Poker is such an interesting game to play and watch! It’s a game that has a beautiful habit of culminating in exciting, dramatic and nerve wracking moments. The WSOP 2016 was filled with plenty of these events, including one notable moment between Griffin Benger and William Kassouf. The final will also go down as one of the longest, in the WSOP history, as well as the most prestigious event tournament series.
Quick Overview of the WSOP 2016
The event opened its doors on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This something for everyone competition included 69 gold bracelets events, attracted more than 100,000 players from across the world, and a total prize pool of $221,211,336.
There were also three daily deep stack competitions which took place within 50 days after commencing to take the finals to Monday, July 18, 2016.
Buy-ins for the WSOP 2016 tournament started from as low as $75, with all the cash games starting on May 31, running for 24 hrs a day for the seven-week duration. There also more than 500 poker tables reserved for this event in the 100,000 square feet ballroom.
Qui Nguyen emerged victorious in the WSOP 2016 final event after a taxing 182 hand heads up battle with Gordon Vayo, which begun on spilt over into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Cliff Josephy finished third, claiming the $3,500,000 third place prize.
Qui Nguyen holding his golden bracelet after the WSOP 2016
In fact, the event was all about Qui Nguyen’s battle with Gordon Vayo in an entertaining final table clash. According to the associate press, the final match between these two was the longest in the WSOP history.
With victory eluding the former nail salon owner on a number of times, he finally prevailed in on the 364th hand to become the 47th winner of the event.
Facts and Figures
Dates: May 31, 2016, through July 18, 2016
Location: The Penn and Teller Theatre, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada
Total Number of participants: 107,833
Buy-In: $10,000
Total Net Prize Pool: $ 221,211,336
Top Prize: $8,000,000
WSOP Gold Bracelet Events: 69
Countries Represented: 107
Number of male participants: 102,311 (94.87%)
Number of female participants: 5,522 (5.12%)
Players with gold bracelet winners: 3 - Benny Glaser, Ian Johns, and Jason Mercier
The November Nine – WSOP 2016
We’ve ranked the players in order of most chips to the least as they went into the final table, based on how they’d performed in the WSOP 2016.
|
Name |
Age |
Country |
Table Seat |
WSOP Bracelets |
Chips |
|
Cliff Josephy |
50 |
USA |
5 |
2 |
74,600,000 |
|
Qui Nguyen |
39 |
Vietnam |
4 |
0 |
67,295,000 |
|
Gordon Vayo |
27 |
USA |
7 |
0 |
49,375,000 |
|
Kenny Hallaert |
34 |
Germany |
8 |
0 |
43,325,000 |
|
Michael Ruane |
28 |
USA |
6 |
0 |
31,600,000 |
|
Vojtech Ruzicka |
30 |
Czech Republic |
2 |
0 |
27,300,000 |
|
Griffin Benger |
31 |
Canada |
1 |
0 |
26,175,000 |
|
Jerry Wong |
34 |
USA |
9 |
0 |
10,175,000 |
|
Fernando Pons |
37 |
Spain |
3 |
0 |
6,150,000 |
Generally, the odds of winning the golden bracelet begin with a base of the percentage of the number of chips in play every player has.
Qui Nguyen wins $8 Million with a crazy stupid bluff!
As mentioned earlier, the winner of the day was Qui Nguyen, who managed to walk away with the astounding $8 million prize money and the golden bracelet, but not without leaving a remarkable moment that will forever be discussed in poker history.
Here’s a brief summary of what happened between the two finalist - Qui Nguyen and Gordon Vayo.
• Qui Nguyen is a native Vietnamese, who owned a nail shop. He beat professional Gordon Vayo with a pair of kings at the WSOP 2016 final
• The two finalists played for almost nine hours head up session that involved 200 hands. This is the longest in the tournament history
• In addition to the $8,005,310 won, he also walked away with a $50,000 gold bracelet that is encrusted in 2,000 diamonds and rubies
Heading into the final showdown, Nguyen was leading Gordon by about 100 million ships. Gordon drew Queen-9 then landed an incredible flop of 9-4-2. With that, he knew he was in a better position to win the game, and 82% chance to be more exact and checked hoping that he would draw more cash from his opponent.
Qui Nguyen
When you are in the position that Gordon was in, drawing Nguyen into betting when you have a very strong pair is the best move. Not sure what Gordon had, Nguyen fall for the trap and threw in some 9.7 million chips.
Gordon then called the bet, and when a 10 showed up on the turn, his chances of winning the hand shot to a massive 93%. He checked once again, putting the ball back in Nguyen’s court.
Gordon Vayo
Knowing that he had a weaker hand as compared to Gordon’s, Nguyen started bluffing – bluffing real hard! He threw an additional 27.7 million chips in a bid to scare Gordon into backing off, which however didn’t work as he held firm to his ground and called again. At this point, the value of the pot was 89 million, and there was only one more round of betting.
On the next round, a five fell on the river, increasing Gordon’s chances of winning to 100%. He’d also managed to draw a large amount of money from Nguyen until… well, Nguyen decided to do the unthinkable… Going All in with 0% chances of winning.
This incredible bluff spikes the pot to a whopping $162.3 million chips, leaving Gordon in total disarray! It was clear from the video below as well as the image captured above. After spending minutes thinking, he decides to fold.
Nguyen’s aggression turned the odds round to favour and help him win the gigantic $8,000,000 top prize. It also helped him secure a name for himself as the WSOP all time bluffer!
‘I am out of words gentlemen! This is poker at its best. It’s the exciting match I’ve ever seen in my life’. You can watch the full video here.
