Tournament coverage Poker

All eyes on Vegas

Written by Ben Blaschke

Welcome to our weekly Monday poker update where we look at all the major events that have taken place over the weekend and run the rule of the winners, losers and anything else worth talking about!

Vietnam's JC Tran is making a deep run at this year's WSOP Main Event

Vietnam’s JC Tran is making a deep run at this year’s WSOP Main Event

There is only one tournament that matters going on at the moment – the World Series of Poker Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas. The one tournament that every player in the world wants to win, this year’s event attracted a field of 6,352 players for a total prize pool of almost US$60 million and a first prize of US$8.3 million.

At time of writing, we were down to the last 37 players with each guaranteed almost US$200,000 and it’s great to see the Asia-Pacific region well represented yet again.

Leading the way is Vietnam’s JC Tran, who sits fifth in chips with 8.8 million and is perhaps our best chance of bringing home another WSOP Main Event title. Tran is no stranger to success on the big stage, having already won himself two WSOP bracelets in smaller events in the past as well as a World Poker Tour title.

Should he manage to go all the way in the Main Event it could well be the tip of the iceberg for Asia’s impending poker boom – much like Australian Joe Hachem’s win in 2005 saw the game take off in Australia.

Could Jackie Glazier become the first woman to win the WSOP Main Event?

Could Jackie Glazier become the first woman to win the WSOP Main Event?

Speaking of Australia, there is still one prominent Aussie in with a chance of making a run for the final table with Jackie Glazier continuing to do her country proud. The last woman standing, Glazier continues to add to her already glittering poker CV. In 2011 she hoisted her first major live title when she won the Venetian Deep Stack for US$72,000 then added the Melbourne Championships crown to her list of accomplishments in 2012, but a WSOP final table would eclipse all of that.

There is still a long way to go but we wish Tran and Glazier the best of luck over the next few days.