Australian poker player Minh Nguyen has won the Main Event of the 2014 New Zealand Poker Tour at Sky City Casino in Auckland tonight, earning $111,600.
After 28 hours of play over three days, Nguyen outlasted 224 players that all paid $2,500 to enter the tournament, though the last few hands were played in rather unorthodox fashion.
When the tournament was whittled down to two players, Nguyen held a commanding 3-1 chip lead over 24-year old Kiwi poker professional Thomas Ward, but when the chip counts became even, both pros decided to make a private deal.
Instead of risking the giant $50,000 pay jump between first and second place, both players agreed that Ward would take home $104,000 while Nguyen would take $101,600, and they would play for an extra $10,000.
But instead of playing skillfully, both players decided to blindly go all-in for the title, and after four hands Nguyen was announced the winner.
