Thang Duc Nguyen

He has been waiting patiently for his spot, like a lion hiding in the long grass for an innocent gazelle to wander past. Now Thang Duc Nguyen has pounced on Daniel Dodet and, to put it bluntly, devoured him.

Nguyen, who reached two final tables in the recent PokerStars WCOOP events with the screen name Evelyn, cashing $35,000 in the process, has now soared to about 1,000,000 chips. This hand left poor Dodet, the insurance man from Belgium, with just 4,000 chips, not even enough to riffle.

The killer hand came with the blinds up to 15,000-30,000 and 3,000 ante. Dodet raised to 90,000 pre-flop and Nguyen called. The flop came 6-5-4 with two hearts, Daniel moved all with an A-2 of hearts for the nut flush draw and gutshot straight draw. But Nguyen had the nut straight - 7-8 - and called in a flash. A heart would save Dodet, but instead he watched crestfallen as the Q diamonds and 4 spades hit the felt next.

Next hand, with only his 4,000 to play with, Dodet had to move all in. With A-9 he had a chance to at least double up, but his caller, Ben Johnson, had the A-K. No help for Dodet, and he finished in fourth place, collecting €110,057 for his efforts.