August 11, 2008
Pardon the groaner title, but hear me out.
Men “The Master” Nguyen is on a roll of sorts. In the event mentioned below, Men took first place and the $65,700 top prize. He cashed in Event #2 of the Legends of Poker series on July 31st, then took down Event #13 on August 10th. Keep in mind that the year is but a little more than half over, and he already has $767,949 in 2008 tournament winnings thus far. A few other accomplishments earlier this year include:
• Two cashes at the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica, including a prelim event win
• Three WPT cashes, including a final table that resulted in a 3rd place cash for $241,193
• Six cashes at the L.A. Poker Classic, including three victories in prelim events
• Five WSOP cashes
He is seriously dominating local L.A. poker in 2008 and doing well in general, and he still has time to add more accomplishments to the list. And consider this: His brother and wife are becoming forces to be reckoned with on the tournament circuit. Ut Nguyen won an L.A. Poker Classic prelim earlier this year, along with other cashes. Van Nguyen has had even more success, as she became the first woman to win a WPT mixed event at the WPT Celebrity Invitational in March. She took $125,500 for that victory, then went on to final table the WPT Ladies Championship the next month. And her WSOP included four cashes, netting more than her husband overall and finishing much better than him in the main event. In total, she has made $226,083 in 2008 so far.
I have a feeling this is going to be a sick year for Men and his family of players. The Nguyens are players to watch…is all I’m sayin’.
March 4, 2008
Van Nguyen - Courtesy of PokerPages
Though the Wicked Chops guys might say the world is coming to an end, I beg to differ.
A woman won the WPT Invitational last night! Van Nguyen, wife of Men “The Master” Nguyen, made it to the final table as the only woman left, and she took it down. Men and other friends, like Young Phan, were in the audience rooting her on. She won $125,000 and a seat into the WPT World Championship in April.
While it wasn’t a normal open event - it was an invitational freeroll - she still got through a field of 445 players. Not too shabby!
There were four women going into the final table of ten players, but they were eliminated before the TV table was set.
All I can hope is that she didn’t use her husband’s line, “All you can eat, baby!” during the tournament. It takes on an entirely different meaning when a woman says it.
Details of the sloooooooow final table were documented by the WPT Live Updates team.
March 2, 2008
Mekhi Phifer - Courtesy of PokerListings.com
The WPT Invitational got underway yesterday with a 5pm reception. Open bars, free buffet, dj spinning some tunes, celebs excited to meet poker pros, poker pros excited to meet celebs, media enjoying the food and drink…
It was quite fun and not the normal introduction to a poker tournament. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere and the company. And when players took their seats at 7pm for the freeroll tourney, the fun continued. While most people wouldn’t mind doing well and taking home their share of the $200k prize pool, it was predominantly a room full of drunks not-too-serious poker playing.
Within the first few hours, my personal fav Mekhi Phifer was eliminated AND didn’t say goodbye to me, so the night was pretty much over. Some other stuff probably happened, but you’ll have to check WPT Live Updates, PokerPages, or PokerListings for actual results.
Day 2 begins today at 2pm with only 112 remaining players out of the original 400-420-somewhere in that range.
