Qui Nguyen has become the latest WSOP Main Event Champion after a grueling heads-up battle against Gordon Vayo that lasted for more than eight hours. Nguyen received $8,005,310 in prize money and a special WSOP gold bracelet, crafted by Jostens for this year’s Main Event winner.
The $10,000 Championship’s final table kicked off on Sunday with former gold bracelet winner Cliff Josephy as the chip leader. Nguyen was second in chips at that point. The player’s aggressive style quickly gained him the chip lead and he relinquished it only for very short periods of time over the past three days of final-table play.
Four players were eliminated on Sunday and two more hit the rail on Monday. Thus, Nguyen, Vayo, and Josephy were the only three players left to contend for the title on Tuesday. The eventual winner held the greater part of the chips in play when cards were thrown in the air at 5:30 pm local time at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.
It took about eighty minutes of play before Josephy was eliminated in 3rd place for a nice payout of $3,453,035. And that was when the most exciting part of the tournament began. The initial Main Event field of 6,737 entries was whittled down to just two players – Nguyen and Vayo. Two-handed play actually commenced with Vayo holding almost two times more chips than his last remaining opponent. And many would have suggested that he would win the world’s most prestigious poker tournament, given the fact that his poker portfolio was way more impressive than Nguyen’s.
However, the eventual champion recovered from his uncomfortable position, challenging his opponent with dangerous moves. Nguyen’s aggressive style did him good, more than good, actually, as it made him $8 million richer.
As befits an event of this kind, the 2016 WSOP Main Event’s two-handed match was packed with action and continued for hours with none of the two remaining survivors willing to give up on the title easily. The final hand was eventually played around 3 am on Wednesday with Vayo moving all in after a raise from Nguyen.
The soon-to-become champion called. Vayo tabled [Js][10s] and Nguyen showed [Kc][10c]. The board ran out [Kd][9c][7d][2s][3h], securing Nguyen with a winning pair. Although Vayo missed the chance to be crowned the 2016 WSOP Main Event Champion, the player received a not bad consolation prize of $4,661,228.
The $10,000 Championship marked the end of the 2016 WSOP festival. This year’s edition of the series featured 69 events, attracted a record number of 107,844 players from different parts of the world, and distributed more than $221 million in prize money. As for the Main Event itself, it drew a field of 6,737 entries to create a prize pool of $63,340,268.
Here are the tournament’s nine finalists and their respective payouts:
1. Qui Nguyen – $8,005,310
2. Gordon Vayo – $4,661,228
3. Cliff Josephy – $3,453,035
4. Michael Ruane – $2,576,003
5. Vojtěch Růžička – $1,935,288
6. Kenny Hallaert – $1,464,258
7. Griffin Benger – $1,250,190
8. Jerry Wong – $1,100,076
9. Fernando Pons – $1,000,000
