Las Vegas Sun
Thang "Kido" Pham, a native of Vietnam who has kept his profession a secret from his parents because they don't approve of gambling, won the top prize of $453,456 in the World Series of Poker Circuit tournament that concluded Tuesday at Bally's.
Including this week's victory, Pham has advanced to the final table in four big poker tournaments in the past 15 months.
"My parents didn't like gambling," Pham, who now lives in Dallas, said. "They didn't want me to be a professional gambler."
But with his success in poker's big leagues, "I proved I can do it," Pham said.
Pham outlasted a field of 134 entrants in the no-limit Texas hold 'em tournament, which carried a $10,000 entry fee and had a total prize pool of more than $1.2 million. Circuit tournaments take place at Harrah's-owned properties in Las Vegas and throughout the nation and serve to promote the annual World Series of Poker, which is scheduled for June 25 to Aug. 10 at the Rio.
Eight players advanced to Tuesday's final table, with Pham eventually getting heads-up against J.C. Tran, also a native of Vietnam who now lives in Sacramento. Pham had about twice as many chips as Tran and used his aggressive playing style to keep pressure on his opponent throughout the one-on-one duel.
On the tournament's final hand, Pham, holding ace-8, made a pair of aces on the flop, or first three community cards. Tran was holding king-queen and made a pair of kings on the flop. The last two community cards were both jacks, improving neither man's hand, and Pham went all-in. After thinking for several minutes, Tran shoved the rest of his chips in with his pair of kings.
"I knew it was 90 percent he would call me, because he'd seen me bluff three or four times in the tournament," Pham said.
"To win a championship, you have to put your money in on a draw sometimes. You can't always play with the best hand."
Tran earned $251,920 for finishing second.
"If he didn't have an ace, I thought maybe this would be my tournament," Tran said.
Pham and Tran had another confrontation earlier in the day, with Tran going all-in and then catching a jack on the final card, making three of a kind to blow away Pham's two pair.
"I felt like he cut my throat," Pham said.
But Kido stayed in the picture, winning a pivotal hand as a sizable underdog against 2005 World Series of Poker champion Joseph Hachem when he made three jacks to crack Hachem's pocket kings.
"That was one pot (where) I admit I was very lucky," Pham said.
Hachem, of Melbourne, Australia, and now a part-time Las Vegas resident, finished fifth and collected $88,172. He earned $7.5 million for his WSOP championship event victory in July.
Other notable players in the tournament were Henderson's Scotty Nguyen (fourth place, $100,768), the 1998 World Series of Poker champion; two-time WSOP champions Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan; former casino owner Bob Stupak; Celine Dion's manager and husband Rene Angelil; and TV poker commentator Mike Sexton.
