If you are looking to improve your poker skills, you can only look at the best. And the best in poker is the World Series of Poker champions. Read on to see what you can learn from the past champions.
1. Qui Nguyen
In 2016 a player took to the table who made everyone turn their head. The stylish player used an unconventional style in playing to top of his sick threads and schooled the younger players in innovation.
And that is Qui Nguyen’s legacy: innovation. The 39-year-old immigrant hosted a memorable run that prompted his fans to chant “Who wins? Qui Nguyen!” and it only got louder and louder until there was an eruption of applause as he won the $8 million pot.
Or maybe Nguyen’s lesson is that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. On the final hand, Nguyen raised 8.5 million chips while his opponent, Vayo re-raised all-in for his 53 million chips. After a sinking flop, Nguyen went home with the $8 million pot.
2. Scott Blumstein
The 2017 48th Annual WSOP saw 25-year-old Scott Blumstein take home $8,150,000 after reaching the No-Limit Hold’em of the World Championship. In his first appearance, the New Jersey rookie beat 7,200 other competitors to get to first place in Las Vegas.
Perhaps what can be learned from Blumstein is that a degree in accounting can be far less boring and far more fortuitous than it sounds. No doubt a love of strategy had something to with his win.
Blumstein is perhaps the epitome of putting all you have into one high-stakes game narrative, with him admitting after the game: “I wasn’t looking forward to it.”
He said: “I’m really happy with the result, really happy with the deuce because I was playing good, but I’m pretty tired of poker at this point honestly, and to have to go back and battle pretty deep again.”
Well, to go home with $8m after a few rounds in online poker and one tournament is quite the Cinderella Story.
3. John Cynn
Audience’s saw quite the redemption story as they watched the 2018 WSOP Championship on ggpoker.co.uk.
Cynn’s story is definitely one of perseverance. He spent over 10 hours with his opponent, Tony Miles, going back and forth over 199 hands, each one struggling to overcome the other.
But $9.5 million is a good way to end a grueling day and it might even make him look back on the game with a smile.
The 2018 winner from Illinois went home with the pot, completing a redemption arc that started two years previously, when he fell out of the 2016 Main Event in 11th place.
He told his ecstatic audience that it felt “very different” when reflecting on the two results. Neither seemed like an easy journey, proving the purpose of perseverance.
And if at first you don’t succeed and all that…
4. Damian Salas
Argentinean Damian Salas was the latest winner of the WSOP Championship in its 51st year. Held in Rio, the international champion played head-to-head against US champion Joseph Hebert, beating him with a final hand of ace-queen against a king-jack.
Salas’ lesson is one of tactics: he flopped a pair of kings to give Hebert the lead, and when the turn card didn’t help him, Salas sealed his victory with a king from the river card.
“Joseph was a very hard opponent, and he played really well,” Salas said. “In a few instances, he was about to win, it was a real fight and he never slowed down.”
Sometimes you’ve got to take a step back to take two forward.
