Poker Player Profile – Scotty Nguyen Poker Player

Poker professional Scotty Nguyen, known as Prince of Poker, is one of the best all round tournament poker players. He has won five WSOP bracelets.

Entry To Poker

Thuan “Scotty” Nguyen was born in Viet Nam and came to America after being sponsored by a family in Orange County in California. In Viet Nam he had dreamed of being in Las Vegas and he soon started playing poker in back room games. After being expelled from school he went to Vegas. He took a job of cleaning tables at the now Harrah’s Casino. It was here that he got the nickname Scotty. He moved on to be a poker dealer and eventually started playing the game. Whenever he needed money he would go back to dealing and build a bankroll.

Live Poker Tournaments

Nguyen has an enviable live poker tournament record. He won the first of his five WSOP bracelets in 1997. That year Stu Unger won the Main Event and featured on a poker magazine cover. Nguyen vowed that would one day win the Main Event and feature on the cover. Nguyen accomplished that feat the very next year. He went on to win two WSOP bracelets in 2001 and the fifth one in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event in 2008. He is the only poker professional to win both the most coveted WSOP events, the Main Event and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. All five of Nguyen’s bracelets were won in different poker games. This is the reason he is known as the best all round poker player. Nguyen has fared well in the WPT as well. Though he reached the final table many times his first win came in January 2006 at the Gold Strike World Poker Open. He is the only poker player to make a final table in all WPT seasons. Nguyen has also excelled in several standalone poker tournaments as well. Nguyen’s total live tournament earnings are about $10.2 million. He has had 32 first place finishes and 190 cashes.

Nguyen focuses almost entirely on live poker tournaments. He is not known to be an online poker player. He does not even enjoy playing cash games because he feels that it is difficult to maintain a friendly environment there. Nguyen has participated in the Ultimate Blackjack Tour playing Elimination Blackjack.

Other Poker Achievements

Nguyen is a very passionate poker player and both his major WSOP wins will be enshrined in poker folklore. In the 1998 WSOP Main Event he was playing heads up with Kevin McBride. Nguyen went all in and said, “You call, gonna be all over, baby!” McBride called and lost. Ten years later the 2008 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Event showed Nguyen in poor light, even though he won. The telecast of the event showed him drinking, swearing and berating other poker players. His fans were so put off by this that Nguyen had to formally apologize to them. Nguyen believes that it is the fans that make the poker professionals the larger than life figures they are and he goes out of his way to accommodate them.

Nguyen now lives in Las Vegas with his wife. He is a practicing Buddhist and when not playing poker he loves to cook and work in his garden.