Men “The Master” Nguyen is a poker god – just ask him (we do). In this interview with the seven time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, we ask Nguyen about his status as one of the elite all time poker players in the game’s history. We also discuss him winning the $10,000 Stud World Championship at this year’s WSOP, where he faced as tough a final table as arguably had been ever assembled.
When interviewer Sean Gibson asked him about the relationship he has with other Vietnamese players, Nguyen responded, “Yes I have a good relationship with all of the Vietnamese poker players, because they look up to me like a Poker God. So, I teach a lot of people to become what they want to become.”
Nguyen is an inspirational story, as a young man who hated communism, he escaped Vietnam by boat to Malaysia. He received political asylum from the United States and lived in Los Angeles. In 1986 he became a citizen and two years earlier to that made his first trip out to Las Vegas and played poker for the first time in his life. He went every weekend and lost hundreds of dollars each trip but eventually mastered the game and won his first tournament in 1987. With his poker winnings he opened a dry cleaning business and furniture store, eventually selling them in 1990 to free up some personal time.
Nicknamed “The Master”, Men Nguyen won Card Player’s Player of the Year award in 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2005. His live tournament winnings exceed $9,700,000 with seven WSOP bracelets to his credit. He also has four final table finishes on the World Poker Tour but has yet to win a title there. He has an impressive 70 in the money finishes at the WSOP and his best WSOP Main Event showing was in 1996 when he finished in fourth place.