WSOP: Men Nguyen Wins $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship

Men Nguyen and Brandon Adams heads-up for the year’s biggest Stud bracelet. (Photo: BJ Nemeth)

The $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship had a number of intriguing storylines going into the final table. There was the $50,000 Poker Players Championship winner, Michael Mizrachi, chasing his second career bracelet just days after winning his first, and the man Mizrachi defeated, Russian banker Vladimir Schmelev, looking to avenge his earlier loss. 

There was WSOP vet Dan Heimiller, seeking to add a second bracelet to his impressive array of Series cashes, and Steve Billirakis, once the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet, looking to add another to his collection. 

And there was Schmelev’s fellow Russian, Nikolay Evdakov, who was trying to finally come out ahead after setting records the last few years for the most cashes in a single World Series of Poker.

But now all those stories have fallen by the wayside, save for one: Men “The Master” Nguyen’s seventh career bracelet.

Nguyen won his latest bracelet by defeating Brandon Adams in heads-up play. PokerNews reported that at at one point the animated Nguyen needled Adams, reminding the Harvard man of his past accomplishments and how they rate compared to Adams’. “I got six bracelets man. I want one more! How many you got? One? None?” said Nguyen. “Don’t worry, you beat Men The Master and you’ll be famous tomorrow!”

In the end that wasn’t to be. Nguyen took a number of key pots and built himself a 4-to-1 chip lead with the limits and antes rising perilously. Adams did what he could to fight back, but Nguyen relentlessly applied pressure and caught some incredible cards at the right moments to conquer his foe.

It was the second career final table at the World Series for Adams, a Harvard instructor and poker pro who previously took sixth place in the 2007 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. His tournament winnings now total $753,992.

As for Men Nguyen, his victory gives him seven career wins at the WSOP, tying him for sixth place all-time with Phil Ivey and lowball specialist Billy Baxter. His career tournament earnings worldwide now total $9,738,752.