Ty Tran Ties Up No-Limit
Thai (Ty) Tran, a sales executive, was tied up in a luncheon meeting and arrived 10 minutes late for day two of event 14, $300 no-limit hold'em. He quickly retook his lost blinds and antes and went on a rush the final few hands to take the lead when the tournament ended in a three-way deal.
It took until 5 a.m. to play down to 10 the first day. 'Now you know why we make it a two-day event,' said tournament director Denny Williams. Second-day opening blinds were 1,500/3,000 with 500 antes and 7:29 remaining. On hand two, Eric Arreca had the big blind with only 1k left, holding a pathetic 7-2. Guy Magar, with A-9, raised. Arreca called and finished 10th when the board came 10-10-5-9-A. One hand later, Jim Fox moved in with J-10. Ross Kutash beat him into the pot with pocket aces and we were quickly down to eight players.
Blinds went to 2k/4k, and the players agreed to a chip-count deal for most of the prize pool. At this point, Magar led with 87k, followed by Kutash, 56.5k; Peter Nam and Robert Turner, 44,500 each; Tran, 42k; Allen Patatanyan, 37k; Sirous Baghchehsaraie, 32k; and Jorge Pineda, 30.5k.
Hand 10 witnessed a battle between two attorneys, Kutash and Patatanyan. Kutash moved in with pocket queens and Patatanyan called with pocket kings. The board came 8-6-3-10. 'Show me a queen,' ordered Kutash. A queen obediently hit the turn and Patanyan was served with eviction papers.
Kutash now had a big lead with 111,500, and jumped into a much bigger lead two hands later. Baghchehsaraie opened for 16k and Nam moved in for 47k. Kutash called. 'Oh, boy,' Sirous sighed, folding pocket 5s. Nam turned over K-Q, Kutash A-K. The board came J-8-2-4-9. Nam, an investment banker and semi-pro, was out in seventh place, Kutash now had about 175k, and Sirous who had the best hand, slapped the table in frustration. 'I had to put one of them on a pair,' he said. Sirous then bet his 16k on the next hand with Q-8. Tran called with A-7 and Sirous finished sixth.
On hand 26, blinds went to 3k/6k with 1k antes. Kutash still led with 150k, followed by Magar, 81k; Tran, 73k; Pineda, 73k; and Turner, 22k, and a second chip count deal was done. On the first hand, Turner, a Bicycle Casino host, moved in with A-2. 'I don't have a hand,' Tran said, calling for the extra chips from the big blind with 8-3. It was adequate. A trey flopped, and the old Chip Burner was out fifth.
On hand 31, Magar, a film writer/director/producer, was left with 6k after a bad beat. Pineda opened for 16k, with A-5, Magar moved in with Ah-Kh and Pineda called for a total of 44k. The board came A-J-2-9-5, and Pineda, a contractor, won with two pair. On the next hand, Magar had the small blind holding 8d-6d. Tran put him in with A-9. Ace-high did it, and we were down to three. Tran now turned very aggressive, picked up and stealing several pots with uncalled bets on the turn and river, and moved into the lead. After hand 37, he was in front with 177k to107k for Kutash and 90k for Pineda, and a third and final deal was made. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Ty Tran is a sales manager for a technology company, and a downtown business luncheon that ended at 1:40 had him speeding down the freeway to get to this event's 2 p.m. start. Tran has only been playing poker for a year and a half now and has He only plays no-limit, including $300 games at Ocean's 11 and $600 at Commerce. 'I feel this game rewards talented play,' he said. 'You have to be aggressive, and you have to be creative.' Toward the end, he felt that then-chip-leader Kutash was playing conservatively, so he began putting the pressure on, and that got him the lead and victory.
Tran plays about five tournaments a month and he's rung up an impressive record. He estimates that he's finished first or second out of every 10 tournaments and has made the money 60 percent of the time.
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