Soi Nguyen is this year’s everyday average Joe as the only true amateur in the November Nine field. The oldest competitor remaining at 37-years-old, the Santa Ana, CA native is playing in just his fourth live poker tournament ever. He does have a cash in the L.A. Poker Classic to his credit, so he’s not completely inexperienced with big-time poker.
Nguyen explains during the interview that the big lights, cameras and huge crowds do not faze him for the World Series of Poker Main Event and the pageantry of the November Nine. He feels his inexperience might be able to actually be an asset, as he won’t be intimidated by anyone at the table. Finally, he talks about what it means to him to have survived this long and join poker’s elite in the biggest tournament in the world.
His big run began on Day 7 when he took the overall chip lead by winning a huge hand at the expense of Theo Jorgensen. He walks into the November Nine as the eighth largest chip stack (otherwise known as the second smallest) at 9.65 million.
Away from the poker tables, Nguyen works for Team Makena, a medical supplies distributor in Orange County, California. He is friends with a few professional poker players, which include David “Chino” Rheem. Throughout the tournament his friends railed him at the tables and cheered him on as he leveraged his large chip stack on Day 6 and 7 to a ticket to the final nine players. One critical hand was when he eliminated Patrick Eskandar in 20th place. Eskandar had already shoved all his chips in pre-flop and had gotten calls from Nguyen and Pascal LeFrancois. The flop came Q-9-T and when Nguyen bet, LeFrancois folded. Nguyen flipped over K-Q for top pair and a gutshot while Eskandar turned over A-7 for just Ace high. The board didn’t improve Eskandar who left the tournament.