Professional poker player J.C. Tran has made over $6 million in poker tournament earnings in his career, but one goal has long eluded him.

No more.

The 31-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, who now calls Sacramento, California, USA, home, has finally gotten the dragon off his back–he has won the first World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship gold bracelet of his career.

The big win came in Event #49 at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas, a $1,500 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had 2,717 entrants, 270 payouts and a total prize pool of about $3.7 million.

For that win, Tran transports home a whopping $631,170.

Runnerup was Rasmus Nielsen of Copenhagen, Denmark, copping $389,557.

Third was John Conroy of Dublin, Ireland, landing $278,255.

Fourth was Pete Nguyen of Tustin, California, USA, winning $233,734.

Fifth was Joe Pelton of Newport Beach, California, USA, culling $191,068.

Sixth was Chad Siu of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, seeing $150,257.

Seventh was Jesper Hoog of Stockholm, Sweden, hogging $113,157.

Eighth was Bob Kalb of Offenbach, Germany, grabbing $85,331.

Ninth was Christoph Kohnen of Moers, Germany, plucking $58,248.

Tenth was Anderson Silva of Norwich, Connecticut, USA, collecting $36,729.

Top names finishing in the money were Men “The Master” Nguyen in 25th place and Hevad “Rain” Khan in 31st place.

(E-mail Tom Somach at [email protected].)