Three days ago, Christian Pham made a big mistake. The Vietnamese-born poker pro now living in St. Paul, MN went to the registration window and handed over $1,500 in cash, thinking he was signing up for the next No-Limit Hold'em event.
However, he got the event number wrong and ended up being registered for the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball Draw tournament - a game he never played before. Once the dealer started handing out the cards, he realised that it wasn't a No-Limit Hold'em event.
"They had started dealing already, so I couldn't do anything," Pham explained. "If they had not started dealing, I would have told the floorman and asked to be unregistered."
He folded most of the hands early on in the tournament to pick up information about good starting hands and, more importantly, how the game worked. He learned extremely quick, given that he finished the first starting day, which lasted for nearly 12 hours, as the chip leader. Funnily enough, he ended up at top of the leaderboard the following two days as well, which earned him his first gold bracelet and $81,314 in prize money.
Winner info:
Name: Christian Pham
Birthplace: Saigon, South Vietnam (USA)
Age: 40
Current Residence: St. Paul, MN (USA)
Marital Status: Single
Children: 2
Profession: Professional Poker Player
Number of WSOP Cashes: 4
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 1
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories (with this tournament): 1
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 11th (2014)
Total WSOP Earnings: $133,683 (plus $240,162 on WSOP Circuit)
Personal Facts: Pham won a WSOP Circuit gold ring in the Main Event at Caesars Palace in 2013, which was his first series-related cash.
OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS:
Other players who cashed in this event aside from those who made the final table included - Robert Mizrachi (9th) and Frank Kassela (14th).
2014 WSOP November Nine finalist Jorryt can Hoof finished 10th.
FUN FACTS:
The field included 216 males and 3 females.
The average age of participants was 39 years, slightly higher than the WSOP tournament average.
