Scotty Nguyen

Thuan “Scotty” Nguyen (born October 28, 1962 in Nha Trang, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese American professional poker player. Nguyen is one of the most active players in professional poker today, and from 2000 to 2004 he finished in the money in more than 100 events. He won the 1998 World Series of Poker WSOP bracelets main event and has 4 overall.

Nguyen is noted for saying “baby” and “yeah baby” frequently during poker matches as well as playing with lots of emotion. He also has coined the phrase “That’s poker baby” when referring to a particularly bad beat. On the final hand of the 1998 World Series of Poker’s Main Event, a full house was dealt on the table (9-9-8-8-8). Nguyen made the memorable quote to his opponent Kevin McBride: “You call, gonna be all over baby!” [sic] McBride called, and Nguyen beat McBride with a better full house (9-9-9-8-8).

Scotty’s triumph, however, was followed immediately by tragedy—the very next day, one of his brothers was hit by a car back home in Vietnam, and killed. For this reason, Scotty does not wear his 1998 WSOP championship bracelet.

Nguyen made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in April 2004.

After making several World Poker Tour final tables, Nguyen eventually won a WPT event in January 2006, defeating Michael Mizrachi heads-up in the fourth season Gold Strike World Poker Open when his A-c Q-c made a flush against Mizrachi’s A-s J-d on the very first hand of heads-up round. With this WPT victory, Scotty became one of only 5 people to win both the main event of the World Series of Poker and a World Poker Tour title.

Nguyen earned a second place finish at the 2007 World Series of Poker in the seven card stud high low split eight or better event won by Eli Elezra. Scotty stated after the event that he hadn’t played cash games in over two years because he dislikes taking other peoples money. Scotty also nearly made the final table of the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing in 11th place out of a field of 6,358 and earning $476,926.

As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,500,000.

Nguyen has also made appearances on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour playing Elimination Blackjack.