J.C. Tran, who so far this year has racked up four final tables, two wins, a WPT main-event title and $2.28 million in tournament earnings, will surely start as the overwhelming favourite, especially after his win in Event #4 of the WPT Championships, but another player has also hit a hot streak at just the right time.
Up till now Jared Hamby, better known by his online moniker “Wacokidd”, has struggled to translate his fearsome online reputation into live results. That all changed however, when Hamby won two WPT World Championship preliminary events within 5 days, earning over $500,000 in prize money and TWO entries into Saturday’s Championship event. Most importantly for Hamby though, he had broken his live-tournament jinx.
Hamby began by winning the $2500 No-Limit Hold’em event on April 10th, outlasting 250 players and collecting the $223,780 first prize (and a $25,000 entry into the main-event) after he beat Jeff Shulman in an intriguing heads-up battle.
Then, five days later, Hamby repeated the feat, catapulting himself into sixth place in the Player of the Year race, and ensuring his live-tournament anonymity would be no more. This time it was the $2000 No-Limit Hold’em event, and a much larger field of 483 players. Once again he beat an established live pro in the heads-up stage, pipping Kathy Liebert to the $298,955 first prize, and earning yet another $25,000 entry into the Championship event.
Below is the full list of winners for the 2007 Bellagio WPT World Championship preliminary events:
(All No Limit Hold’em)
Event 1 – ($1500) – Motoyuki Mabuchi - $264,950
Event 2 – ($2000) – Paul Lee - $206,795
Event 3 – ($2500) – Jared Hamby - $223,780
Event 4 – ($3000) – J.C. Tran - $272,320
Event 5 – ($5000) – Mike Hauptman - $365,995
Event 6 – ($1500) – Anh Van Nguyen - $303,320
Event 7 – ($2000) – Jared Hamby - $298,955
Event 8 – ($2500) – Alfredo “Toto” Leonidas - $328,000
Event 9 – ($3000) – TBD
Event 10 – ($5000) – TBD
Event 11 – ($2500) – TBD
Event 12 – ($25,000 WPT Main Event) – TBD