Scotty Beats the Very Best!
By Max Shapiro
Scotty Nguyen
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It was the toughest table Scotty Nguyen ever faced outside of the
World Series. There were more gold bracelets at the last table than
at Tiffany's. But that's the challenge the 1998 WSOP champ says he
likes because it brings out his best, and the best he was as he won event
number 17 in Legends of Poker, $1,000 limit hold'em. Earlier, he had
won the $300 Omaha hi-lo Legends event.
Heads-up with three-bracelet holder Barbara Enright, he held about
$113,000 of the $173,000 in play, and amicably struck a deal. "I could
have beaten him," Enright said, but I slept late, my hair didn't look
right and I didn't want my picture taken." When the tournament
ended, Enright was a year older (her birthday is Aug. 19), a bit richer
and once again the points leader as she shot past Brent Carter. She's
now racked up two wins, a second, a fifth and a sixth. She also
inflicted the most damage at the final table, twice knocking out two
players at once. Tournament director Denny Williams said it was the
first time he had ever seen a player execute a double whammy twice at
the last table.
It took more than an hour to get the tenth player to go away.
"Tougher to kill than cockroaches," Enright said, as "Men the Master"
Nguyen went all in at least a half-dozen times at one table, pulling it out
with hands like 10-3 against Q-10, while Warren Karp, a computer parts
salesman, repeatedly played Houdini at the other table. The fall guy was
Skip Wilson when his K-7 couldn't catch up to Young Phan's K-8.
Dan Heimiller went all in on the third hand with Q-8 but made trip
eights to beat Kevin Song's K-5. A few hands later, Karp also won all in
with trip eights. But a few hands after that, Karp, one of the "cockroaches,"
all in again, finally got stepped on. He, Men and Kevin Song all held an
ace but Men won with A-J.
Dan Heimiller lost a lot of chips when he bet into a board of A-9-A-A
and discovered that Kevin Song held the fourth ace. Later, Kevin bet with
nines, Scotty re-raised with tens, and Kevin made it three bets. After
winning, Scotty said that in the old days he would have made it four bets,
but now he's getting "old" a ripe old 38.
On the next hand, Men raised and Heimiller put his last chips in with
10-7. Enright also called with J-9. Men bet the flop of A-6-9, and Enright
took a card off, knowing that Men could have raised pre-flop with anything
in late position. Then she hit a jack on the turn, check-raised The Master
to put him in and put two players out of action.
Young Phan, always ready with a funny line, complains that he can't
breathe seated between two super-aggressive players like Song and Enright.
He then goes all in and wins with K-9. A few hands later, with limits at
$3,000-$6,000, Mel Judah goes all in and wins a $30,000 pot against Song
with the same K-9 that Doyle Brunson, in his book, calls a "sawmill"
hand: "Keep playing it and you'll end up working in a sawmill."
Now there's another double-header. Enright gets involved in a big, raised
pot with Judah and Song. Mel goes all in before the flop with J-J. The
flop is 8-A-8, and he knows he's dead when Barbara bets, Kevin raises and
she puts him all in with a re-raise. A ten and a five fall, and Barbara's A-K
beats Kevin's A-J and suddenly she has a ton of chips with only four players
left. A moment later, Scotty annihilates Young with pocket aces against
J-5 of diamonds, and now it's down to three. The other player is Diego
Cordovez, chief operating officer for a software company in Palo Alto, an
occasional tournament player who won the $2,000 no-limit hold'em event
at the World Series this year. Not playing many pots, he is down to only a
$100 chip when he beats Scotty with a nut flush. The action now heats up
as Enright goes on a tear, raising, re-raising or check-raising six times in a
row. She wins the first three times, getting up to around $100,000, but
then begins bleeding chips. Later, Scotty takes a big lead against her when
he has A-K to her K-Q and a king turns.
Returning from break, Scotty has about $107,000, Barbara $62,600 and
Diego, as Jack McClelland would say, has all the rest of the $173,000.
Scotty breaks him on the first hand, Q-8 versus Diego's A-5 when an eight
turns. Then Scotty and the birthday girl make a deal and close the books.
Biography - Scotty Nguyen
Scotty Nguyen is a native of Vietnam who escaped from that country in
a small boat and was lucky enough to be picked by a Taiwanese fishing boat.
He's been a pro now for 15 years, specializes in tournaments and the only
thing that will stop him from playing one is a family event.
He said he has fun playing with the best. "It brings out the best in me. I
like to compete. I like a challenge." His biggest regret in this event was
that he didn't get a chance to knock out Men the Master. Scotty likes to
gun for him as a target because Men is always saying, "You've got no shot
against me." Against Barbara, he felt he had to change his game to compete
with her aggressive style. "You can't sit back and wait for hands, you have
to make moves. I love the way she plays."
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