Friday, March 15, 2019 12:45 PM Local Time
Trung Pham Wins Event #3, $400 No-Limit Hold'em Big Blind Ante ($13,901)
Houston, Texas poker pro Trung Pham has earned the third Circuit ring of his career in winning Event #2 at Hard Rock Tulsa, $400 No-Limit Hold'em Big Blind Ante. The win is worth $13,901, and it comes at a fast-paced Day 2, where the remaining seven players were trimmed to just one in little more than one hour's play.
Pham, a native of Vietnam, rode a handful of big hands in all-in, pre-flop collisions to quickly rout the finish of Event 2. Seven players returned for the event's Day 2 conclusion, and the chips were in front of Pham a little over an hour later.
Springfield, MO's Jesse Jones finished second, earning $8,590, while early Day 2 chip leader Rob Noce, of Columbia, MO, took third for $6,183. A late collision between Pham and Noce defined the final table and the outcome, when Noce moved all in with pocket sixes and Pham called with pocket kings. No six or other help arrived, Noce hit the rail in third, and Pham entered heads-up play against Jones with a dominant lead.
Pham was in or near the lead throughout the late stages of this tourney, though he had to weather two hours of dry cards late on Day 1 before fortune turned his way again. The win was important for Pham in more ways than one. He's chasing a Casino Champion seat, and came to Hard Rock Tulsa in 79th place, needing to move up the ranks in search of a top 50, seat-earning spot. The 50 points he picked up here will help him immensely in that regard.
The win also helps erase Pham's bad memory of the recent Circuit Rio main event in Las Vegas, where an error (in which he miscounted his stack on a raise, ending up jamming all in, in a moment of tilt, he admitted) and ended up hitting the rail.
"You just have to keep fighting and fighting," he said, "and that's what I did."