Born in Hong Kong, Justin Cuong Van Tran was born to Vietnamese parents as the youngest of their eight children, and the family moved to Northern California when he was two-years old. He learned about hard work and determination from his parents, and the opportunities that the U.S. afforded the family was the reason he went from high school to California State University at Sacramento to claim a degree in Business Management Information Systems. Putting himself through school wasn't easy, though, but he found a way to supplement his income and pay for school.

J.C.'s older brother took him to a casino for the first time when J.C. turned 21, and he quickly picked up poker and its many nuances. He began doing well enough in cash games to consider it a source of income, and he continued to hone his game for a few years. By 2003, he had decided to give tournament play a fair chance, and in a relatively short period of time, he was establishing himself as a feared player at the table with eight cashes in one year, including his first victory in a Heavenly Hold'em event in L.A., though he has always claimed to be the nicest guy in poker away from the tables.

Each year, J.C. seemed to improve his tournament game. In 2004, he came in seventh at the L.A. Poker Classic, though just missing the televised TV table, and he had three cashes at the World Series of Poker, two of which were final tables. Late in the year, he made the final table of the WPT's World Poker Finals at Foxwoods and finished in fifth place for his biggest cash to that point of more than $350,000. Two years, later, he bubbled the TV table again at the Borgata Poker Open but made it to the final table of the L.A. Poker Classic where he was eliminated in fifth place. By 2007, he was on a mission, and he nearly accomplished it at the L.A. Poker Classic by making it to second place for nearly $1.2 million, then traveled to Reno to do one better. He won the event, completing a long-awaited goal by claiming a WPT title, and ended up as the Season 5 Player of the Year to top it off.