Sacramento Hero JC Tran With a Hometown WPT Victory

Sacramento patriot and Kings fan JC Tran added another trophy to his long list of poker accomplishments and another $302,750 to his huge stack of live winnings. He is 15th on the RankingHero worldwide all-time list by live earnings, with $11,592,445!

"We’re in Sacramento, and it’s all about the kings.." [JC won several crucial pots holding a king]

The most decorated player at the Rolling Thunder final table, JC Tran, did not start out as a favorite this time. He had seat 5 and was actually 5th in chips, with 23 bb versus 186 bb for the chip leader @Quoc Pham. Several crucial double-ups later, JC had reminded everyone why he is considered one of most dangerous poker players around and he eventually dominated and won the heads-up with @Preston Harwell.

@Justin 'JC' Cuong Van Tran was born in 1977 in Vietnam and is the youngest of 8 siblings. The family moved to California when JC was two and he loves Sacramento as his true hometown. And the love is certainly returned, judging by his loyal following of local fans and the congratulations still pouring out in the social media.

Feels great.. To do it at home, in front of my friends and family, and my fans that are here....just to do it for them, it’s an awesome feeling...

I pretty much learnt the game at the age of 21. I'd played a little bit of poker in other forms before that, but for my 21st birthday my brother took me to a card room, sat me down in one of the games and got me started on limit poker. Right off the bat I got lucky and won. It was a great experience to learn some new games and win money while doing it.

Moving from home games at the university campus to casino cash games, by 2003 JC had started accumulating more serious tournament wins. JC Tran was WPT Payer of the Year in 2007 after making three final tables and winning the 2007 World Poker Challenge so this is his second WPT title. He has an impressive WSOP record, as well, with two bracelets won in 2008 and 2009.

Last year it looked like he was going to add the ultimate world champion title when he entered the November Nine as the chip leader:

This is one of my last goals that was on my list. When I first started playing tournament poker, I wanted to win a WPT Event, I did that. I wanted to win a bracelet, I did that. And the last thing on the list was to make the final nine of the Main Event and here I am.This is one of my last goals that was on my list. When I first started playing tournament poker, I wanted to win a WPT Event, I did that. I wanted to win a bracelet, I did that. And the last thing on the list was to make the final nine of the Main Event and here I am.

So far he has certainly managed to achieve anything he has set on his agenda and we are sure there will be more occasions to congratulate him again in the future. But JC is also a family man, devoted husband and  father of two, and after every major win and particularly tough stretch of poker he has tried to make time for his wife and children. So we wish him a good and enjoyable break from the game!..

European Poker Tour Moving to Yet Another Grand Location - Vienna

As if Venice and the elegant Casino di Venezia weren't enough, poker is now taking over another fantastic city - Vienna, and EPT Season X will be hosted in yet another grand location - the Hofburg Imperial Palace!

Together, the PokerStars.net Eureka Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour have put together an impressive 11-day schedule with 40 tourneys. The EPT Main Event will run from Sunday 23 March to Saturday 29 March.

Viennese-style hospitality at the Hofburg Palace! Photo credit: Yu Benjamin, Twitter

The Eureka Main Event kicked off the action at the Hofburg at noon on Wednesday, with 457 starters on Day 1a. It looks like the event will exceed 1,000 entries on the two starting days (including 374 players who won their seat online, on PokerStars).

Players to watch out include EPT7 Vienna Champion @Michael Eiler,  @Ivo Donev, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Champ @Dominik Panka, Day 1a chip leader @Gerald Karlic and many, many others. 

Photo credit: http://www.poker-magazin.at/

The #EPTVienna hashtag is getting ever hotter on Twitter and more and more top poker pros are confirming they're on their way, including @Sam Trickett, representing his new sponsor - Everest Poker. We'll keep you updated!

Check back often for news from the European Poker Tour on RankingHero! 

Mimi Luu the Only Lady at WPT Rolling Thunder Final Table Today

The #WPTRollingThunder Main Event ends today and the final table is set and laid for six, who will be playing for the following prize pool: 1st: $302,750 2nd: $200,030 3rd: $127,140 4th: $100,240 5th: $80,130 6th: $60,180.  Seat 2 at this final table will be taken by a lady for a change - @Mimi Luu will start fourth in chips, with 735,000 (24 bb).

@Mimi Luu is a 2Pair Magazine Team Pro and her brief bio introduces her as "one of Northern California’s top female poker players". She was born in Saigon, Vietnam and lives in San Jose, CA. She is known for a lot of table talk and has a friendly, exuberant personality. Mimi herself says she has 'a big heart' and 'simply loves people'.

"Mimi moved to San Jose, CA and attended San Jose City College and earned a degree in Business. Her proudest moments are the birth of her children. Mimi was first introduced to the sport of poker through a friend."

Her live winnings amount to $325,361 and she stands to double that overnight if she wins the Rolling Thunder, or at the very least will register a 20 per  cent increase in her earnings.  Mimi Luu's top achievement in live poker is her second place in #LAPC 2012, when she won $79,535 after #chopping .

Yet she is mainly famous in the poker community as Mimi 'Can't Fold This' Luu after an episode of tanking with pocket kings last summer. Faced with a preflop all-in, she takes a very long time and does all her thinking and emotional preparation for the decision aloud, sharing and spreading her own agony to the rest of the table and the on-watchers, all while repeating 'can't fold this, can't fold this'.

The video of this episode has got 35,000 views on youtube, and made number one on Bluff's top 10 videos list for 2013. There is a very funny remix (another 20,000 views) that I couldn't recommend more to everyone who endures more than 2 minutes of the original:

Watch video 1 for as long as you can endure and don't miss out on the remix!

The WPT action starts at 12:00 noon PT and will be live-streamed on WPT.com. Meanwhile you can check out Mimi Luu's featured moments on WPT Live Updates. We wish her luck and will also expect some very special and elaborate nail art at the final table :)

Could the elaborate nail art be a secret weapon of distraction?...

Macau Cash Game Stories and Pics by First-Hand Participants

Ever since 2010, when @Tom Dwan @Phil Ivey and @John Juanda joined some Chinese businessmen in a high-stakes private game during the Macau Asia Poker Tour, @Thomas Hall (who actually invited them there) has been the main source of information on the Macau Big Game. He has been handing it out sparingly, mainly on the 2+2 thread, but recently gave a more generous interview for PokerNews, which made the round of the poker world web and rekindled interest in #macau.

We have collected a number of related tweets, pics, anecdotes and hand histories told by participants in the Macau Big Game. Please feel free to add more stories and links!

Tom Hall (twitter@hongkongtom888) has been the main source of information about what goes on in Macau since 2010! The following are some excerpts from his forum posts, tweets, and interviews:

..Got to the table and even at first glance, I’m like “Holy S…” what is going on here. Two well known international pros have got giant stacks in front of them and the rest of the table were all Asian players. There were literally so many chips on the table that there was no space to play. Pic attached below as a sample. The guys have been playing for 2 days with the odd 4 hour break here and there.

..The length of the sessions are also legendary with 20-30 hour sessions with a 6 hour break and then being repeated 4-5 times relatively common. One of the players has been known not to move, I mean not to go the restroom, eat, drink or shift position in his chair (other than pick his cards up and bet) for 8 hours.

..Slow rolling is also not frowned upon either and is sometimes the cause of great amusement. One of the funniest I remember was when one player was all in, and the other tanks for ages, then gets up and goes to the toilet and is gone a good five minutes and then comes back to call with the stone cold nuts. This was all taken in good humor.

Sam Trickett on winning his first big pot in Macau:

We were now playing 3-handed and a good aggressive player opens the button to 60k. I make it 220k with JT diamonds from the SB and a loose aggressive player cold calls from the BB, and the button also calls. The flop came 345 with two diamonds. (I won’t be explaining my thought process as much as I have in previous blogs/articles.) I now check and SB bets 440k and the button calls and I call. The turn was the 6 of diamonds, and every body checked, I’m obviously now feeling pretty confident my hand is good. The river was the 2 of hearts so there was now a straight on the board 23456 (3 diamonds) I now check and BB bets 2.2m which was roughly as pot size bet and the button called. Sometimes I could just call here but because the way the hand had been played out and I knew the other 2 players in the pot were capable of calling light and they were also aware that I could bluff in this spot as everyone checked the turn. So I moved all-in for around $7.7m and the BB instantly showed his expression and was not happy. Made me feel great obviously and after a long tank he called the extra $5m.

Now the button started tanking saying he had a 7 and was wondering if the BB had called for the chop. He eventually folded and I raked the biggest pot I have ever won which was around $16m, which was about $2m USD pot. It’s actually not the biggest pot I have played and I have lost a few pots bigger than that where I took some nasty beats but it was certainly amazing to win my 1st big pot…

Andrew Moseley, who has been called "poker's best kept secret":

..I once worked for Tony Bloom for 6 months after I finished university-choosing bets for him and one day told him I was going to Macau for a look around. He knew the guys who ran the huge game there and said he would get me into the game.

I turned up and they pulled a seat up for me. I gave them a lot of action, played as long as they wanted and even tried to help the businessman out by talking through their hands with them. These guys are not stupid. They know they are underdogs but just love the game. They know I am there to make money and talking to them keeps me in the game, and they appreciate it.

These days the game has gone really silly. When I started playing we were playing £500/£1,000 but these days it’s grown to £2000/£4000. Just putting five buy-ins together is going to cost you £2 million. I don’t mind playing in huge games but you are going to need a £50 million bankroll to play in that game, otherwise it’s stupid how much action you would need to sell off to play.

..Once I didn’t hear/understand someone say “all in” when they bet just one chip and proclaimed “all in” into a MASSIVE pot on the river, so I snap called it off with my one pair thinking I was calling about 1 % of the pot. I then look up and see the guy flip a bluff, shake his head in disbelief, and then push his whole stack towards me.

Tom Dwan and the $25 Million Win Thread on Twitter:

@Alec Torelli "..Spent way too much time in this poker room... First time I see the light after 48 hours #vampire #poker#macau"

The Macau Big Game

Judging by the massive, more than 200-pages long thread on twoplustwo and the number of retweets and articles on Tom Hall's recent interview with PokerNews Chad Halloway,  the Macau high-stakes cash games are an inexhaustible source of inspiration, envy, resentment, admiration, rumors, and gossip in the poker community.

It all began in 2010, during the Macau Asian Poker Tour, when Matt Savage posted the following message on twoplustwo:

Despite the light turnout at the Asian Poker Tour Macau the cash games are some of the biggest in history as Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Chau Giang, and John Juanda are playing HK$5,000-10,000 with some Chinese businessmen. The game plays much bigger and there was about 40 million on the table last night when I saw the game.

So the Macau Big Game kicked off and has been going on for 3 years now, just like the Nosebleed Cash Games thread, and the dazzling string of top pros rumored to be winning or losing fortunes (most notably, @Tom Dwan and @Sam Trickett); trying to get in, or allegedly being banned from the games (@Patrik Antonius).

And all the while, the "Chinese businessmen" playing in Macau have remained largely shrouded in mystery, with the exception of a few known names - more specifically, Wang Qiang, Paul Phua and Richard Yong.

The "businessmen":

Tom Hall: "They [Big Game businessmen] like action and that's why people like Tom Dwan they find very fun to play against. They do not like nitty pros and have been known to change a game from a $1300/ $2600 game to a $1300/ $2600 with $2600 ante to force the pros to play."

Forum posts of this kind are characteristic of how many feel about the games and the pros who get hooked on them:

"I can definitely see why he gave up on the online games and started focusing on live. Which is easier to beat: online poker pro computer nerds or wealthy business owners who view gambling as their entertainment and don't mind losing millions doing it?"

The pros:

Tom Hall: "The guys that run the game definitely enjoy the challenge of playing against the world's best".

One thing is certain, however, the level of the game has risen enormously and all of the players with first-hand experience who have offered insights have spoken about it at some point or another. Sam Trickett wrote in a blog about Macau, "What I’m trying to say is that the game is not as soft as people think and it is getting more and more difficult to win." As per Andrew Moseley, speaking to Lee Davy on CalvinAyre.com:

"When I first went out there the players had already been playing together for quite a while. Some of them have improved at an incredible rate, two in particular. The games are way tougher at all levels than they were, because a lot of the worse non-pros have stopped playing, and some of them have become incredibly good, very fast."

The stakes:

Sam Trickett on Twitter: 'Each plaque is $100,000HKD (£8k) Ill let u guys do the math :) and not even winning today,haha #anotherdayattheoffice http://t.co/Z2Eba3AP

Tom Dwan on Twitter: 'ya so at the time of this bogus macau story 36hrs ago i was losing on my macau trip, and definitely hadnt won 25 million in a session.'

With a game where there is 'not enough space [for a 10th player] due to all the chips on the table' and the chips in question are mostly HKD 100,000, we can only agree with Tom Hall: "There is nothing like a trip to the Macau Big Game to get the adrenalin flowing".

Read more:

Execellent blog by Sam Trickett, including accounts of specific hands.

Andrew Moseley interview 

Tom Hall interview

Should Final Table Deals Be Allowed on Major Poker Tour Events

A recent airing on British TV of the EPT Barcelona 2013 final table, won by @Tom Middleton, rekindled an old debate on UK poker forums - “Deal Or No Deal” at final tables. The televised negotiations in Barcelona are among the most controversial and widely discussed instances of chopping.

At the point when 4 players were left with a prize pool of about Euro 2.5 million, the game was interrupted for lengthy four-handed negotiations facilitated by EPT officials who interpreted for the players. When it seemed that a deal was about to be concluded, the rallies of the players (including their backers - @Toby Lewis in the case of Tom Middleton) intervened against the terms. Play resumed without a deal until the final heads-up between Tom Middleton and @Kimmo Matias Kurko when an agreement was reached.

Here is Tom’s own account of the deal between the two:

I got heads-up with Kurko and there was a €440,000 difference between finishing runner-up and champion. We were effectively playing a €220k sit-and-go, which is insane! So we made a bit of a deal here, but we were still playing a €100k sit-and-go! The most important and biggest pay jump is in the top two spots so we were still both pretty serious. We both respected each other’s game, and knew that we were the one to avoid at the table. I was confident, but heads-up anything can happen. You have to be confident in yourself – who else will think you can win if you don’t believe in yourself?

Is ‘pretty serious’ serious enough for spectators and ordinary players whom the industry hopes to attract to poker?.. While a similar mechanism - and controversy - exists in chess, (with draw rules), just Imagine a World Cup qualification football match, for example, getting interrupted 15 minutes before the end so the captains and the team sponsors can negotiate a mutually beneficial outcome of the game. By analogy with the four-handed negotiations at EPT Barcelona, they might even invite the captains of the other teams in the same qualifying group as stakeholders and participants in the bartering, while FIFA officials serve as interpreters and audiences around the world are watching it all live. Right, unimaginable. In front of the cameras at least.

This might be a good time for chopping?.. (Sochi 2014 speed skating crash)

It runs against the very essence and values of sports, of fairplay and honest competition. And since poker industry investors and executives, operators and pro players are all arguing in favor of poker as a SKILL, rather than CHANCE game, isn’t it absurd to allow this practice to undermine the integrity and popular appeal of the game. Most observers and ordinary poker players believe it should be condemned as an under-the-table procedure and banned as an official mechanism of prize-pool distribution.

On the other hand, as stressed even by pros with a firm no-chop policy, such as @Jason Somerville, chopping can be an appealing option for amateurs. “An amateur could be looking at $10,000 for a fourth-place finish but could end up with $50,000 in a chop. That's big.” In fact, to many mid-stakes professional players it's all about the money. When poker is your livelihood you may be quite happy with chopping as insurance and a sound business practice?.. 

Further reading - two excellent articles by Lee Davy on CalvinAyre.com:

EXAMINING DEAL MAKING IN POKER: DEAL OR NO DEAL?

JUST SAY NO TO FINAL TABLE DEAL MAKING

Andrea Dato Defeats Sam Trickett and Wins WPT Venice

@Andrea Dato has long been considered one of the top Italian pros of all time, particularly in six-handed Hold’em cash games. He is a passionate gamer, with a background in Magic:The Gathering and chess, and started playing poker about 2004, making it his full-time occupation 4 years later.

Andrea Dato was born in 1979 in Italy and games have always been an important part of his life - 'games are the seasoning of life', he has said. His parents are reputed bridge players but, with a brief spell of chess, the passion that marked Andrea throughout his teenage years, was Magic: The Gathering. He did the Magic tournament circuit and travelled all over Europe, as well as U.S. and even Japan.

Andrea has been a professional poker player since 2008, when he decided to abandon the profession of engineer and devote himself full-time to poker. While he is a highly successful cash game player, it is a long-lasting dream - and perfectly feasible ambition - of Dato’s to one day win a WSOP bracelet (he came closest in 2011, finishing 3rd in event 12 - Triple Chance Hold’em) and of course he has been a regular at WPT events in Europe and his native Italy.

WPT Venice has been a crucial stop along the circuit for Dato , with final tables in both 2011 (finished 4th) and 2012 (finished 3rd), and a title in 2014. The third time proved lucky and he won in a dramatic heads-up with the most successful European live tournament player - @Sam Trickett. In fact, all eyes were on Sam, as this was his first event after the announcement of his sponsorship deal with Everest Poker. Moreover, this would have been the first WPT title for Trickett, as well, so both were under enormous pressure.

This is how the final hand went (check WorldPokerTour.com Live Updates for detailed coverage of all 5 days):

Sam Trickett K♣ 7♣ moves all-in and Andrea Dato 10♠ 2♥ makes the call.

Flop: 5♥ 4♠ 2♣

Turn: 9♠

River: 5♣ 

Trickett was eliminated in second place for €66,000 while Dato won €105,000 and a seat into the WPT World Championship.  

Should 'Ladies Room' Be Renamed 'Ladies ONLY Room' at Tournament Venues?..

A recent indignant outcry by @Vanessa Selbst on Twitter called attention to what is clearly perceived by many as systematic disrespect or outright insult to women players who venture into the live field (and yes, I did pause at 'venture' as possible stereotyping but decided to stick with it).

While she was primarily referring to the widespread use of phrases like "let the best man win", "bubble boys", and "ante up, gentlemen", another sore issue keeps coming up in the thread - "constant random men in restroom bc they felt entitled to not wait in line",  "primary women's bathroom changed to men's"', "having men in womens restrooms, lol".

All of this coincides with the release, by International Game Technology and Double Down Casino,  of a new survey based on six million social casino players who play DoubleDown Casino games on Facebook or via mobile each month.

The study concludes that there has been a "22 percent increase in female players in 2013” compared to the previous 12 months. As reported by Bluff Europe, "the survey also found that women make up one third of the social casino poker playing market and spend approximately the same amount of time playing free-to-play online poker each week as men".

So, Ladies and Gentlemen casino managers and tournament directors, #womenINpoker are clearly a market force to be reckoned with and if you really want us to join the 'boys' at the live poker tables, make sure we have our own restrooms to ourselves (and don't forget to stock on toilet paper pls)!

Who Was the Dead Man of the 'Dead Man's Hand'?

James Butler Hickok was a legendary figure in the Old West and Wild Bill - as he was called - is today a household name in America and has been featured in a great many films and books.

He was a lawman, gunfighter, and professional gambler and is known to have killed at least 36 men in his life. In his turn, he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall while playing 5 card draw poker in a saloon in the gold rush town of Deadwood Gulch in South Dakota on August 2, 1876.

McCall was apparently enraged by Wild Bill's derisory offer to pay his breakfast since he had lost all of his money in a poker game the previous day. There is another version for the motive, as per reporter Leander Richardson, who interviewed McCall shortly before his death: "McCall was hired to do his work by gamblers who feared the time when better citizens should appoint Bill the champion of law and order".

After the shooting the doors were locked and the local barber was asked to serve as an undertaker. It was this barber's account of the crime scene and the cards Hickok was holding that was reproduced in a popular Wild Bill biography published in 1926. Thereafter the Aces and 8s hand became known as the Dead Man's Hand.

While the Dead Man has been identified beyond any doubt, to this day it remains uncertain what the fifth card in the hand was... Furthermore, there is evidence that the phrase had been in use earlier and referred to different card combinations, most notably jacks and eights.

Regulated Online Poker - The Story So Far, iGaming North America Conference 19-21 March 2014

iGaming North America Conference, #iGNA2014, will take place on the 19th - 21st March 2014 in Las Vegas. It will include a special poker track to review and asess the comeback and regulation of online poker in the U.S. (Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey) and a poker players panel to facilitate the dialogue between industry professionals/investors and players (professional and recreational).

@Chris Grove, founder and publisher of OnlinePokerReport.com, will moderate a poker expert panel, notably with Ultimate Poker and Ceasars Interactive executives - "Regulated Online Poker - The Story So Far".

Mike Gentile, Pokerfuse editor, will moderate the Poker Players Panel, including:

@Shaun Deeb, online poker player

@Jason Somerville, Ultimate Poker Pro

Dr Dominic Ricciardi, Las Vegas physician and part-time poker player

dmoongirl on Twitter: "Very humbled and honored to represent the poker community as a member of the players panel at the 2014 @ignaconf next week in Vegas."

@Danielle Andersen, professional online poker player and star of the documentary Bet, Raise, Fold (read more about Danielle here)

Last year similar player-focused panels were hosted by Marco Valerio within the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) - with @Antonio Esfandiari, and at iGNA 2013 - with @Daniel Negreanu. These are all meant to bridge the communication gap between online poker operators and players and to provide a platform for the concerns and ideas of the latter.

More information on the program, panelists, and speakers at iGNA2014:

http://www.igamingnorthamerica.com/

http://calvinayre.com/2014/03/12/conferences/what-to-attend-at-igna-2014/

http://www.onlinepokerreport.com/11363/igna-2014-online-poker-track/