Men "The Master" Nguyen is a man who started with nothing, but he decided he will change that. He faced every obstacle and difficulty and he managed to pass them successfully.
Nguyen was born in Vietnam, and he started working as a bus driver at the age of 13, after he had quit school. He was 24, in 1978 when he and other 87 Vietnamese people decided to escape the country by boat. They sailed for 13 days without any food, in a 13 meters long boat. At the third day they managed to arrive at Pulau Besar, Malaysia, at a refugee camp, where they were called the boat people. In the same year he received political asylum from U.S.A and he settled in Los Angeles.
Times were pretty rough at the beginning, because he didn't knew any English so he couldn't get a job, but he took English classes and eventually he was hired as a machinist.
In 1984 he was invited by some friends to Las Vegas. He went, and he wanted to play Studs in a casino, but he didn't knew the rules very well. He didn't even knew what buy-in meant, so he asked and he was replied that he needed at least $300 to play the game.
He played those money and he lost, then played some more and lost again. He loved the game so he returned every week-end, but he lost more than he won. That didn't stopped, every time he lost, he returned to the ATM to get some more money, so he received the nickname "Money Machine".
Men played the game from instincts, he never read anything about it, and he says it's like a gift from God that he is so natural. At his first tournament in 1986 he finished on the 8th place and then next year at the Bicycle Club he won the tournament.
With his money he opened a business but because of the low profits he decided to close it, and he gave poker lessons. One of his students called him the young master, but Nguyen said he wasn't young so the nickname remained just "The Master".
He has already won 6 WSOP championships, and he has been voted twice the poker player of the year.
With his money he made several actions to help his home country, he built a Buddhist temple and two schools in his home town, Phanthiet. He has sold chips to opponents, as a charity action and he has managed to raise $32,000.
He lives with his family, and he has three daughters born in the same day and in the same month, but they are three years apart.
