World Series of Poker November Nine profile: Soi Nguyen

In this series I will take a look at the backgrounds and resumes’ of the nine poker players who managed to weave their way through, and outlast 7,310 opponents, and make it to the final table of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The final table for the 2010 WSOP will reconvene on November 9^th  where the remaining nine players will play down to just two, who will then return the following day, November 10^th, to declare the 2010 WSOP Champion.

The nine remaining players are:

1. Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000 chips
2. John Dolan - 46,250,000 chips
3. Joseph Cheong - 23,525,000 chips
4. John Racener - 19,050,000 chips
5. Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000 chips
6. Filippo Candio - 16,400,000 chips
7. Mike Mizrachi - 14,450,000 chips
8. Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000 chips
9. Jason Senti - 7,625,000 chips

Now it’s time to look at the only true amateur poker player at the final table, Soi Nguyen, who currently works for a medical supply company -or more likely; used to work for a medical supply company! The 37 year-old admits to playing poker only five or six times over the past three years! This has to make him the least experienced poker player to ever find his way to the WSOP Main Event Final Table.

Nguyen not only has the right last-name for a poker player, but is also a longtime friend of some of poker’s top players, having grown up with Nam and Tommy Le, in addition to being friends with Chino Rheem and Tuan Le. I’m sure he’ll be getting a lot of pointers from that group in the run-up to the Final Table in November.

For his career Nguyen has only one other cash, a $1,980 score at the LA Poker Classic in a $330 buy-in tournament; Nguyen finished in 69^th place in the tournament which took place in January 2010, and is now playing for millions at the World Series of Poker final table!

Nguyen will likely be wearing the patch of a lesser Poker Room come the final table -similar to Antoine Saout donning the Everest Poker logo last year-considering his complete lack of experience and low chip-count. He wore the Full Tilt Poker logo during the Main Event thus far, but with online poker rooms limited to three sponsored players it’s unlikely Nguyen will make the PokerStars or Full Tilt cut. Although, in hindsight Saout was a major win for Everest Poker last year, lasting well into the final table despite a low chip-count and general lack of experience -in fact many feel he played the best poker at the final table– so perhaps Soi Nguyen can pull off a similar performance this time around.