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Poker Tournament Results
Legends of Poker - WPT Season 4
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Men Nguyen |
| 1 |
Men "The Master" Nguyen (Bell Gardens, CA, USA) |
$42,555 |
| 2 |
Craig Berger (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$21,035 |
| 3 |
Raffi Soulian (Glendale, CA, USA) |
$10,030 |
| 4 |
John Chow (Temple City, CA, USA) |
$6,265 |
| 5 |
Peter Lee (Northridge, CA, USA) |
$4,865 |
| 6 |
Alfredo De (Los Santos, CA, USA) |
$3,650 |
| 7 |
Jerry Simon (Temecula, CA, USA) |
$3,040 |
| 8 |
Daniel Auzenne (San Dimas, CA, USA) |
$2,430 |
| 9 |
Marco Arevalo (Downey, CA, USA) |
$1,825 |
| 10 |
Nghi Thong (Alamsa, CO, USA) |
$1,340 |
| 11 |
Tam Luu (Anaheim, CA, USA) |
$1,340 |
| 12 |
Jeff Martinez (Chandler, AZ, USA) |
$1,340 |
| 13 |
Edwin Jacinto (POMONA, CA, USA) |
$970 |
| 14 |
Sabatino Maniente (USA) |
$970 |
| 15 |
Ron Maman (USA) |
$970 |
| 16 |
Paul Javier (Compton, CA, USA) |
$850 |
| 17 |
Edward Sloman (USA) |
$859 |
| 18 |
Chi Gia Phan (Arcadia, CA, USA) |
$850 |
| 19 |
Harvey Goldson (Long Beach, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 20 |
Pejman Levian (Encino, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 21 |
Bill Diep (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 22 |
Raymond Davis AKA "The Amazing" (Bell, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 23 |
Steve Sanborn (Whitter, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 24 |
David Herrura (Northridge, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 25 |
David Richmond (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 26 |
Robert Sanchez (Norwalk, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 27 |
Duoc Nguyen (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$595 |
| 28 |
Henry So (Oxnard, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 29 |
Ted Nguyen (Alhambra, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 30 |
Oswaldo Villegas (Ventura, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 31 |
Todd Igen (Eliso Veijo, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 32 |
Tomm Want (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 33 |
Kenneth Gibson (Palm Springs, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 34 |
Le Kim Banh (Long Beach, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 35 |
Sayed Kadri (Diamond Bar, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 36 |
James Goldstein (Hidden Hills, CA, USA) |
$425 |
| 37 |
George Webb (Moorpark, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 38 |
Minh Kha (Rosemead, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 39 |
Eugene Tito AKA "The Machine" (Glendale, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 40 |
Matthew Kursar (Long Beach, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 41 |
Jan Somchub (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 42 |
Steven Sklauer (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 43 |
Jerry McWorter (Ventura, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 44 |
Vic Martirosia (Glendale, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 45 |
Joyce Zhou (El Monte, CA, USA) |
$305 |
| 46 |
Long Tran (Truckee, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 47 |
Lamprecht Alios (Torrance, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 48 |
Kristyl Horton (Antioc, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 49 |
Bruce Rodgers (Upland, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 50 |
Ivan Suen (La Puente, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 51 |
Mellisa Nguyen (West Minster, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 52 |
Raymond To (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 53 |
Gary Hatfield AKA "G-Money" (Grand Bay, AL, USA) |
$250 |
| 54 |
Tony Duong (Rosemead, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 55 |
Jim Schmidt (Spokane, WA, USA) |
$250 |
| 56 |
Unknown |
$250 |
| 57 |
Tony N (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 58 |
Edward Vartanian (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 59 |
Steve Magulies (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 60 |
Jaleh Sarabi (Tarzana, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 61 |
Johnny Johnson (Burbank, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 62 |
Moises Lopez (Sylmar, CA, USA) |
$250 |
| 63 |
Dominic Terreri (Sacramento, CA, USA) |
$250 |
Tournament Report
Men Wins to Break Drought
The legendary Men 'The Master' Nguyen returned to the winner's circle after a year's dry spell when he took down the first event of Legends of Poker 2005, $200 no-limit hold'em, after a 17-hand heads-up, lead-changing match with chess teacher/screenwriter Craig Berger. Nguyen had missed a chance to take a big lead in three-way action when he laid down the best hand, but made up for it with his usual adroit play, and also got lucky in two key hands.
Final table opening blinds were $3,000-$6,000 with $1,000 antes, 24:58 remaining. Three players were very close in chips: Raffi Soualian, $69,500; Berger, $65,500; Nguyen, $65,000. On the second deal. Berger opened for $15,000 holding 9-8. Nghi Thong called all in with A-K. Marco Arevalo, a floorman, also called. The board came 9-4-3-6-Q, Berger's paired 9 held up, and Thong finished 10th. A deal was made for the bulk of the prize money, and play continued.
On the next hand, Arevalo moved in for $11,000. Daniel Auzenne, an insurance agent, called. Then Soualian, a business owner, raised and Auzenne called all in. The board came 8-8-7-4-J with four spades. Arrualo had 10-9 for a straight, Auzenne had Ks-Jh for a number two flush while Soualian, with pocket aces, had the nut flush. Auzenne, finished eighth, Arrualo ninth. Three hands later, retired Air Force colonel Jerry Simon moved in for $30,000 with A-Q. Berger called with 7-7, made a straight, and Simon cashed seventh.
The fifth player exited on hand seven. Alfredo de Los Santos bet all in for $39,000. Nguyen called, but then mucked pocket 8s after Soualian moved in for $143,500. Much to the master's chagrin, de Los Santos turned up A-10 while Berger showed A-J. Nguyen, calling himself 'chicken,' felt worse when the board missed both players. De Los Santos finished sixth while Berger took the lead with about $195,000 of the $497,000 in play.
With blinds at $4,000-$8,000 with $1,500 antes, Nguyen outdrew Peter Lee to leave him in fifth place. Nguyen raised $15,000 with K-J, called when Lee moved in for about $50,000 with pocket queens, and then flopped a king.
At the next break, Berger and Soualian were both in the 175k range, while Nguyen had 98k and John Chow 41k. With blinds at $6,000-$12,000 with $2,000 antes, Chow, a CPA, went broke. He moved in from the big blind with 8d-7d. Soualian had J-4 and hit a jack. Soualian was now the leader, but lost most of his chips to Berger two hands later when he had 10-4 and bet $20,000 into a flop of 10-9-5. Berger, with Q-10, made a straight. Chips moved around some more when Nguyen doubled through with just jack-high when Berger missed his open-end straight draw.
Nguyen took the lead on hand 49. 'Just what I waited for,' he said, when he called Soualian's all-in bet with Qh-10h. Soulian had way the best of it with Ah-9h, but Nguyen then caught two 10s to leave him in third place and get heads up with about 310k to 185k for Berger.
Berger got the lead back when he raised all in and Nguyen folded after betting into a flop of K-3-2. With blinds of $8,000-$16,000, Berger now led about 330k to 170k. But then Nguyen picked up chips in a couple of hands, once when he picked off a river bluff.
Finally, Berger was down to with $13,000 when he had 10-5, bet $50,000 into a board of Q-10-4 and Nguyen moved in with Q-7. Nguyen then scooped up the last chips by calling blind on the next hand. He had 10-8 and hit two more 8s. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Men 'The Master' Nguyen, a boat person escapee from Vietnam who formerly owned a dry cleaning business, has one of the most impressive resumes in the business. His clutch of titles includes six World Series bracelets in five different games: stud hi-lo, Omaha hi-lo, ace-to-five triple draw, limit hold'em and 7-card stud. He has three 'Player of the Year' titles from Card Player magazine and three auto-winning best all-arounds at the Bicycle Casino.
He said he tried very hard to win this event to end his dry spell. On top of his winless 12 months, he had a disappointing World Series. While he had six cashes for $86,000, he put in over $100,000. 'Tonight,' he said, 'I played my best game ever.' He said he played very conservatively and managed to hang onto his chips. And while he was the only pro at the table, he still had a lot of respect for his opponents.
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Tue, Nov 17, 2009 - 12:00am CST
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