WSOP 2013 November Nine’s JC Tran
More than 8 million dollars is at stake at the most prestigious of all poker tournaments across the globe, and just 8 more players stand between the 36 year old American poker pro JC Tran and the ultimate card player’s dream – the golden WSOP Championship bracelet; not to mention a huge multi-million dollar cash that would more than double Tran’s current live tournament career earnings.
Justin Cuong Van Tran is presently the chip leader, going into the final break on Day 7 of the 2013 WSOP Main Event’s action with 38,000,000 chips in front of him; more than 8 million higher than his nearest competitor, Amir Lehavot. Not only is the Californian the heavy chip leader, he is the most decorate of all of the November Nine. JC Tran has scooped up 2 WSOP bracelets and a WPT Title over an illustrious career, earning $7,566,822 in live tournament cashes alone. He’s also a prolific online poke tournament player, making him one of the most fearsome all-round tournament pros in the world.
Born on January 20, 1977, the Tran family moved the Sacramento, CA when he was just two years old. He was always prodigious in his school work, and didn’t start playing poker until he attended California State University, where he sat in on home games. It didn’t take long for JC to realize his full potential, and soon enough he was playing regular $9/$18 cash games at Sacramento’s Capitol Casino.
Tran’s first tournament cash came in April of 2000, a relatively small reward of $1,550 for an 8th place finish at a NL Holdem event in the Legends of Poker. He didn’t finish in the money again until 3 years later, when he became a much more serious live tournament player. He saw 9 cashes in 2003 alone, wrangling up more than $100,000 combined, topped off by a $74,150 outright victory in Event #8 of the Heavenly Holdem tournament.
2004 was an even better year for the young poker pro, landing in the money in 16 tournaments, racking up over $728,000. He repeated his 16-bubble finishes in 2005, this time topping $800k in winnings. Tran showed no signs of slowing down in 2006 with a 3-peat of another 16 live tournament cashes, but this time his yearly winnings broke 7 figures, tipping the scales at $1.16 million. Another 15 cashes in 2007 saw Tran pocketing a massive $2.9 million, including $1,177,010 for a 2nd place finish at the LA Poker Classic WPT Championship, a $683,473 1st place win at the World Poker Challenge WPT NL Holdem Championship, and another $523,075 for an outright win in a NL Holdem event at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Tran’s imminent success has continued throughout the years. In 2008, he earned his first WSOP bracelet in Event #49, NL Holdem, at the 39th Annual World Series of Poker, worth $631,170. In 2009 he brought home another gold bracelet for taking down the 2009 WSOP’s Event #30, PL Omaha, valued at $235,685. The undisputable poker phenom has already cashed four times in the 2013 WSOP, the most notable being a 20th place finish in Event #57, NL Holdem, snagging a $24,872 paycheck and adding to his current total of 44 WSOP cashes; soon to be 45.
Tran is no stranger to online poker tournaments either. He won the 2006 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), earning him $670,000, and countless more in online poker cash games under the moniker “area23JC”.
On an even more interesting note, JC Tran’s November Nine appearance could be an epically historic one for his career. At present, Tran has exactly 99 live tournament cashes under his belt. Should Tran stay away from other tournaments – or at least fail to finish in the money – between now and the reconvening of the 2013 WSOP Main Event’s final table, it will mark his 100th live tournament cash. Should that prize happen to be the $8.3 million guaranteed to the overall winner, it would be even more icing on the cake.
The 2013 WSOP Main Event November Nine has shaped up as follows, listed by chip stacks:
- JC Tran –38,000,000
- Amir Lehavot –29,700,000
- Marc-Etienne McLaughlin – 26,525,000
- Jay Farber – 25,975,000
- Ryan Riess – 25,875,000
- Sylvain Loosli – 19,600,000
- Michiel Brummelhuis – 11,275,000
- Mark Newhouse – 7,350,000
- David Benefield – 6,375,000
And finally, the calculated payouts for the 2013 WSOP Main Event November Nine will be as follows:
- 1st place: $8,359,531
- 2nd place: $5,173,170
- 3rd place: $3,727,023
- 4th place: $2,791,983
- 5th place: $2,106,526
- 6th place: $1,600,792
- 7th place: $1,225,224
- 8th place: $944,593
- 9th place: $733,224