Early Wednesday morning, the 2016 World Series of Poker Championship Event concluded, crowning a new World Champion. Qui Nguyen dominated (or Gordon Vayo gave up, depending on your viewpoint) en route to the championship, keeping all his opponents off balance with his moves on the felt and boggling the mind of even three-time WSOP bracelet winner Antonio Esfandiari, who was offering commentary from the ESPN broadcast booth, as to what actions he would take. We’ll look at how Nguyen will be as the newly crowned champion later this week, but for now let’s review the Crystal Ball’s selections as to the finishing order…a preliminary look indicates that the Ball has some explaining to do!
Ninth – Fernando Pons and Eighth – Jerry Wong (8th) – Predicted eighth and ninth
These two picks were arguably the easiest for the Crystal Ball to make when it came to the “November Nine” final table. Both came in with less than 20 big blinds and both had to get some action going early lest they see their chip stacks bled to the point it wouldn’t matter the cards. The Crystal Ball saw Wong going first and Pons next in eighth, so for them to be switched around is a pretty good bit of work for the Orbital Prognosticator.
Seventh – Griffin Benger – Predicted third
The case could be made that Benger never got ahold of any cards to work with. It also could be said that Benger didn’t make the most of the opportunities that he had. He was one of the players who never seemed to get the gist of the action at the final table on the opening night of play and, once he decided to make a stand with a suited Ace against Gordon Vayo’s pocket tens, you could almost predict that Vayo’s hand would stand. It is still Benger’s biggest cash of his career, but we were way off on predicting him to be around on Tuesday night.
Sixth – Kenny Hallaert – Predicted second
Another huge swing and a miss for the Crystal Ball. Hallaert was a very active player through the action on Sunday, but on the very last hand of the evening he caught a suited Big Chick (A♣ Q♣) against chip leader Qui Nguyen. Problem was Nguyen, who had been very aggressive in his own right, had the goods this time around with pocket Aces. A Queen on the flop offered some hope to the Belgian, but nothing else would come to change the outcome. At about this time, we were smacking the Crystal Ball upside the glass for two complete fans on the prediction front.
Fifth – Vojtech Ruzicka (5th) – Predicted seventh
The smack upside the Crystal Ball seemed to help, if for a moment. Ruzicka was eliminated only four hands into the action on Monday night, with Ruzicka losing most of his chips to Vayo in a race (Big Slick against pocket eights) before the rest of his chips went to Nguyen. Ruzicka was an entertaining player who demonstrated that he might have a lengthy career in poker if it is something he desires.
Fourth – Michael Ruane (4th) – Predicted sixth
Another close but not quite situation. Ruane also was very impressive when he was on the felt, he was just woefully low on chips during the play on Monday night. Nguyen would again administer the coup de grace to one of his opponents and, by this time, the Crystal Ball was wondering how he missed the play of the Vegas resident.
Third – Cliff Josephy (3rd) – Predicted first
Josephy was primed to become the World Champion, playing outstanding poker for virtually the entirety of the tournament. Then he ran into a typhoon by the name of Qui Nguyen, whose basic strategy seemed to be, “What do they think I’ll do? Let me do the exact opposite!”
Josephy never seemed to be able to get a grasp on what Nguyen was doing to his right, so he had to feel good when he got his chips in the center on a K-3-2 flop holding pocket deuces. Lo and behold, it wasn’t Nguyen he had to worry about but Vayo, who was set mining in his own right with his pocket treys (and anyone who says they would have gotten away from Josephy’s hand is either delusional or lying).
Second – Gordon Vayo – Predicted fifth
The Crystal Ball predicted that Vayo wouldn’t make any mistakes and, for the most part, the Ball was correct. Some might consider his highly conservative play – where he sat back looking for a big hand to strike against the steamroller that Nguyen had become. He delayed the inevitable for almost eight hours (the tournament ended as the sun was beginning to rise on Sin City) before succumbing to Nguyen’s formidable rush.
First – Qui Nguyen – Predicted fourth
By all reasoning, Nguyen should have been out long before Tuesday night. For some reason, it seemed that nobody wanted to mix it up with him, especially after opening the play on Sunday night by four-betting chip leader Josephy to immediately seize the lead. It also didn’t hurt that every instance he was in a pot, he hit some piece of the flop, turn or river. Nguyen’s opponents eventually got gun shy in trying to take him on, to their detriment and to Nguyen’s great success.
With the conclusion of the “November Nine” final table, the WSOP has concluded for 2016. We’ve got a few things to look at as to the event, however, which we’ll look at tomorrow.