Home / Poker News December 2008 / JC Tran wins PartyPoker Premier League III
JC Tran wins PartyPoker Premier League III
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2008-12-01 16:30
Having held the lead for most of the event, JC Tran needed to come from behind to knock smash-mouth Tony G out and to secure the
PartyPoker Premier League’s title together with the $300,000 first prize.
After several days of qualifiers, the final 6 was set, with JC Tran holding the most chips at the start of the battle (because he was the first to qualify), namely 450,000. Peter Eastgate, 2008 WSOP Main Event winner, qualified in second and that gave him the right to bring a 390,000 big stack to the final table.
Juha Helppi was third with 340,000, followed by Ton Dwan and Tony G with 260,000 each. The short-stack was Roland de Wolfe with 230,000.
With the blinds at 5,000/10,000 the short-stacks had no time to waste. Tony G got into an early tussle with Tom Dwan and walked away with a doubled-up stack. Although pushed to the brink of elimination, Dwan managed to hold on and survive two players who ended up busting out before him.
The first casualty of the final table was Eastgate, who although qualified in second, managed to lose his stack to JC Tran who kept him honest on hand in which the Dane had attempted a re-steal.
Roland de Wolfe managed his short-stack well, and he seemed on the verge of doubling up when he got Helppi all-in on a K,K vs A,Q match-up. The A on the flop sent him to the rail in 5th though, in possession of a $40,000 prize.
Tony G knocked Tom Dwan out next, after they both made the same overpair on the flop (a pair of 8s) but his kicker beat Dwan’s.
Fresh off his successful showdown, Tony G got Juha Helppi all-in too, pitting an A,Q against the Finn’s A,10. Sure enough, a Q landed on the board sending Helppi to the rail in 3rd.
Tony G held the lead for most of the heads-up stage vs JC Tran. A decisive hand in which his flopped pair got out-turned by Tran left Guoga with the short-stack though and he soon succumbed to a final hand in which he failed to fill his open ended straight against Tran’s flopped pair.
