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Poker player accidentally signs up for an event he never played before, comes in first and wins $81,000

Jun 16, 2015, 02:00 IST

Christian Pham, a 40-year-old professional poker player, intended to sign up for a limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Instead, he accidentally signed up for a no-limit deuce-to-seven draw lowball event, a game Pham said he never played before, and won the entire tournament, according to Poker News' Remko Rinkema.

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The buy in was $1,500. Pham said he would've unregistered for the event if he realized what game it was earlier. However, after initially panicking when he was dealt five cards instead of the normal two, Pham leaned on the advice of his competition to quickly learn the ropes en route to taking home $81,314 and a coveted gold bracelet.

"When I got to the table, and when I got dealt five cards, I realized that something was wrong," Pham, who's from St. Paul, Minnesota told Rinkema. "I said, 'Oh my god!' because in Minnesota they 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."

Deuce-to-seven draw lowball is extremely different than the more popular Texas Hold 'Em. While in Hold 'Em the goal is to get the highest hand possible, it's the exact opposite in deuce-to-seven draw lowball, where you actually want the lowest hand possible.

Shuan Harris, Pham's dealer at the final table, described it as being, "A totally different game. Different mindset, different strategies."

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While Pham may have been a rookie to the game, the results say otherwise - he was the chip leader at the end of both Day 1 and Day 2, and Rinkema described Pham as "extremely confident and in control" throughout the final table.

NOW WATCH: This 26-year-old accidentally signed up for a poker tournament and won $973,683

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