JC Tran takes down the PartyPoker Premier League III

JC Tran takes down the PartyPoker Premier League III

Monday, 1 December 2008

After a long battle through the first stages of the tournament followed by a very tough, experienced final table, Asian Poker Tour ambassador JC Tran has walked away with the Party Poker Premier League III title and $300,000.

Tran, who was sponsored by Team PKR for the televised event in London, was fortunate to be chipleader over an impressive final table consisting of UK pro and high-stakes online player Roland de Wolfe; Russian-abusing loudmouth Tony G; online superstar Tom Dwan; Party Poker Premier League II champion Juha Helppi and 2008 WSOP Main Event champion Peter Eastgate.

The starting chip counts and seat draw for the final table was as follows:
Seat 1: Tom Dwan (United States) - 260,000
Seat 2: Juha Helppi (Finland) - 340,000
Seat 3: Tony G (Australia) - 260,000
Seat 4: Roland de Wolfe (United Kingdom) - 230,000
Seat 5: JC Tran (United States) - 450,000
Seat 6: Peter Eastgate (Denmark) - 390,000

All six players boasted impressive resumes and serious game so it wasn’t a surprise to see the action kick off only a few hands in. It also wasn’t surprising to see that it was Tom Dwan and Tony G involved in a huge pot, both holding absolute crap.

Tony G raised pre-flop with T9o and Dwan 3-bet him holding Qc-4c. After Tony’s call the flop came down with something for everybody – Tc Jc 4d. Tony moved in over the top of Dwan’s $43,000 bet and durrrr called with his pair and flush draw. The blank turn and river left Dwan with a short stack and Tony G with $434,000.

Despite this, it was Peter Eastgate who found himself first to hit the rail. Only smooth-calling a raise with AA before the flop, Tran enticed the WSOP champion to move in on a K-high flop and rivered an ace just to rub it in.

Roland de Wolfe was next to go when his KK failed to best Juha Helppi’s AQo on an A-high board. Dwan then ended his impressive run with a shortstack when his 86o faced the dominating J8o of Tony G when they both flopped top pair.

Three-handed, Tony G held an impressive chip lead with over $1.1m to JC Tran’s $430k and Juha Helppi’s $365k. The latter was the next to go after a few children’s rhymes being sung jovially by the Lithuanian chipleader. Helppi got it in with AT only to find Tony G holding AQ – the Q on the flop meant he was drawing dead by the turn.

In the final hand the blinds were at $20k/$40k and Tran limped in with 97o. Tony checked with K8o and then check-raised all in on a 576 flop that had given him an open-ended straight draw and two overcards. Tran called with top pair and a gutshot that held up to win him the tournament and $300,000.



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