When David Pham was 17, he stepped aboard a boat in South Vietnam. The year was 1984 and there were 145 people on the boat.
The fragile vessel somehow made the journey to the United States. When it scraped ashore in America, only 46 of the passengers were alive. Pham was one of them.
His nickname is The Dragon.
Somehow Pham made it to Los Angeles where his cousin Men 'The Master' Nguyen lived. Nguyen owned a dry cleaning business and played poker. He gave Pham a job and taught him how to play the game.
Pham remembered those early days very well.
'I worked hard for very little money,' he said. 'But when I walked into the card rooms, I saw a lot of money and I decided I would figure out how to make some of that money mine.'
He listened closely to Nguyen's lessons. At night in his room, he would deal countless hands of poker to see how the cards fell. He would deal nine hands over and over until he felt comfortable. Then he began playing poker in Gardena and Las Vegas.
He made his cousin proud of him. He began winning cash games and tournaments. Today Pham is 50 years old. He has collected three World Series of Poker bracelets and over $9.7 million in tournament winnings, nearly as much as The Master who has won over $10 million in tournaments.
Card Player Magazine named Pham Player of the Year in 2000 and 2007. He has cashed in at the WSOP over 50 times.
His biggest win was a $1,500 buy-in in a no-limit Texas Hold'em tournament in 2017 when he beat 1,739 other players to collect $391,960. He also won the Los Angeles Poker Classic in February 2003, defeating Jennifer Harman and John Phan to collect the cash prize.
Pham won a $3,000 buy-in Five Diamond World Poker Classic on Nov. 11, 2008, collecting $414,419. And he finished in fourth place at the World Poker Tour Foxwoods World Poker Finals, winning $240,344. He traveled to Europe and placed fourth in the European poker tour competition, winning $600,000.
Asked to name his favorite American poker players, Pham didn't hesitate. 'Phil Ivey and Stu Ungar,' he said. He learned some moves by watching both of them play.
Pham's cousin, The Master, dropped out of school at age 13 to become a bus driver to help support his family. In his early years as a poker player, he lost a lot of money learning the game. But eventually, he started winning and opened his dry cleaning plant in Bell Gardens.
The Master met his future wife, Van, in Vietnam. He took her to America, taught her to play poker, and today they have three children. She won the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational in March 2008, becoming the first female to win the mixed event.
Nguyen has won over 75 tournaments. He teaches other players how to win tournaments and donates part of his winnings to charities in Vietnam.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
