Congratulations to Kenny Nguyen, WSOP-C Chester Main Event Champion ($94,901)!
After nearly eight hours of back and forth, exciting, and grueling final table action, we have a winner here at Harrahs Chester. Kenny Nguyen outlasted the field, taking home a first-place prize of $94,901. In addition, Nguyen has earned a seat in the WSOP-C National Championship to be held at Caesars in Las Vegas later this month.
It was anything but an easy path for Kenny, going through many ups and down at the final table. At one point when the blinds and antes were at the 12,000/24,000/4,000 level, Nguyen was down to just more than five big blinds. Fortunately, he found a few double ups though Ari Engel to get back in contention.
First, it was Engel's . Nguyen held and survived as the board improved neither players hand. About an hour later, Nguyen doubled through Engel again. This time, Nguyen was slightly behind with facing Engel's . However, a ten on the flop kept Nguyen alive in the tournament. An hour and a half after that, Nguyen's dodged Engel's to finally give Kenny a seven-figure stack.
That wasn't it for those two, though, as Nguyen found yet another double through Engel. In what Kenny told us was the key hand of his final table, he was on the button at the 25,000/50,000/5,000 level. From the cutoff seat, Ramana Epparla opened to 130,000. Nguyen called on the button, Robert Scott folded his small blind, but Engel squeezed all in from the big blind. After Epparla folded, Nguyen spent a decent amount of time in the tank before calling for his tournament life with . He had Engel's dominated and held up, eliminating Engel shortly thereafter. While Nguyen gave up the chip lead briefly during three-handed play, he rebounded to earn the title.
That concludes PokerNews' coverage of the Main Event here at Harrahs Chester. Congratulations to Kenny Nguyen and be sure to join us as next week we will be in New Orleans for more exciting WSOP-C action. Good night from Chester!