The vanquished finalist from last year’s event, who went out in fifth place after the cruellest of bad beats (see news: Feb 28th), had returned this year determined to take the title that he could be forgiven for thinking should have been his already.
And what a start Tran made to his quest for redemption. By day two Tran was the chip leader, and just as he did last year, Tran arrived at the final table with the chip lead in tact. The only difference was the other five faces at the table.
The chip counts at the start of play were as follows:
J.C. Tran $3,470,000
Paul Wasicka $3,390,000
Jacobo Fernandez $3,370,000
Eric Hershler $2,160,000
David Bach $2,070,000
Chau Giang $1,700,000
Play started slowly, with the first elimination taking three hours to arrive. It came after David Bach had doubled up Chau Giang (holding A-9 to Giang’s A-K). Bach, now crippled, pushed all-in for $205,000 half an hour later, and was called by Eric Hershler and Jacobo Fernandez. When Hershler moved all-in on the turn Fernandez folded and Bach revealed A-2 for two pair. He must have thought he had tripled up until Hershler revealed pocket two’s for a set.
Next to go was Chau Giang, who despite his double up had failed to gather any momentum, and a card drought had chipped away at his stack. Giang eventually made a move with the blinds at $125k-$250k but found JC Tran willing to push all-in over the top from the button. With 8c-4c against AJ it looked all over for Giang until the flop came Qc-9c-4d, making Giang a huge favourite to win the hand. Unfortunately for the Big Game regular there were no more clubs and an ace on the river sent him to the rail in fifth place.
2006 WSOP runner-up Paul Wasicka has been on a mission to show his World Series performance was no fluke of late, and a 12th place finish in the Aussie Millions plus a final table here has gone some way to achieving that. Certainly he has had a better post-WSOP showing than the eventual champion Jamie Gold, but Wasicka knew that a win here would put any doubts about his ability to bed once and for all.
Sadly for Wasicka this one wasn’t to be. After sliding down the leaderboard he re-raised JC Tran all-in and found the chip leader more than happy to call. With A-7 against Tran’s 3-3 it was a straight up race, but when the flop came K-K-3 it was all but over. The 6c on the turn ensured Wasicka would not be carrying on, but despite not winning the title, Wasicka is sure to have won over many of his doubters.
When the play got three-handed Tran enjoyed a massive lead over Hershler and Fernandez, but was perhaps careless to double up Hershler twice, the first when he moved all-in on a steal from the small blind with T-7 and was beaten by Hershler’s Kd-Qd, and the second when he called Hershler’s all-in raise with JT and lost to QT.
Despite that Tran still had nearly twice as many chips as his nearest rival, that is until Eric Hershler eliminated Jacobo Fernandez in third place to take a very marginal chip lead. Hershler had already taken a $2 million pot from Fernandez when Fernandez moved all-in from the button only to find Hershler sitting in the big blind with pocket rockets. The first card out of the deck gave Hershler trips and Fernandez, with J-2o, was drawing almost dead.
That meant the chip counts at the start of heads-up play were as follows:
Eric Hershler - $8.7 million
JC Tran - $7.4 million
We were set for an epic heads-up battle. It lasted one hand.
On the very first hand of heads-up play Hershler limped from the button and then called Tran’s $700,000 raise. Tran then bet $1.2 million on the A-J-6 flop, only for Hershler to move all-in. Tran, correctly presuming that Hershler would not limp from the button with an ace, or a pair, figured that he must be ahead. He called.
One can only imagine the wave of nausea that must have hit Tran when Hershler turned over J-6 for two pair – pretty much the only hand that Tran would have not included in his calculations. There was no ace or seven (or running 8’s or above) to save Tran, and his dream of being the LA Poker Classic champion had been thwarted, agonisingly, once more. The $1,177,010 paycheck for second place will have been only a minor consolation.
For Eric Hershler however, the emotions were entirely different. This was his first ever live poker tournament, and he had won it, walking away with the biggest ever WPT prize outside of the WPT Championship. Some debut!
The final table payouts were as follows:
Eric Hershler - $2,429,970
JC Tran - $1,177,010
Jacobo Fernandez - $607,490
Paul Wasicka - $455,615
Chau Giang - $341,710
David Bach - $257,425