Qui Nguyen of Las Vegas wins 2016 World Series of Poker and $8 million
It was 3:20 a.m. today when Las Vegas resident Qui Nguyen, wearing a Marvel Comics “Guardians of the Galaxy” hat, won gaming’s richest and most prestigious event with the top prize of $8,005,310 and his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet. Until now, the 39-year-old from Saigon, Vietnam, had won only $9,029 in a prior WSOP event in 2009. It was an unimaginable achievement.
As the new world champion of poker, Qui took the lead on the first hand of the Final Table on Sunday and rode the momentum through the marathon 47th annual poker session that ended pre-dawn this morning in Penn & Teller Theater at The Rio. Qui was regarded as the least-accomplished player at the November Nine Main Event Final Table.
Qui, a married father of a 4-year old son who once owned a nail salon in Alaska, now regards himself as a professional Las Vegas gambler. He became the second Vietnamese-born world poker champion after Poker Hall of Famer Scotty “The Prince of Poker” Nguyen captured the title at the same event in 1998.
Moments after the victory, the new champion said: “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. I’m so excited. I don’t know what to say.”
Seth Palansky of WSOP said: “Playing an aggressive style, and arguably the least accomplished player at the table coming in, Qui 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 him to capture poker’s ultimate championship. With just $52,986 in lifetime live poker winnings, no one expected him to be the last man standing against an experienced, accomplished Final Table of mostly poker professionals.”
The runner-up was Gordon Vayo, 27, of San Francisco. Recently engaged, Gordon’s run ended after defeating 6,735 other hopefuls, and he went to sleep this morning with $4,661,228 for his efforts. He entered the Final Table in third place.
Gordon commented: “It was a little frustrating at times, but Qui played phenomenal. I didn’t get a lot of hands heads up, but all the credit to Qui, he played great.” Before play began Sunday, the nine finalists spent time riding the world’s tallest observation wheel, the High Roller at The Linq Promenade.
From an event that began July 9 with 6,737 hopefuls who each ponied up the $10,000 entry fee and received 50,000 in starting tournament chips, Qui wore his trademark Rocket Raccoon hat from “Guardians of the Galaxy,” tinted sunglasses and plenty of bling. He outlasted them all, capturing all 336,850,000 chips in play and winning the $8.005 million first-place prize and Jostens-crafted $500,000 WSOP gold bracelet.
Three-handed play began at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and lasted 80 minutes before Cliff Josephy, chip leader entering WSOP, was eliminated. The 50-year-old former Wall Street banker was the only one at the Final Table with WSOP victories, and he earned a payday of $3,453,035, his largest live poker tournament cash win, taking his total to nearly $6 million in earnings.
From there it was a head-to-head showdown for the two finalists, 8 1/2 hours of heads-up play before Qui defeated Gordon to claim the ultimate prize and title. Qui was the only Las Vegas resident at the Final Table. The finale was broadcast on ESPN on 30-minute delay.
Final stats: The event’s total prize pool was $63,340,268, with more than $25 million going to The November Nine. A record total of 1,011 entrants cashed in during the event. 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.
Our thanks to Seth, vice president of WSOP corporate communications, for his contributions to this report.
