JC Tran wins $ 2,500 PLO

Popular poker pro JC Tran left British dreams tattered in the early hours of this morning as he won the $ 2,500 PLO event at the Rio, beating the UK’s Ross Boatman into fourth and Jeff Kimber heads-up. This is Tran’s second WSOP bracelet and the $ 235,685 for winning means that he has accumulated over $ 7.7m from tournament winnings alone.

Tran shot to fame in the UK after totally dominating and then winning the televised PartyPoker.com Premier League earlier this year. A regular in the high stakes games online, supposedly under the ‘OnTheRize’ handle, Tran has been in the conversation whenever people talk about the world’s best poker players for a while. After collecting his second bracelet last night his fame will surely continue to grow.

Going into the final table it looked as though it could be a historic night for UK poker, with Hendon Mob member Ross Boatman the chip leader and Jeff Kimber also at the final table. As is often the way with PLO tournaments it was action throughout with star names such as John Juanda and Theo Jorgenson falling almost immediately.

With five left, Tran had emerged as the chip leader after winning a series of pots against Boatman. Ross was the next to leave in fourth place leaving UK hopes resting on Kimber, who got to the heads-up match but with a 2:1 chip deficit. However, as with John Duthie’s unfortunate runner-up spot in the previous event, Kimber would have to watch an American opponent seize the top prize.