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Kansas amateur wins $607,200 at WSOP25 June 2012Ever had a three-minute conversation worth $607,200? Dung “Gomer” Nguyen has. Perhaps, it’s too good a story -- a tale no one would possibly believe. But it really happened. Here’s the incredible story of how a 37-year-old recreational poker player from Wichita, Kan., stormed into the 2012 World Series of Poker, massacred a field of 2,534 players, and walked away with more than 600 grand and a glistening new gold bracelet, which all came about due to a brief hallway conversation. “The Butterfly Effect” is now a common term which seeks to explain the unbreakable bonds between all things in the universe. The phrase was initially coined as a simple way to illustrate a complex scientific concept. The hypothetical question posed was, “Does a butterfly flapping its wings in Ohio eventually create a typhoon in the South Pacific?” Even a fragile butterfly has a measurable effect on air current by flapping its tiny wings. It follows then, that a storm cycle occurring many months later, thousands of miles away, is one of the many outlying by-products of the butterfly's initial action. “The Butterfly Effect” can apply to poker, too. Unfortunately, many fail to grasp its nuances. Even the most subtle actions can affect the ultimate outcome of a poker tournament. Consider for a moment that any motion whatsoever –- a laugh, a sneeze, a smile, a wave, or even the most ordinary of common distractions -– can and often will cause a poker dealer to shuffle a deck of cards in a slightly different way. Just one card out of place at any time, by consequence, changes the entire sequence of cards that follow the remainder of the tournament. Got that? If you’re wondering what any of this has to do with the most recent tournament held at the WSOP, we’ll get to that in a moment. Since the actions at one table are very likely seen and heard by players at adjoining tables, even subtle movements, increasingly larger numbers of people are affected by the initial motion. Secondary tables feel the aftereffects of what happened. Moments later, the next outlying group of tables and players facilitate an unbreakable line of countless corollaries, which in a sense not only change the outcome of what happens in poker, but impact the world. Sure, poker is a game of skill. But it's also quite possible that an innocuous chuckle on Day One by the hypothetical player on sitting in Seat 6 at Table 278 at the 2011 World Series of Poker influenced the outcome of the tournament. In a sense, every single champion’s victory is a combination of billions upon billions of figurative butterfly wings flapping since the beginning of time, combined with the skill, talent, and –- dare it be said, luck –- to overcome randomness. Which now brings us to a man most people in the poker world have never heard of, until today. His name is Dung “Gomer” Nguyen. First – a short biography: Born in Vietnam, immigrated to the United States at three months old; the ninth of 11 children; initially settled down and grew up in New Orleans; mother died at a young age; moved to Wichita, Kansas to live with his older sister; worked various odd jobs for years; played $1-3 limit poker in one of the local casinos; virtually no major tournament track record. Three days ago, Nguyen was walking down the hallway of the tournament area at the Rio in Las Vegas. It was just a few minutes prior to noon, which was the starting time of a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Nguyen had absolutely no plans to play in the tournament that day. His intent was to sit in some cash games and perhaps enter one of the Deep Stack tournaments, which cost a few hundred dollars. That’s when Nguyen ran into his friend. It would be a moment that would literally change his life. Nguyen revealed to his friend that he had no intention to play in that day’s gold bracelet tourney. The field size was much too large; more than 2,500 players were expected. The entry fee also cost a considerable sum to the recreational player on a short bankroll. Nguyen’s friend argued otherwise. He pleaded. The poker comrade explained that he would, in fact, post $750 -- half the entry fee. In exchange, the two friends became business partners and agreed that the investment would be worth a 50/50 split of any prize money winnings. The notion of winning prize money and dividing a cash prize of any substantive value seemed like only a remote possibility. After all, players have what amounts to only a ten percent chance of getting back a dime. As things turned out, Nguyen and his investor would do slightly better than that. Indeed, this brief conversation out in the hallway, while hundreds of other poker players raced by to their tables and seats, turned out to be an angelic flap of proverbial wings, ultimately creating an end-game typhoon out of what should have been an innocuous initial act. Nguyen’s friend and the confidence he expressed, was a guardian angel, an inspiration, and butterfly that would later create a tremor. And so, off Nguyen went. Three days later, the situation was very different. Nguyen wasn’t out in the hallway anymore. He was sitting on the ESPN Main Stage playing for the biggest pot of his life. In a six-hour display of dominance that was undoubtedly the most decisive –- and perhaps easiest -– victory witnessed so far at this year’s WSOP, Nguyen won his very first WSOP gold bracelet and the hefty sum of $607,200 some of which was shared with a certain rail bird watching with intense interest. "I don’t play many tournaments and this is as deep as I have ever gone in any tournament, so I was pretty nervous," said Nguyen. "I came to the final table with the chip lead, (so I wanted) to keep playing small pot poker with them." As Nguyen was busy posing for photographers in front of a massive pile of poker chips and was being interviewed by the press just moments after his unlikely victory, several poker players who were involved in other poker tournaments across the room glanced over at the newest WSOP champion. Dozens of conversations ensued. Shuffles were altered. Other discussions spilled out in the hallway. And -- if "The Butterfly Effect" is to be believed -- poker history changed forever and ever. Theo Tran finished in second place to take home $377,565, while Bahman Jahanguiri was third for $267,241. Blair Hinkle was fourth, cashing in for $192,734, while David Pham was fifth for $140, 736. Kristijonas Andrulis was sixth for $103,995, while Zachary Korik was seventh, Jeffrey Manza was eighth, and Tyler Patterson was ninth. The top-267 players finished in the money. Notable players who cashed but did not make the final table included: Scott Clements (10th), Layne Flack (23rd), Isaac Haxton (39th), Jason Senti (74th), Eoghan O'Dea (92nd), Tommy Vedes (133rd), Matt Affleck (134th), Will Failla (154th), Eric Baldwin (198th), Gabriel Nassif (231st), and Tony Cousineau (241st). Modified from tournament notes provided by WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla. |