Qui Nguyen wins $8M in 2016 WSOP main event

Qui Nguyen defeated Gordon Vayo heads-up to win the $8-million prize at the 2016 World Series of Poker main event on Tuesday.

The heads-up battle lasted 181 hands and took over seven hours to finish, finally ending when the first time entrant hit a pair of kings to take Texas Hold'em's biggest prize.

"I actually never played much heads-up, but I was very aggressive," Nguyen said after the win, according to Tim Fiorvanti of ESPN. "(Whether it was) five-handed or two-handed, I was still (just as) aggressive."

Nguyen is just the second Vietnamese-born winner of the main event, and the 47th champion in the tournament's history. He credited his success to staying loose even with some life-changing money on the line.

"With millions of dollars (on the line), I didn't think a lot about winning and losing," Nguyen said. "I was just thinking in my mind, 'Don't make a misstep at all.' In a tournament, you can't make a misstep - if you make a misstep, you're done."