The Kenny Tran Plan for Success

A little more than a year ago, if you asked the random poker enthusiast who Kenny Tran was, you'd likely be greeted by a blank stare. To Kenny Tran, that wasn't an embarrassment as much as it was an asset. The self-described cash-game pro was perfectly fine with taking truckloads of money from unsuspecting victims; what they didn't know could hurt them.

Staying anonymous proved to be a hard task for Tran, though. Making three high-profile cashes, including one that awarded him his first World Series of Poker bracelet, does have a tendency to throw back that curtain, and put a spotlight on you, to boot. In last year's WSOP, Tran took the poker world by storm when he made the final table of the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. world championship. He eventually finished fifth, but that was no small feat, considering that the event generally lures only the best of the best. Making a televised final table and holding your own against the poker world's elite in the "player's championship" is step No. 1 in making a name for yourself.

A good step No. 2 would be making a deep run in the main event, so Tran went ahead and did that, too. He ultimately made the final two tables of "The Big Dance" in 2007, but he was sent railward in 15th place, but not before getting some TV face-time in the world's most-watched poker tournament, of course.

Then, no poker player's bucket list is complete without "win a WSOP bracelet," so that was Tran's step No. 3. He accomplished that task this year when he took down the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em heads-up world championship, yet another (soon-to-be) televised event.

So, anonymity is no longer in the cards for Tran, who still considers himself a cash-game player, not a tournament player, even though he has more than $2 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Well, Kenny, your results say that you are at least both.

Vietnam, McDonald's, and a Deck of Cards

It wasn't always flushes and final tables for Tran. His story is just about as rags-to-riches as they come. At least, that is what most people would say about a multimillionaire who doesn't even have an officially recorded birthday (his unofficial date of birth is April 30, 1974). He grew up in Vietnam in a troubled area, and led a "rough lifestyle" as a kid.

"Vietnam is still a Vietcong, communist country, and it was very hard for me to live through that at a young age," Tran said. "I got lucky to make it out."

And make it out, he did. He came to Seattle in 1991 and got his start shooting for the American dream by landing a minimum-wage job at McDonald's in 1992, at which he earned $4.25 an hour. Then, a few months later, his true American dream started, appropriately enough, on the Fourth of July. His friends took him to a bowling alley that housed a small cardroom that offered dealer's choice games. Tran, a natural gambler, was immediately intrigued. He thought, "I can beat this game." Well, four paychecks thought differently, as they were out of Tran's pocket and into those of the poker room's sharks pretty quickly.

Tran, not one to be discouraged, went home night after night, dealt out 10 sets of hands faceup, played one of them as his own, and then shuffled up and dealt again. He wanted to see the game from the perspective of every player in every hand; he wanted to understand what they did and why they did it. After that, he managed to consistently win at $2-$4 limit hold'em.

"After school, I would walk straight to the poker room and play for three to four hours and make $50-$100, as much as a part-time job, so why did I have to work?" Tran asked. Then, one day, as he was attending an English class in college, on his way to becoming a lawyer, he looked out the window and then down at his textbook, and thought, "This is not me. You know what? I like you, book, but this is not me. I'm not for you, book."

And that was that. Tran was done with work and done with college; it was professional poker for him. That was 16 years ago, and he hasn't looked back since.

Tran and the Big Games

Part-time job replacement, indeed. Tran worked his way up to playing the highest stakes possible, and he now plays the big games at Bellagio in Las Vegas and Commerce Casino in California.

"We just play $100-$200 blinds with $500 on the button and a $100,000 buy-in. It's small blinds, but it is really deep-stack poker," Tran said. "That's really the big game that I play that is a consistently big game."

As far as who the "we" are, Tran was mum.

"[Laughing] Sorry, I cannot tell you that. It's mainly just successful businesspeople. They're not the type of people you see in the casino to whom losing and winning is a big deal. The game will not affect their lives."

And that's good news, because Tran is in the business of taking their money, and that task is a lot easier without the moral dilemma of changing someone's life when he falls into your trap. Some players who are less likely to fall into one of Tran's traps, according to Tran, are Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, and Tom Dwan, all of whom he regards as great players he would rather avoid playing, if possible.

How Cash Almost Deprived Tran of Gold

Tran has said numerous times before that he simply doesn't like tournaments at all. "I just really like to play cash games." After winning his WSOP bracelet, however, he says that he's going with the flow, but it is obvious that cash games are still where his heart truly lies.

"Let's say, right now, if I'm in a tournament and I hear that there's a great cash game going on at Bellagio, I'll probably blow off my chips and go there," Tran said.

He then illustrated his claim with a story about how the $10,000 WSOP heads-up tournament -- which he won -- was taking the back seat to a juicy cash game at Bellagio.

Tran played his first match at noon and moved on. He had some time to spare before his next match at 5 p.m., so he met up with some friends at Bellagio. The allure of the poker room was too much, and he spied an unbelievably great cash game going on there. "Well … I can't do this!" he thought, so he played a round in the cash game and then left his chips there to lock up his seat. Bellagio allows a seat to be locked up for three-and-a-half buttons at those stakes, which Tran says is about an hour and 45 minutes. So, that meant that Tran had about an hour, after travel time, to finish off his second heads-up opponent. No problem.

"It was really unfortunate for the gentleman I played in my second match," Tran said. "He's a great player, and he was playing really fast, but I was playing 10 times faster than he was and making his head spin." That's not normally Tran's style. He opts for a slow, patient game that allows him to grind down his opponents and "bore" them into making mistakes. But the situation demanded a change -- as a great cash game with tons of dead money on the table awaited him back at Bellagio. "I finished him up in like 20 minutes," Tran said, laughing.

So, he advanced in the tournament, went back and killed the Bellagio cash game, and then returned for his third heads-up match, once again locking up his cash-game seat. Yet again, Tran ran circles around his opponent in a mad rush to get back out the door and to Bellagio. Match No. 3 went to Tran. He wound up winning 200 big bets in the cash game, even though he was switching back and forth between it and the tournament the entire time.

"You can't stick with a tournament over a cash game, period," Tran said. "It was never in my mind."

Apparently, that is even true for a tournament that you're eventually going to win.

The Bracelet Win

After those first three steamroller wins, Tran went on to defeat four more opponents, including Erick Lindgren, on his way to the final matchup against Alec Torelli. Tran was aware of Torelli's background: Torelli has proven his poker chops online and has honed his skills in high-stakes shorthanded and heads-up games. Tran knew that he was an opponent to be feared, but he had a plan.

"I already had a strategy going into the match with him that I had to sit there and grind it out," Tran said. "I could not play his game; I had to make him play my game. I wanted to keep the pots small and wait for him to make a mistake. But it didn't work really well; he knew exactly what I was doing, and he is just a good, smart player, and didn't fall for that."

So, Tran changed gears a little bit; he sped up his game and picked up a lot of pots. He even took Torelli to task by bluffing him out of a big pot on a board of A-Q-Q when holding 7 high. "I showed him my hand just to send a message and to put fear into him that I would run him over," Tran said. "After that, he allowed me to do that, so I just bled him out and bled him out."
In the final hand of the first game (the final two players played a best two-out-of-three match), Tran held A-4 offsuit in position, and thought, "I could close him out right here, because he's low in chips right now. If I hit anything, I can close him out right now. There's no way he will check the flop, it doesn't matter what comes. All I need to do is hit something and I can close him out." The flop came 8-4-2, Torelli shipped it in, and Tran called instantly. Torelli's A-J failed to catch up. Game No. 1: Kenny Tran.

Tran was ready for an easier second game, because he figured his opponent would be uncomfortable playing the do-or-die game. But, as it turned out, the second game brought a totally different Torelli.

"He played totally different; he played much better," Tran said. "So, I really focused on him, and when he changed gears, I caught it right away, and I picked up his play, his betting patterns, and the way he acted. I ground him down for a long time, and I could see, after almost two hours, that he was burnt out and just wanted to get out. He just wanted to gamble."

So, Tran decided to let that gamble happen. In the final hand, Tran opened the pot with the A 8. Torelli called, and the flop came Q 7 4. Torelli checked, Tran bet, and Torelli check-raised.

"I knew at this point that he could not have a set, because he raised me kind of big, and most of the time when you flop a set when heads up, your opponent is drawing dead." Tran said. "You have to slow down a bit to trap your opponent, but he bet like he wanted me out of the hand. I thought, 'You know what? I can close him out right here. He could have a flush draw, as well; he could have the J 5 in this spot.' I studied all of the scenarios of what ihe could possibly have, and the only likely hands he could have were A-Q or a set, but he didn't play like he had a set. So, I reraised him big, he shipped it in, and I called."

Torelli had the Q 10 for top pair. The turn was the 8 and the river the J, giving Tran a flush, and that was that. Tran trumped his final opponent to win his first WSOP bracelet, the currency of respect among tournament pros.

As for his win coming on Father's Day, Tran said that it was both very special (he has three children -- 11, 10, and 1) and a bit sad. "I've never met my dad before," Tran said. "It was a great feeling, and I wish my dad was here to see me win on that day. But for my kids, they're really happy, and I'm very happy for them. It was a feeling that no amount of money could buy; it was unbelievable."

Despite all of his recent success, Tran still remains extremely humble. "I just want to give special thanks to my friends and family who have had faith in me for all of these years. I will keep up the good work, and if I do well, I will never forget the people of my country and the people who supported me through it all."

'Do-or-Die' Strategy

Kenny Tran shared his thoughts on what it takes to win, specifically in a shorthanded situation.

Shawn Patrick Green: How big of a factor is bluffing in heads-up no-limit hold'em?

Kenny Tran: Throughout a heads-up match, you'll be lucky to have some hands. If you have a hand, you also have to connect with the flop, turn, river, or whatever. But the bluff factor is probably about 80 percent. If you open a pot, most of the time you have to follow through with a bet on the flop to represent and to make your opponent believe that you have a hand.

SPG: You will make a pair or better with unpaired holecards only about one-third of the time in hold'em. With that in mind, how often are you value-betting on the river with just a high card?

KT: It happens sometimes. Most of the time, it's about position. Before I became a no-limit hold'em player, I was a limit hold'em player, and in limit hold'em, you see a lot of boards, and you see a hand through to the river a lot. I'm lucky enough to have that experience in me, and that's why my style is to keep the pot small and to figure my opponent out on the flop, turn, or river to decide how big of a pot I want to play.

My game comes from reading skills, and if I believe that I have the best hand, I definitely value-bet. Before I make that kind of bet, I need to know that if my opponent plays back at me, I am willing to call. That's because if you make a value-bet, your opponent might know that you have nothing, and may check-raise you or try to outplay you, and you need to be willing to make that call. You need to be willing to stick with your read, which I do. If I make a value-bet and my opponent tries to outplay me, I'm willing to go broke to make the call. Before I make that value-bet, I decide whether or not I'll call if he makes some crazy play.

SPG: You're ruling out second-guessing yourself, basically.

KT: I'd have to say that 10 out of 10 times when I second-guess myself, I'm wrong. That includes the hand that I got knocked out on in the World Series main event last year; I second-guessed myself. I already had put the guy on a straight and flush draw, and on the river he bet, and then I second-guessed myself when he called the clock on me, which was stupid of me, but I learned.

To be a great player, you have to be willing to go broke with your reads. Every time you're wrong, you will go broke. And in order for you to become a great player, you have to go broke several times, because there is nobody who can read perfectly. You'll be wrong time after time, and that's how you learn. When you learn from a mistake, you adjust and don't make that mistake next time. That's how you become a great player. You have to stick with your instincts.

Do not second-guess yourself, because if you second-guess yourself, you can never become a great player. A great player will stick with his instincts and reads, do-or-die.