Soi Nguyen has only played in three live poker tournaments prior to this year's Main Event. This is his first time at the World Series of Poker. These facts didn't stand in the way of making the 2010 November Nine.

Nguyen is in second to last place with 9,650,000.

Nguyen's success is less surprising when you consider the company he keeps. He counts top tournament players like Tuan Le, Nam Le, JC Tran and Steve Sung among his close friends and it was from them that he learned the basics of the game.

A poker amateur, Nguyen works a day job as the operations manager for a medical supply company. He told PokerListings that he will be focusing all his time in the next four months on poker and that his network of friends will make all the difference come November.

He'll be running simulations, studying the game and learning all he can about his opponents before returning to play for the almost $9 million first place prize.

By all accounts Nguyen is a very aggressive player, a style that proved successful in a deep tournament like the Main Event. It was one of the biggest pots of the tournament so far that put Nguyen at the top. It was also the pot that proved disastrous for then chip leader Theo Jorgensen.

Nguyen describes the experience of making the November Nine as surreal but that he's feeling very comfortable despite the gravity of the situation. Keep it locked on PokerListings.com to see how it all shakes out for Nguyen at the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table.

Click here to check out the Soi Nguyen 2010 WSOP November Nine video interview.

For a full round-up of the participants, click through to the PokerListings November Nine recap.