Thousands of players visit the World Series of Poker (WSOP) each year with hopes and dreams of winning an event and securing the coveted WSOP bracelet. Minnesota professional poker player Christian Pham entered the WSOP and experienced reasonable success by securing the 53rd place in the ‘Colossus’ event, which turned out to be the biggest live poker event in the history of the game.
He won $19,566 for his performance at the ‘Colossus’ event and he would later win $6,973 for coming in 215th at the $ 1,500 No Limit Hold’em Millionaire Maker (Event #16).
The 40 year old Pham has won a little over $500,000 playing professional poker and is ranked 1373 on the Global Poker Index.
Pham surprised everyone at the $ 1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball No-Limit (Event #23) including himself because he never intended to take part in the event. He decided to sign up for a new event at the WSOP and went to register for the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em but he somehow ended up signing up for the no-limit deuce-to-seven draw lowball. This was a WSOP bracelet event and Pham only realized that he signed up for the wrong event when he was seated at the table and was dealt 5 cards.
Pham had never played no-limit deuce-to-seven draw lowball before and had no idea how to play the game. Although he realized he made a mistake, he decided to go ahead with the game instead of opting out. He had to learn the game at the table by watching the others play the game and he learned pretty quickly.
He not only learned the game but managed to outsmart a total of 219 players, some of whom were experts at playing no-limit deuce-to-seven draw lowball. Pham ended up winning the event along with $81,314 and a prestigious WSOP bracelet.
After winning the event, Christian Pham spoke about his initial reaction when he discovered he signed up for the wrong game. In a statement, Pham said
I said ‘Oh my god!’ because in Minnesota we don’t have this game. This was the first time I played this game, but I tried to learn the game at the table from the people at the table. I think it was a sign of God. I didn’t understand much of the game, but enough, and in the future for sure I will register for this game. I love it!
