After the exit of Josephy in the 3rd place for $3,453,035, it was time for the grand heads up between the Las Vegas-based Qui Nguyen and San Francisco-based Gordon Vayo. Voya started heads up as the chip lead with 200,300,000 against his fellow Nguyen who had 136,300,000 in chips. Though Nguyen didn’t have the solid online poker resume like his opponent, he kept the momentum all through the heads up match at the Penn & Teller Theater inside the Rio and finally emerged as the newest WSOP Champion, winning $8 million first place prize money. For him, Gordon Vayo, a 27 year old professional poker player from San Francisco, was the only obstacle to overcome and he played his role superbly.
The heads-up match between Vayo and Nguyen lasted for over 8 hours and around 181 hands, both records since the World Series of Poker (WSOP) implemented the “November Nine” format back in the year, 2008. Vayo entered into heads-up with a 64 million chip lead, but the 39-year old Nguyen played smartly and took over within just 12 hands.
Vayo remained short-stacked through most of his battle against Nguyen and eventually met his demise when he was down to about 40 million. He moved all-in with his Js-Ts and Nguyen called with Kc-Tc. The flop came Kd-9d-7d to give Vayo a straight draw and Nguyen a top pair. Vayo needed to hit an eight or a queen to double up and continue in the heads up match. Unfortunately, it did not happen, the 2 turn and the 4 river landed, giving Nguyen a reason to celebrate with his family and friends. With Vayo finishing up as runner up in the second place for $4,661,22, Nguyen became the newest Main Event champion of WSOP. He took home $8,005,310 along with his first WSOP bracelet.
Here the Payouts of 2016 WSOP Main Event Final Table:
#1: Qui Nguyen ($8,000,000)
#2: Gordon Vayo ($4,658,452)
#3:Cliff Josephy ($3,451,175)
#4: Michael Ruane ($2,574,808)
#5: Vojtech Ruzicka ($1,934,579)
#6: Kenny Hallaert ($1,463,906)
#7:Griffin Benger ($1,250,000)
#8: Jerry Wong ($1,100,000)
#9: Fernando Pons ($1,000,000)