I stood about twenty feet away from the action when Scotty Nguyen busted out of the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event. Deep down, I was rooting for Scotty Nguyen. I think we all were. When Nguyen finished in 11th place, I quickly scanned the faces of the people in the crowd and the media covering the event. As poker enthusiasts, they were all sad to see the highly entertaining Scotty Nguyen get eliminated from the Main Event after almost two weeks of flawless poker.
On Day 6 of the 2007 WSOP Main Event, Scotty Nguyen started the day 27th in chips out of 36 remaining players. He doubled up early on and began his run while several other players in the field busted out quickly. Shortly after the dinner break, Scotty Nguyen won a several pots to push his stack into the top five in chips.
Scotty Nguyen was seated at the feature TV table and flashed his big smile for the cameras. ESPN and Harrah's executives were hoping that Nguyen advanced to the final table. Not only was Scotty Nguyen the former world champion, but because of his charming and boisterous personality, Scotty Nguyen was a huge draw for poker fans.
"It's good for poker," one of the WSOP dealers said. "If he makes the final table, people will actually watch it."
She was right. Scotty Nguyen is one of the more animated characters in poker. Everything seemed to be going his way. With 11 players remaining, he was a lock for the final nine. He could have folded his way the final table, but that's not how Scotty Nguyen plays poker.
Things got ugly. Once Scotty Nguyen began to slide, he fell fast and hard. Most of the damage was done in one hand against Tuan Lam from Canada. Lam raised from the small blind to 480,000. Scotty Nguyen reraised from the big blind to 1,480,000 and Lam called. The flop was
. Lam checked and Scotty Nguyen fired out 700,000. Lam called. The turn was the 
and both players checked. The river was the 
and Lam bet 1,000,000. Scotty Nguyen went into the tank before he raised to 3,500,000. Lam sat and pondered a call for several minutes. Lam eventually called with 
. Scotty Nguyen sheepishly flipped over 
, and Lam won the pot worth almost 11.5 million.
Scotty Nguyen was rattled. You could almost see the steam coming out of his ears as he muttered under his breath, "How the f--k could you call me, baby?!"
Then Nguyen lost another decisive hand to Philip Hilm from Denmark. Action was folded to Scotty Nguyen who raised to 530,000 from the small blind and Hilm called from the big blind. The flop was
. Nguyen bet 600,000 and Hilm called. The turn was the . Nguyen checked and Hilm fired out 1,200,000. Nguyen moved all in and Hilm could not have called any quicker with 
. Nguyen flipped over 
. He was drawing dead and by the look on his face, Nguyen knew that his run at the 2007 WSOP would soon be over. After he lost that hand, Scotty Nguyen slipped to 2,350,000. He was eliminated shortly after
Scotty Nguyen shook Hilm's hand and made a quick exit off the feature table. His disappeared for a while and returned to tape an interview with ESPN.
According to BJ Nemeth at PokerNews, Nguyen took the microphone and said... "First, I want to congratulate all the players here, and I wish the best to all of you. But the most important thing is, I want to thank the fans. Without you guys, we wouldn't have Scotty Nguyen. We're disappointed, but let me tell you, you guys gave me all I need. I wish I could give you more, but for 2007 that's the end of me. I'll see you back here in 2008."
I heard a sad story about Scotty Nguyen, which probably is why he was totally crushed after busting out of the Main Event. When he won the world championship in 1998, Scotty Nguyen's brother back in Vietnam was so excited that he jumped on his moped and drove around their village telling everyone the good news. Sadly, his brother died in an accident when he was hit by a car. To this day, Nguyen lives with a tremendous burden of guilt because believes that he caused his brother's death. Had he not won the WSOP, his brother never would have been riding around and would have averted that fatal accident.
Almost one year after his 11th-place finish in the 2007 WSOP Main Event, Nguyen had a chance to win a bracelet, this time in the prestigious $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. He survived one of the toughest tables ever assembled at the WSOP to emerge victorious.
Moments after Scotty Nguyen's victory he was awarded the newly named Chip Reese Memorial trophy. As soon as Jeffrey Pollack handed him the trophy, Scotty Nguyen pointed to his heart then up to the sky to acknowledge his fallen brother.
"Thank you so much," a humbled Scotty Nguyen said as he pointed up for a second time.
For a few moments, the demons haunting Scotty Nguyen had been quelled as he savored his first place finish in $50,000 H.O.R.S.E.
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