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  When most casual fans hear the name J.C. Tran, they just assume that this is a player who has more than one World Series of Poker bracelets. A lot of these people would be surprised to hear that coming into Event #49, J.C. Tran has never won a WSOP event before. He has had so much success at the World Poker Tour, and throughout the rest of the sport of poker, it just seems odd that he has never found success on this particular stage. That all changed for him this year. After Event #49, he could finally add that elusive WSOP bracelet to his resume.



  While J.C. was comfortably second in the chip count, he was over 1.5 million chips behind Rasmus Nielsen. There was almost no doubt from the start that it was going to come down to these two players, and everyone else was just debris that needed to be moved out of the way.



  The day started with a battle of the mini-me's. Christoph K?hnen, the table's smallest stack, went at fellow short stacker John Conroy. Things were looking good for Christoph until Conroy rivered a straight and took possession of K?hnen's tiny stack, knocking the German native out in 9th place.



  Robert Kalb went at Rasmus Nielsen's overpowering pile of chips like a moth going into a bug zapper. Kalb was all-in with an A-9 to Rasmus's A-Q. The board would deliver one more Ace at the flop, but that was it for useful cards. Robert was out in 8th place.



  It only took fifteen minutes after Kalb hit the rail for Peter Nguyen to eliminate Jesper Hoog. Hoog pushed his stack of 220,000 chips to the middle of the table, and watched everyone fold. Before he could officially steal the pot, Peter had called from the button. Hoog's K-7 was left in the dirt by Nguyen's A-K, and an unhelpful board. He was ejected in 7th place.



  Chad Siu had doubled up through J.C. Tran early in the day. After taking some hits, and being knocked back to 210,000 chips, he tried the same trick again, moving all-in from the middle. This time it was Joe Pelton who called, and Siu would not be doubling against him.



  Siu started fast with an A-K against Pelton's A-9, but a nine on the river had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and the board gave Chad Siu no answer for the pair of nines. Chad was done for the day in 6th place.



  Pelton was flying high, but lost the bulk of his stack to John Conroy soon after the Siu elimination. He went a little slap happy after that, going all-in three times. Fortunately there were no callers and he was allowed to just take the blinds. The fourth time though, J.C. Tran stepped up and decided to end the theft of the blinds.



  Pelton was caught with a mediocre Q-6 against Tran's K-J. Pelton went in front when a 7-6-2 flop gave him a middle-pair. The double-up against Tran was not to be though. While the turn was a harmless 8, the river was a King. Tran won the hand with a pair of Kings, and Joe Pelton was bounced in 5th place.



  Peter Nguyen went all-in from the button on his final hand and was called by Rasmus Nielson. Peter started off behind as his 7d-9d was behind Nielson's K-J. A 7-7-4 flop gave Peter trip sevens, and hopes for a prolonged tournament run. His hopes were dashed on an unlikely K-K turn and river. Mr. Nguyen was done in 4th place.



  Irish son John Conroy had forced J.C. Tran to fold with a 175,000 raise from the button. Rasmus Nielsen requested a chip count before making up his mind on what to do next. When he was told that Conroy had about 800,000 left, Nielson raised Conroy the value of his entire stack. Conroy called all-in and showed his A-Q. Rasmus had an A-8 and was playing from behind. The flop gave an 8, and that was good enough to bring Nielson a come from behind victory in this hand. John Conroy closed out his day in 3rd place.



  Now that is was down to just Rasmus Nielson and J.C. Tran, very little had changed since the start of the day with the exception that there were less people sitting around them. Just like at the commencement of play, they were one and two in the chip count, with Rasmus holding about a 2 to 1 chip lead.



  At first Tran just took little bites out of Nielson's lead, but at one point he tore two big pieces out of his opponent's chip stack and took the lead for good. Rasmus lost two hands in a row of over 1.5 million chips, folding both to Tran's two-pair.



  In the final hand with Rasmus holding a Q-J, and Tran playing with a K-Q, Rasmus raised all-in after the turn. The board was showing 8-Q-2-4, and J.C. called the bet. The river was a harmless 2 and Tran's King won the kicker battle with Nielson's Jack. It was over and J.C. Tran finally had a WSOP bracelet.