When play was halted on July 18th, nine players remained in the World Series of Poker Main Event. The November Nine was set after seven days of tough battles. Cliff Josephy, often referred to as the godfather of online poker, was leading the final table. A set of (former) online poker players and regulars was trailing him. And then there was Qui Nguyen, second in chips and a wild card in every sense of the word. Right of the bat, he admitted to preferring baccarat to poker and the poker fans smiled.
While he had amassed almost 68 million in chips, placing him second behind Josephy, not many insiders put Nguyen on top of their players most likely to take down the title list.