After some gruelling matches involving 12 (mostly) world-class poker players, JC Tran has been crowned the champion of PartyPoker's unique league/knockout tournament. This rounds off a fantastic year for him as in the 2008 WSOP he won his first bracelet.
JC Tran won $300k for his Premier League victory.
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
Only a few hands in Tony G decimated durrrr's stack. 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.
However, Dwan was still in it and it was 2008 WSOP Main Event champion Peter Eastgate who was first to the rail. Only smooth-calling a raise with AA before the flop, Tran enticed the WSOP champion to move in with K9 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.
The legendary 'durrrr' couldn't find a victory but is back crushing $500/$1,000NL online now.
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.
JC Tran wins PartyPoker Premier League III
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