Scotty Nguyen

Scotty Nguyen, also known as “The Prince of Poker”, is a professional poker player from the country of Vietnam. He came to the United States when he was young as a refugee and had a very rough upbringing. He had to watch his own brother die on his trip over to the United States and he arrived in the U.S. With very little money. Like many other professional poker players, Scotty's poker career got started when he became a poker dealer. As a dealer, Scotty would use his paychecks to gamble, often resulting in losing all his money.

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The Prince eventually built a solid bankroll for himself through playing poker and moved to Las Vegas. Scotty Nguyen quickly grabbed the attention of all poker players in the city by winning massive amounts of money each night. However, like Mike Matusow, Scotty feel victim to the dark side of the city, specifically drugs and alcohol. Nguyen quickly lost all his money. Unfortunately for Nguyen, his problem with drugs and alcohol would linger with him for years to come. In 1997, Scotty won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in a $2k buy in Omaha 8 or Better tournament for $157k, but he managed to lose all of that money as well. It wasn't truly until 1998 that his life and poker career got on the right track.

In 1998 Scotty was still broke after losing almost all of his money to drugs and partying. When then summer of '98 came around he knew he had to play in the World Series of Poker somehow. Through satellites and getting staked by other players (Specifically, Mike Matusow put down $3,333 for Scotty to play in the Main Event), Nguyen entered the No Limit Hold Em Main Event, and won the event for his second bracelet and a cool $1 million. On the final hand of that tournament, Scotty coined his catch phrase that he is still known for now when he said, “You call, It's gunna be all over baby”. To this day, Scotty still calls all of his opponents, “baby”. Scotty Nguyen went on to win 3 more WSOP bracelets. His third came in 2001 when he won a $2.5k Pot Limit Omaha event for $178k. He captured his 4th bracelet in as well in 2001 by winning another $5k Omaha Hi/Lo event for a grand total of $288k.

His 5th and final bracelet was also the most controversial. In 2008 after the passing of poker professional Chip Reese, Scotty Nguyen won the $50k buy in HORSE event at the 2008 WSOP along with the Chip Reese trophy. At the final table, however, Scotty was drinking heavily and became very drunk. It got to the point where Scotty was cursing, yelling and slandering one particular opponent. The controversy came when the tournament directors did not punish or reprehend Scotty in anyway. The poker community became angry that he was not penalized, most likely because he was Scotty Nguyen a famous poker player. Nonetheless, Scotty still won the event for about $2 million. To this day, Nguyen admits that he has give up drugs but still has a bit of a problem when it comes to booze.

In his poker career, The Prince has also won 2 World Poker Tour events, one in 2006 and one in 2009. His latest victory came when winning the HORSE event at the LA Poker Classic series. Through his success in a wide variety of poker games, Nguyen is considered to be one of the best all around poker players alive. To date, he has won nearly $11 million in tournaments.