300+ Hands in Andrew Cimpan Wins!
by Court on 02.27.09, 6:39 am
In a heads up battle that lasted well into the night Andrew Cimpan (right) was able to make a comeback victory over a very strong heads up player in Binh Nguyen. At one point in the heads up battle that almost made it to 200 hands of just heads up play, it seemed that Cimpan had almost given up on himself, but when the chips go in preflop anything can happen and after a few double ups Cimpan went from the short stack to the chip lead.
Binh Nguyen was able to grind away and battle back, but another bad beat knocked him back again, the cards just never cooperating with Nguyen to allow him to close the deal. In the end the blinds got large and the action turned to an all in fest. 
On the last hand a shortstacked Nguyen was all in with the A
9
and ahead of the K
5 of Cimpan with a chance to close the gap and get back in the hunt once again with a double up. Instead, as had often been the case throughout heads up play, the weaker hand going in came out on top and after the board ran out T53
T4 Cimpan had completed his comeback to take the trophy and 1st place prize money of $1,686,760.
For his solid and impressive play throughout the tournament Binh Nguyen (left) takes home the 2nd place payout of $935,424, but will have to leave here feeling like he had the title stolen from as a result of running bad over and over again in key spots late in the tournament. After the tournament Nguyen told WPT announcer Mike Sexton that this was his first WPT tournament and was very gracious in defeat, complimenting his opponent and thanking everyone that worked around the tournament, showing not only is he a great poker player but also a class act even at a time when he has to be a bit shocked by the turn of events.
