Scotty Nguen

Updated 2008/2009
Scotty Nguyen has always proved that he was born to play the game of Poker. He was born on October 28, 1962 in Vietnam with a defect due to which his hand was curled in to a fist. Whenever the doctors tried to open it, he said there was a small deck of cards in there. His start in the game was quite different from other poker players. Even with the kind of handicap he faced, he continued with the game as he started as a dealer. There was couple of benefits for him to start as a dealer: the little money he earned through that he could invest in the game, and secondly he could easily observe other people playing the game and making mistakes. He would learn from these mistakes and make a list of it. He would ensure avoiding these mistakes whenever he used to play.

Scotty is well known for his aggressiveness during the game. He is also one of the most active poker players. He is always found to be saying something or the other and is always moving around. In the World Series of Poker 1998 he proved to the people that he could go in with any two cards. His style of playing the game may distract other players, but that’s the way he plays- all out and with a ton of emotion. Other players know what he is going to say when he throws other players out of the game and says “that’s Poker Baby”.

But Scotty is also known to play a fair game. On the final table of World Series of Poker 1999, he warned his opponent not to call his all in raise. Kevin McBride did not take the advice and called for a raise. Nguyen was dealt J 9, and McBride had Q 10. Nguyen called McBride’s bet, and saw the flop. The flop was 8 9 9, giving McBride nothing and Nguyen trip 9s. He checked and then called McBride’s bet. The turn came out to be 8 giving Scotty a full house. The fair guy that he was, he checked and once again called McBride’s bet. The river came out to be 8 which made the board a full house. Scotty put McBride all in and told him not to call.

What must have come in to McBride’s thought process must have been that probably Scotty is bluffing due to the full house on the board. He called and played the board as his five cards. It could easily have been a split pot except for the reason that Scotty had 9 as one of his hole cards making a higher full house than on the board. This is the way he made 1 million dollar just by playing any two cards.

Nguyen finished second at the 2007 World Series of Poker. He also finished 11th in WSOP main event by a narrow miss to the final table and earned $ 476,926. Till now, the total amount of prize money that he has won is $9,700,000. His qualities that have taken him ahead in the game of poker are his aggressiveness, smartness and of course his luck. He may even tell you by himself that he is born to play the game of Poker.