BY TOM SOMACH

Henry Tran has won the main event at the first Johnny Chan Poker Classic, earning $325,000 for his efforts.

The multi-event poker tournament, which ran May 6-13, 2007, was held at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, just outside Vancouver.

Finishing second in the $2,500 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em main event was Joe Corbett, who earned $200,000.

In another event of the tourney, the $1,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em competition, the winner was Jeffrey Garza.

The Johnny Chan Poker Classic was billed as the largest poker tournament in the history of British Columbia, according to the tourney organizers, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC).

The organizers said more than 2,300 players entered the tournament, giving it a total prize pool of over $2.8 million.

The tournament consisted of five separate events.

Celebrity poker players Johnny Chan, Brad “Yukon”=9D Booth and Gavin Smith competed in the tourney.

Chan is a two-time winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event, and is also one of the most famous professional poker players in the world, having been immortalized in the Matt Damon poker film “Rounders.”

He said he hopes the tourney will become an annual event.

Brian Lynch, BCLC’s vice-president of casino gaming, promoted the tournament by appealing to the average citizen’s desire to get close to celebrities.

“The Johnny Chan Poker Classic is a chance of a lifetime for poker fans who want to test their skills against this poker legend,”=9D Lynch said.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)