Could Men Be the Master of L.A. Poker?
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’.
donkey says:
August 11th, 2008 at 9:18pm
You may find this entertaining or somewhat amusing, but it’s not coincidental that this husband/wife team is doing well. And it’s not because they are the best poker players. In the Vietnamese community, there are people (not them) who have unbelievable psychic abilities. I’m not talking about the ones you go see in some broken down shack for $20. These people only work through referrals only, and they can touch you and see your past, present and future (I mean “tomorrow future”)..I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Vietnamese are very spiritual people, and they rely on these psychics to predict exactly when and where they will have success or failure. That’s why they are so “lucky”, they always seem to win at the right time. I can elaborate on what I’ve seen, but if you are there, your mouth would drop the whole time.
shronk says:
August 11th, 2008 at 9:43pm
Certain gifted Lithuanians can fly.
BJ Nemeth says:
August 11th, 2008 at 10:25pm
I thought Donkey was going to make an allegation of cheating. But an allegation of psychic powers helping poker players? Really?
You got one thing correct, when you called their psychic abilities “unbelievable.” I don’t believe in them. (If someone really had supernatural powers, why would they waste them on poker? Why not become a Nobel Prize-winning superhero?)
One correction to this post: The WPT Invitational isn’t an open event, it’s a *mixed* event. If it were an open event, anyone who paid could play, rather than being an invitation-only affair. Van Nguyen is the first woman to win a mixed WPT event, but there will still be a separate record if and when a woman wins a truly open WPT event. (While the WPT Invitational is mixed, it does feature a much higher-than-normal percentage of female players.)
Men Nguyen plays a ton of the smaller buy-in events, which is one of the reasons that he has so many Card Player POY awards. (Personally, I think they award too many points to smaller events against weaker competition.) Regardless of that, you’re 100% correct when you say that the Nguyen family is on an incredible run in 2008.
California Jen says:
August 12th, 2008 at 12:22am
Donkey:
I see some very strange responses to your comment in the future.
Shronk:
I know.
BJ:
Post amended. Thanks. And yeah, I was hoping someone would bring up the cheating allegations to keep me from doing it. 😉
Joey says:
August 12th, 2008 at 2:31am
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Champ says:
August 12th, 2008 at 12:30pm
Chip dumping, colluding, staking agreements (side stepping), positioning, signaling, marking, and don’t forget….HE’S FUCKING PSYCHIC!
It goes back to the “fire alarm incident” (at the commerce?)
It goes back Daniel Negreanu’s aligations on NVG (Rec Poker) circa 2004.
It continues onto Justin Bonomo’s (of all people) alligations.
Phucking Phsychic!
change100 says:
August 13th, 2008 at 9:36am
Yup, as long as his horses keep folding to his bets and keep passing him chips at the breaks… well, you know.
donkey says:
August 13th, 2008 at 4:48pm
“there are people (not them)”
Chump, you stupid Tard, I wasn’t saying that they are psychics. It’s no point explaining to an idiot, but I was implying that they have someone that they go see, kinda like a Muse. And it doesn’t matter that you don’t believe. I was just pointing out that they have more unusual good luck than most people,and I don’t think it’s a coincident.
Oliver Tse says:
September 5th, 2008 at 11:15am
BJ:
The WPT Invitational is actually an “open” event (of sorts) for poker players because anyone who pays the $25,500 buy-in to play the WPT Championship by the time the WPT Invitational will get a seat to the WPT Invitational as a bonus.
The “invitational” in WPT Invitational refers to those celebrity players who did NOT have to pay $25,500 buy-in to play the WPT Championship.