Qui Nguyen takes control at World Series of Poker Main Event final table

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Oct. 31, 2016 | 1:20 a.m.

Qui Nguyen came into the World Series of Poker Main Event final table Sunday at the Penn & Teller Theater at Rio as the least heralded out of the nine remaining players.

He’s on pace to walk out on Tuesday as the most accomplished card player of the year, and with an $8 million check in tow. Nguyen used aggression to build a chip stack more than twice as large as anyone else at the table as the field trimmed to five players in the first day of action since this summer in poker’s world championship.

The 39-year-old local professional gambler will return to 128.6 million chips at 5 p.m. today for the second round of the “November Nine,” where the final three players will emerge before Tuesday’s finale.

“I’m just thinking in my mind, ‘I’ll play the way I am. It doesn’t matter what happens,’” Nguyen said.

The carefree style has guided Nguyen to an astonishing rise, as he’s now added around 124 million chips over the last two days of play in the $10,000 buy-in tournament that started with 6,737 entrants.

Nearly half of his chip total came from a pair of Sunday’s final 15 hands, which produced the two largest pots of the tournament. On the final and biggest hand, Belgium professional Kenny Hallaert committed all of his 36.5 million chips with Ace-Queen suited.

Nguyen woke up with the best starting hand in no-limit hold’em, pocket Aces, and his advantage held for the elimination once the community cards were dealt. Like many well-known pros who make the final table, Hallaert employed a cadre of coaches to prepare for the November Nine, including the world’s top-ranked player, Fedor Holz.

Nguyen took a different approach during the four-month hiatus, telling the ESPN cameras he got ready by going out on his boat and fishing.

“I don’t do nothing,” Nguyen said. “I’m with my family, drinking and I still gambled a little bit.”

Nguyen showed up at the Rio ready to gamble Sunday. He entered in second place but took the lead on the first hand.

Nguyen raised with relatively weak hole cards, Ace-4 offsuit, to prompt a bluff re-raise from chip leader Cliff Josephy, who had Queen-9 offsuit. Instead of surrendering, Nguyen put in a four-bet to force Josephy to fold.

“It’s simple: Everyone outplays each other once in a while,” Josephy said. “I got outplayed. Good for him.”

Nguyen held the chip lead for 60 hands before briefly ceding it to Vojtech Ruzicka, a 30-year-old professional from Prague. Ruzicka was as active as Nguyen for stretches and knocked out Jerry Wong in eighth place with pocket Queens against pocket Jacks.

Toronto pro Griffin Benger was the next to go, losing with Ace-9 to San Francisco pro Gordon Vayo’s pocket 10s, and declared Ruzicka the favorite on his way out.

“He’s a really strong player and I expect him to put a lot of pressure on the other players,” Benger said. “Qui is obviously a wild card, and it will be fun to see those two battle it out.”

But Ruzicka and Nguyen mostly stayed out of each other’s way through Sunday’s 97 hands of play. Ruzicka lost the chip lead when he bluffed into Vayo, who was holding a flush, during the late part of the six-hour session.

For at least the first day, Nguyen was the only player with the combination of impeccable timing on his moves and good luck by consistently picking up big hands. It remains to be seen if it’s sustainable.

Nguyen won’t worry either way.

“It’s your day or it’s not your day,” Nguyen said. “There’s nothing I can do...It doesn’t matter. If the cards come, they come. If not, I can do nothing.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.