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Written by Stefan | Monday, August 9th, 2010
Short-stacked in eighth place is Soi Nguyen, the amateur and oldest at the final table at 37 years old. With the least amount of experience of all the November Nine contenders, Nguyen has a lot to prove if he’s going to come up once play commences. Playing his fourth live event ever, he’ll start the final table of the 2010 WSOP Main Event with 9.65 million chips.
Just because he has little experience in live tournament poker though, doesn’t mean he hasn’t wanted this for years like so many other amateur poker players. He says, “I’ve always wanted to play in the main event. Ever since I saw Chris Moneymaker play in the main event, I said, ‘I’m going to give it a shot one day.’
“I talked to my boss and told him I was going to take some time off and try it, just so I could look back and say, ‘At least I played in it once.’”
Now his dream is reality and he’s come very far very fast, proving he’s got some luck in his cards.
“My background in poker is very limited. I’ve gone to play poker maybe five or six times in the last three years. That’s how little experience I have in this game. I have only played in a couple tournaments before,” says Nguyen, head of the authorization billing department at a medical supply company.
But in the world of poker, none of this seems to matter. A pro football player could never make it to the Super Bowl having only played football a few times. That’s what makes poker any man’s (or woman’s) sport, and although some people have criticized the institution of the WSOP as going too commercial by allowing players like Nguyen to get through the stacks, but they’re just haters.
Nguyen may in fact know a little more about poker than most might suspect, as he’s actually good friends with poker pros Nam and Tommy Le. He also has Tuan Le and Chino Rheem on the rail rooting for him.
“I have a couple friends who play professional poker, and I’ve known them as a kid. We played poker as kids, but nothing serious,” he says.
To date, his biggest cash has been at the LAPC poker tournament in which he placed 69th and cashed almost $2,000.
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Written by Stefan · Filed Under news · |
