: Goehring had exactly one $5000 chip more than Tran, and it was he who would rake the $6 million pot and go on to win the LA Poker Classic.

Fast forward a year, and with 18 players left in the LA Poker Classic J.C. Tran is half way through a most improbable fairy tale. The vanquished would-be victor of 2006 is once again at the head of the table, sitting with three times as many chips as his nearest competitor as we head into the penultimate day, and looking ready for redemption.

Day Four of the LA Poker Classic began with 54 players, all in the money and hoping to push on to the business end of the tournament. With everyone guaranteed a minimum $22,780 payout there was the expected flurry of early eliminations, as players decided it was time to go for broke, and for many of them ,that was exactly what happened.

Meanwhile at the other end of the leaderboard there was also plenty of action. Nam Lee won the first monster pot when his K-K stood up against Ed Moncada’s J-J, but it was a clash between Isaac Haxton and Bill Edler three hours into play that culminated in the biggest pot up to that point. In the end it was Edler who emerged victorious, after a second queen on the turn turned his flopped set of nines into a full house, while making Haxton three queens to a king kicker. Inevitably both players got their money in the pot, and a crippled Haxton was eliminated a few hands later.

While Edler quickly donated over $300,000 in chips to Jason Strasser, J.C. Tran was in no mood to be charitable, and before he day was out he had taken a huge pot from Hans Lund when he turned trip eights to beat Lund’s paired king with an ace kicker.

He ended the day with $3,461,100, ahead of Jacob Fernandez in second place with $1,334,000.

The top ten at the end of day four were as follows:

J.C. Tran $3,461,000

Jacobo Fernandez $1,334,000

Jason Strasser $1,196,000

Bill Edler $1,160,000

Tad Jurgens $1,059,000

Ben Johnson $1,055,000

David Bach $985,000

Chau Giang $813,000 $98,000

Paul Wasicka $806,000 $156,000

Eric Hershler $745,000