Born in Vietnam, Thu Nguyen came to the United States in 1991 when he was in his early 20’s. Upon his arrival in America, he took a job as a chemical technician with 3M and made a home for his family in Orange County, California. But with a wife and four children – including a baby – he wanted to make more money in order to better support his family. His wife owns a beauty salon, and though there wasn’t much spare time available, he began to spend some time playing poker in 2001 at the Bicycle Casino.

Nguyen learned poker through much trial and error, admitting to having gone broke several times and losing his bankroll. But soon he befriended poker pro David “The Dragon” Pham and began to receive some coaching on money management, cash game play, and the tournament scene. By 2004, he improved his game enough to quit his job and call himself a professional poker player. Between advice from pros at the Los Angeles casinos and watching World Poker Tour episodes over and over for study purposes, he knew he could be successful.

His first tournament success came in 2004 at the Holiday Bonus $330 no-limit hold’em rebuy tournament at Commerce Casino. Nguyen claims this was the highlight of his career, though he continued to add wins and final table appearances in low buy-in tournaments to his resume. Finally, in August of 2007, he accomplished a great goal by winning a $1000 satellite to earn his way into the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker main event, then defeating the majority of a large field to find himself at the final table. Though he couldn’t defeat his mentor Pham, he finished a respectable third and won $388,660. His family was proud, and Nguyen’s efforts over the years were validated. If his drive and determination mean anything, the WPT will be seeing more of this dedicated pro.