October 2, 2006
Online poker action was at a fevered pitch for this year’s World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) where JC Tran walked away with major cash in the online poker No-Limit Hold'em Main Event. He won a whopping online poker record amount of money too. He earned $670,194 and the prominent WCOOP gold bracelet.
Tran, who is coming off a World Series of Poker (WSOP) where he cashed 6 times and made one final table, is having a career poker playing year. Even though several deep finishes in WSOP and World Poker Tour (WPT) events, yesterday’s win at the online poker event was his biggest so far in his entire career of playing poker.
Event though PokerStars.com listed $1.157 million as the prize for finishing first in its 2006 WCOOP Main Event, final table players made a pact once the online poker tournament reached 6 handed play.
He was the chip leader when negotiations began and he instantly decided to cut the pot according to chip counts. By doing so, Tran guaranteed himself a prize total of more than $600,000. This was a deal or no deal moment and a good deal at that we think.
Because PokerStars.com has rules that money be left on the table after a WCOOP deal, Tran continued to battle successfully for the remaining $50,000 and the 14-Karat gold Main Event bracelet.
According to Raymer, the 2006 WCOOP Main Event was the year's 4th largest tourneyprize pool, finishing just under of the third place $50,000 WSOP H.O.R.S.E event. Although the $2,600 buy-in was lower than most major live tournaments, the online format allowed for more participation, drawing 2,510 players and creating a record online prize pool of $6,275,000. Poker Stars guaranteed $3 million for the Main Event, meaning the tournament was twice as large as original projected.
Poker Stars reps Tom McEvoy and Joe Hachem repeatedly reminded the final nine players and the more than 3,000 observers that the WCOOP Main event was the first online tournament to pay six players six-figure prize money.
None of the players took him up on the offer, but Hachem did thank one of the observers who rumor has it sent the 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion a buck – yes $1.
Final table play began early this morning at 4:20AM EST. Hannibalrex, who ultimately finished in 3rd place, came into the table as the chip leader and swiftly increased his stack by knocking Serb2127 and milkybarkid from the PokerStars.com WSOOP Main Event.
Although Hannibalrex had a sizable early lead, none of the final seven players were severely short-stacked, prompting Raymer to comment that "everyone has a chance to play good poker and win this tournament."
And he was correct. There was only one really bad beat, with most of the final table all-in bets being won by the player with the best hand. Unfortunately for fan-favorite Annette_15, she was the only victim of an awful suck-out.
Holding pocket nines, Annette_15 watched in horror as Lefort's 5-6 of diamonds connected for a seven-high straight on the flop. The loss knocked Annette_15 from the tournament just before the deal was struck.
Each of the final players arranged to recess play and hear the deal numbers from PokerStars.com’s tourney director. Even though Lefort and DEEZZZ_NUTS hesitated and tried to hold out for more cash, all of the online poker players in time decided to split the cash by chip count. By PokerStars.com WCOOP rules, play continued in order to figure out who would win the bracelet and the $50,000 that was not included in the deal.
Play loosened noticeably after the deal and then the online poker players began to drop out of the event quickly. DEEZZZ_NUTS was the next to bottom out of the event. Then Numie2 and GODFATHER 72. Tran was the cause of the Numie2's failure and Lefort bounced the GODFATHER, moving the tournament to three-handed play.
Tran essentially sealed his victory at this stage. Sitting in the big blind with pocket 2s, Tran called a large wager from Lefort, who was in the small blind holding a pair of Js. The flop gave Tran a set and produced a board of all low cards, inducing Lefort to move all-in. Tran quickly called and became the monster chip leader when his set of twos held.
Just three hands later, Tran finished off the ailing Lefort. Then, Heads up poker play only lasted for one hand. Severely short stacked and well behind, Hannibalrex moved all at the absolute wrong time and Tran won the record winnings
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