Scotty Nguyen : Poker Player

Scotty Nguyen

Born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, on Oct. 28 1962, Scotty Nguyen is without a doubt the most charismatic poker player ever to compete professionally.

He moved to America with his family in 1974, and began playing poker in back-room games at a very early age. As a matter of fact, his card-playing ways got him expelled from school, but all that did was to make him even more determined to pursue a career in poker. Southern California was the first stop of a journey that would eventually lead to stardom and world-wide recognition. He took a job as a poker dealer in a casino. That was just about the best thing he could've done at that stage. Not only did it provide him with a regular salary, it was also a continuous, free poker-course. He observed players, winners and losers, and he stacked up the results of his observations in his mind.

If you were wondering how it was possible for any poker player to have such a high percentage of ITM finishes in the tournaments he took part in, that there could be the answer.

Indeed, Scotty has pretty much taken professional poker to a new level. He has no less than 34 ITM finishes, in WSP events, which is an absolutely amazing feat, given the level of competition and prize-pools involved. No wonder he has over $7,500,000 in life-time poker earnings.

He also has 4 WSOP bracelets to go with his ITM finishes, but he wouldn't be the player that he is, without the crown jewel, the 1998 WSOP main event win.

That same event was the one that forever secured a place for him in poker-history books. Locked in a heads-up with Kevin McBride, in the final hand of the main event, the board showed 9,9,8,8,8. It was then that Scotty dropped the comment which made him famous: "You call, gonna be all over baby".

McBride didn't heed the warning, and sure enough he called, only to be treated to nines full of eights by Nguyen, who took his first (and as yet, only) WSOP win on that hand.

Scotty is one of the most active players today, and besides his above mentioned WSOP performance, he's also had 12 ITM finishes in the WPT, and an event victory in January 2006.

Also known as the Train, or The Prince of Poker, Scotty Nguyen is a presence to reckon with to this very day, no matter what prestigious poker event you go to. He finished 11th in the 2007 WSOP main event, nearly making the final table once again.