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. Former nail salon owner and failed professional baccarat player Qui Nguyen won the World Series of Poker Main Event early Wednesday morning in Las Vegas, claiming the top prize of $8,005,310 and a gold bracelet after a nine-hour heads-up session that was the longest in tournament history. 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. Wearing a raccoon baseball cap throughout the final table, the 39-year-old Nguyen eliminated San Francisco poker pro Gordon Vayo on the 364th hand of the final table — almost 200 hands with just the two of them at the felt with the first place prize money splayed between them in giant bricks of $100 bills. He doubled up short stack Cliff Josephy on the first hand of play Tuesday, and then Vayo won most of those chips in a pot worth more than 200 million (out of 336.6 million total chips in play) with three-of-a-kind threes against three-of-a-kind deuces. Vayo was able to rally to within about 30 million chips, but Nguyen continued to grind away at Vayo’s stack with aggressive bets that didn’t allow Vayo to see many hands played all the way through.
Qui Nguyen wins the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas, Nevada.