{"id":41495,"date":"2016-11-02T09:01:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T16:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=41495"},"modified":"2016-11-02T15:30:15","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T22:30:15","slug":"world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/","title":{"rendered":"World Series of Poker 2016 Main Event Sees Qui Nguyen Sweep Top Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas resident Qui Nguyen won the World Series of Poker Main Event<\/a> at the Rio in Las Vegas in the early hours of Wednesday morning, following a grueling eight-hour heads-up battle against Gordon Vayo.<\/p>\n

\"World
Qui Nguyen is the new Scotty Nguyen: the 39-year-old former nail salon owner is the 47th World Series of Poker Champion, and not related to his namesake and the 1998 WSOP Main Event winner. (Image: AP Photo\/John Locher)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nguyen proved himself to be a gutsy passionate player, whose flamboyant dress sense is reminiscent of that other Vietnamese-American poker world champion, Scotty Nguyen. But in contrast to his famous namesake, Qui Nguyen was a relative unknown before his triumph at the Penn and Teller Theater this morning.<\/p>\n

A former nail salon owner turned professional baccarat player, he has only one previous cash in a World Series event, in 2009, for just over $9,000. Prior to the $\u00a08,005,310 he won this morning, it was also his biggest cash.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Josephy\u2019s Rollercoaster<\/h2>\n

Three players returned from Monday to play Tuesday evening’s final, with Nguyen holding the chip lead and Cliff Josephy, the most experienced of the three, nursing the short-stack. The fireworks started early when Josephy doubled through Nyguen to leapfrog Vayo into second place.<\/p>\n

\n

But just four hands later, Josephy ran his lower set into Vayo\u2019s top set (deuces vs threes), a brutal cooler that crippled his stack. Two double-ups later, and Josephy was miraculously again in contention, before losing a chunk of chips to Nguyen. Vayo quickly finished him off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Play had lasted barely an hour and it had been a rollercoaster ride for Josephy, but if anyone thought it was an indication that this would be a quick final, they were wrong.<\/p>\n

Lengthy Poker Duel<\/h2>\n

When Nguyen and Vayo squared off for heads up, Vayo had the slight chip lead, with around 60 percent of the chips, but there was still a lot of play in those stacks, as we were to discover. The action was cagey, a war of attrition, and Vayo, in particular, played with a cautiousness that befitted his sensible haircut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just telling myself, \u2018Don\u2019t give up. Don\u2019t give up.\u2019 I was so tired, you know?\u201d said an emotional Nguyen afterwards. \u201cBut I was saying don\u2019t give up. For my family . . . for my wife, my dad, my sister, everybody who supported me . . .Don\u2019t make a misstep. When you misstep, you\u2019re done. I just wanted to do the best I can for the show . . . I wasn\u2019t thinking about win or lose, I was just, in my mind, thinking no misstep.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nguyen’s adrenaline-addled exhaustion was evident as he struggled to find the right words in his heavily accented and broken English.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Age of Poker\u201d<\/h2>\n

Hours later, on the 364th hand of the final table, Vayo shoved his short-stack over Nguyen\u2019s button raise holding J\u2660T\u2660, and his opponent, holding K\u2663T\u2663, made the call. A flop of K-8-7 gave Vayo\u2019s dominated hand a double gutshot\u2019s hope, but two turn and river blanks later, the house erupted.<\/p>\n

A representative for the exhausted Nguyen said that a portion of the winnings would be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project for veteran servicemen and women, as a thank you for those who protect him and his adopted country.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to represent poker to take poker to another level, kind of like the Moneymaker Effect,\u201d said the representative. \u201cWe believe it\u2019s time for the new age of poker.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas resident Qui Nguyen won the World Series of Poker Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas in the early hours of Wednesday morning, following a grueling eight-hour heads-up battle against Gordon Vayo. Nguyen proved himself to be a gutsy passionate player, whose flamboyant dress sense is reminiscent of that other Vietnamese-American poker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":41537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,18,14],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWorld Series of Poker 2016 Main Event Sees Qui Nguyen Win<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Qui Nguyen is the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event World Champion, after a greuling heads up match at the Rio in Las Vegas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World Series of Poker 2016 Main Event Sees Qui Nguyen Win\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Qui Nguyen is the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event World Champion, after a greuling heads up match at the Rio in Las Vegas.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-02T16:01:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-02T22:30:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Qui-Nguyen-takes-down-WSOP-2016-Main-Event.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/\",\"name\":\"World Series of Poker 2016 Main Event Sees Qui Nguyen Win\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Qui-Nguyen-takes-down-WSOP-2016-Main-Event.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-02T16:01:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-02T22:30:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Qui Nguyen is the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event World Champion, after a greuling heads up match at the Rio in Las Vegas.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/world-series-of-poker-2016-main-event-sees-qui-nguyen-win\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Qui-Nguyen-takes-down-WSOP-2016-Main-Event.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Qui-Nguyen-takes-down-WSOP-2016-Main-Event.jpeg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":360,\"caption\":\"Qui Nguyen is the new Scotty Nguyen: the 39-year-old former nail salon owner is the 47th World Series of Poker Champion, and not related to his namesake and the 1998 WSOP Main Event winner. 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