JC TRAN, SACRAMENTO PRO, HAS
CHIP LEAD GOING INTO FINAL DAY
J.C. Tran, a poker player from Sacramento who has been playing full time for the past five years, has the chip lead going into the final day of the 2006 LAPC/WPT championship event. He moved in front when he knocked Kevan Casey out in eighth place. Six players will return tomorrow at 5 p.m. for the televised event.
Among Tran's achievements are a second in the $10,000 championship in the WSOP circuit at Paris/Bally's and a win at the Rio in $1,500 no-limit, both this year.
Going into the final day, Tran will have 3,720,000 chips, followed by Per "Nemo" Ummer, 2,870,000; Mike Woo, 2,195,000; Alan Goehring, 1,900,000; Daniel Quach, 1,655,000; and Steven Simmons, 1,505,000.
Another record-breaking crowd of 692 players generated a prize pool of $6,643,200, the biggest tournament prize pool for Commerce, or any other California casino, for that matter. First place alone paid nearly $2.4 million.
Each player in this event started with 20,000 chips. With the elimination of Mark Weidmann on day four, the day-five table was set. The 10 finalists began play with blinds of 15,000-30,000, 5,000 antes and 45:42 left. Ummer, who is from Cyprus, arrived as chip leader with $2,455,000, closely followed by Goehring with 2,315,000. But of the 10 players, David Chiu had by far the most notable tournament record. He owns five WSOP bracelets (two in limit hold'em, one in 7-stud and one in Omaha/8), along with a second and two thirds. Goehring had a second-place finish at the WSOP championship in 1999.
Credentials or not, Chiu was lowest-chipped with 305,000, and was first out after six hands. On a flop of Q-7-5, JC Tran raised Casey's opening bet 120,000 more, and Chiu moved in for 175,000. He had 8-6 for an open-end straight draw, missed and lost to Tran's Q-9. Tenth place paid $73,075
It took only three more hands to lose our second player. Michael McClain, also starting short-chipped, had the button and tried a steal, moving in for a bit over 500,000 with just 10-3 offsuit. Woo, in the small blind with pocket queens, had an easy call. The board came J-9-5-6-7, and McClain took home $99,648 for ninth.
At the next break, Ummer still led with about 2.9 million, followed by Goehring with about 2.5 million, Woo with 2.2 million and Tran with 1.9 million. Blinds became 20k-40k.
Anahit Galajian had been seriously short-chipped all five days, and by some miracle was still in. By hand 39 she had gone all in three times, picking her spots, without being called. Later, she had 200,000 in the pot when Kevan Casey moved in on a flop of A-6-4, she stared at him at great length, looking for a tell, and finally folded. She later moved in a fourth time without a call.
On hand 56, with a board of 10-3-2-5, Casey, in the small blind with 5-2, bet 300,000 with his two pair. Tran called from the cut-off seat. When a jack came on the river, Casey bet 200,000, Tran raised to 500,000 and Casey moved in for about 1.3 million. Tran, with pocket 5s and slowplaying his set, now had the chip lead with about 3.7 million, while Casey, finishing seventh, collected $166,080. One more to go.
At the next break, Tran led with about 3.8 million, followed by Woo with 2.9 million and Ummer, around 2.9 million.
Antes now climbed to 10,000, with blinds of 30,000-60,000. There were only two hands left to go. In late position, Quach opened for 200,000 with pocket 9s. Galajian, in the big blind with only 230,000 left, made an all-in move with As-6s. Two spades flopped, but she missed everything, finished seventh, collected $166,080, and our final-day table was set to go.
Here is a recap of the first four days. Some of the top names eliminated on day one included Phil Hellmuth (as usual arriving late and almost immediately out), Phil Ivey, Josh Ariah, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, defending champion Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Robert Varkonyi, Dan Harrington, Ted Forrest. The day ended with 379 players left, and Bill Gazes as chip leader with 121,000.
On day two, those knocked out included Men Nguyen, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein, Gabe Kaplan, Erick Lindren, Jim Meehan, Antonio Esfandiari, and Max Pescatori. Fabrice Soulier was chip leader with 462,000, closely followed by JC Tran with 426,000.
On day three, 97 players returned. Soulier finished on the bubble. Others eliminated included Chip Reese, Chip Jettt, Phil "Unabomber" Laak, Gus Hansen, Paul Darden, Scotty Nguyen, T.J. Cloutier, David Plastik, Allen Cunningham, Jim Bechtel, Amir Vahedi, Jim Miller, Billy Duarte, and Hasan Habib..
On day four, 27 players returned to play down to 10. Jon Luu led with 1,111,000 chips. Actor James Woods was in 16th place with 438,000, but was eliminated when his pocket queens ran into Woo's A-A. Others knocked out included Chris Bigler, Jon Luu, Bill Gazes, Brian McCann (aces losing to set of queens) and Juha Helppi. -Max Shapiro |
