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Qui Nguyen wins World Series of Poker Main Event3 November 2016 Qui Nguyen (photo by Jayne Furman) Nguyen is a married father of a four-year-old son, who once owned a nail salon in Alaska and now fancies himself as a professional gambler in Las Vegas. He becomes just the second Vietnamese-born world poker champion, following Poker Hall of Famer Scotty "The Prince of Poker" Nguyen, who captured the title in this event in 1998. "Thank you to all my friends and family," said the new champion moments after the victory. "I'm so excited. I don't know what to say. I just tried to remind myself to never give up, to never give up. It was tiring, it was tough, but I wanted to stay aggressive and never give up and thankfully for me it worked out." Playing an aggressive style, and arguably the least accomplished player at the table coming in, Nguyen did the unimaginable by constantly playing pots, applying pressure and putting his tablemates to tough decisions. In the end, the combination of cards, fortitude and aggression led Nguyen to capture poker's ultimate championship. He came into the WSOP with just one previous WSOP cash on his resume – a 54th place finish in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event in 2009 -- that won him $9,029. With just $52,986 in lifetime live poker winnings, no one expected Nguyen to be the last man standing against an experienced, accomplished final table full of mostly poker professionals. The runner-up was 27-year-old San Francisco, California resident Gordon Vayo. The recently engaged Vayo's terrific run finally ended after besting 6,735 other hopefuls, but he leaves with $4,661,228 for his efforts. He entered the final table in third place, picked his spots carefully and came within one spot of becoming the world champion. Vayo was looking to become the ninth consecutive twenty-something to win the crown, and while he had the chip lead at various points tonight, he lost a big pot when his two pair was no match for Nguyen's flush, and he was never able to mount a sustained comeback after that point. Vayo, a professional poker player throughout his adulthood, has played this event every year since 2011. He had a great 2016 WSOP, cashing eight times in 21 events, and already has earned more than $6 million playing the game he loves, with more than $5 million coming at the WSOP. He previously finished in second place in a WSOP event in 2014, winning $314,535. During the 100+ day hiatus Vayo won a tournament in September for $587,120. Originally from New London, Connecticut, Vayo is a long-time internet poker player, whom has a bright future on the live circuit as well. Vayo was gracious in defeat, remarking afterwards: "It was a little frustrating at times, but he played phenomenal. I didn't get a lot of hands heads up, but all the credit to Qui, he played great." On the final hand of this 11-day poker game, Nguyen raised to 8,500,000 and was raised all-in by Vayo for his last 53,000,000 chips. Nguyen without much hesitation called and the cards were turned over. Vayo showed a Js-Ts, while Nguyen tabled the King and Tc. Nguyen's hand was stronger and it was now up to the five community cards to determine the fate of both participants. The board ran out 7d-Kd-9c, which gave Nguyen a pair of kings, but also gave Vayo outs with an eight or queen completing a straight. However, the fourth card (the turn) was a 2s, and the fifth and final card (the river card) was 3h and Vayo did not improve, giving Nguyen a pair of kings and the final pot of the tournament. From an event that began way back on 9 July, 2016 with 6,737 hopefuls who each ponied up the $10,000 entry fee and received 50,000 in starting tournament chips, Nguyen, wearing his trademark Rocket Raccoon hat from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and tinted sunglasses and plenty of bling, used his table image and his gambling lifestyle to perfection. He ultimately outlasted them all, capturing all 336,850,000 chips in play and winning the $8 million first place prize and the Josten's-crafted half-million dollar WSOP gold bracelet. The total prize pool up for grabs in the event was $63,340,268. Nguyen captured the WSOP world championship in the wee hours Wednesday morning at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in the famed Penn & Teller theatre. The event took nearly 44 levels of play to complete, which equates to nearly 88 hours of poker play to reach a victor. In real time though, the event took 10 playing days, plus a few extra hours this morning, spread out over 115 calendar days to become the champion. When play began in July, players started with 50,000 in chips and the blinds were at 75 and 150. When play completed at 3:20 am in Las Vegas with 39 minutes, 58 seconds left in Level 43, blinds were at 1,500,000 and 3,000,000 with antes of 500,000.  The November Nine (photo by Jeff Ragazzo) It then took eight and a half hours of heads-up play before Nguyen was able to finally dispatch of Vayo, the game challenger, who never relented, but was unable to ever overtake Nguyen in chips once heads up play began. Rounding out the final table were: 4th place: Michael Ruane, Hoboken, New Jersey, $2,576,003 5th place: Vojtech Ruzicka, Prague, Czech Republic, $1,935,288 6th place: Kenny Hallaert, Hansbeke, Belgium, $1,464,258 7th place: Griffin Benger, Toronto, Canada, $1,250,190 8th place: Jerry Wong, Coconut Creek, Florida, $1,100,076 9th place: Fernando Pons, Palma, Spain, $1,000,000 Monday's action was carried on a 30-minute delay on ESPN2. Tonight's finale was carried on the flagship ESPN on 30 minute delay. The 2016 WSOP Main Event began on 9 July with a total of 6,737 entrants. The event's total prize pool was $63,340,268, with more than $25 million going to the final nine players. A record total of 1,011 entrants cashed in the event. As has become tradition in recent years, Main Event play was suspended in July when the tournament reached its final nine players. It resumed with the November Nine taking to the felt 113 days later, on Sunday with 32 minutes and 50 seconds remaining in Level 35, with antes of 75,000 and blinds at 250,000 and 500,000. Play lasted 6 hours and 10 minutes in real time on Sunday, but consumed 4 hours, 44 minutes of tournament clock play and led to the elimination of four players. Monday's action started with one hour, 47 minutes and 56 seconds left in Level 38 with blinds at 500,000 and 1,000,000 with a 150,000 ante. Two more players were eliminated on Monday's that spanned 2 hours, 50 minutes of poker play and ended in Level 39 (200,000 antes, with blinds at 600,000 and 1,200,000), with 58 minutes and 29 seconds left in the level. The 2016 WSOP attracted a record 107,844 players from 107 countries to its 69 events, generating a total prize pool of more than $221 million. To view the hand-for-hand recap of the final table play, please visit the WSOP website.
Qui Nguyen wins World Series of Poker Main Event
is republished from Online.CasinoCity.com.
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