Tommy Nguyen Becomes 9th Millionaire Made at This Year's WSOP

Tommy Nguyen was one class away from his accounting degree. He put it off to take a shot at a professional poker career.

Smart move we believe.

The Toronto native navigated through a field of 6,260 entries to earn his first World Series of Poker bracelet and the cool $1,037,451 that went with it in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em monster stack event.

“I don’t know. I’m just taking it all in right now,” said Nguyen after his win. “I dreamed of this and I believed I could make it. I came for a bracelet and I got it.”

This is Nguyen’s third cash at this summer’s WSOP. It’s a better than average start for Nguyen’s first full summer in Las Vegas.

“I didn’t have the bankroll for it before,” said Nguyen. “I just final tabled the millions event not too long ago in Montreal. It gave me a chance to come here. I took my shots. I felt really good. I played really good.

“I started playing like 10 years ago,” he said. “But I realized I was a losing player. I started to try and fix my game, let go of my stubbornness and try and learn the game a lot more. Then I realized I was winning player two years ago. That’s when I started winning more, so I started taking the game more seriously two years ago.”

“Honestly, people think I’m crazy, but I envisioned this,” said Nguyen. “I envisioned winning bracelets coming here … I didn’t doubt I was going to win even when I was short. I knew this was going to happen.”

Final Table Results:

1st: Tommy Nguyen - $1,037,451
2nd: James Carroll - $640,916
3rd: Frank Rusnak - $475,212
4th: Chris Chong - $354,903
5th: Daniel Corbett - $266,987
6th: Michael Benko - $202,327
7th: Shyam Srinivasan - $154,463
8th: Harald Sammer - $118,802
9th: Rittie Chuaprasert - $92,061

- Ace King, Gambling911.com