Why Scotty?

[Ace-Ex]

Why Scotty? Why?
by: Andrew Feldman
posted: Monday, July 16, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

I'm in shock. I know I shouldn't be, knowing the playing style of Scotty Nguyen, but I think that what I witnessed for 47 minutes early Monday morning has left me temporarily in a state of confusion. I know it's just poker, but especially in poker, even the improbable can happen. Imagine your favorite team giving up a 10-run lead in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the World Series -- I feel the same way after the most recent action on Day 6.

At 12:24 a.m., Nguyen's chip count was at $17.8 million after winning two big pots against the chip leader at his table.

At 1:11 a.m., Nguyen was eliminated in 11th place.

In between that short amount of time, it seemed that Nguyen was involved in every single pot, and most of them were for at least a couple of million chips. "He wanted to win this tournament tonight," Lee Watkinson said of Nguyen's usually dominant aggression. Unfortunately, that aggression is what essentially ended his improbable run at another main event title and the the poker world's hopes for a repeat champion.

Link to complete article.

Edited by entertainme: Sorry we can't include the full text of copyrighted material in 2p2 posts. Link provided to complete article.

[NickyC]

I know, I went to bed when he was around $17 million because I knew he had the final table made. I woke up this morning and felt sick.
Over the years I have loved watching this guy play, something draws you to him. I was so excited that he was doing well, and I was really interested in the main event for the first time in a few years. I was all set to buy the PPV and laugh my ass off as Scotty sat there with a huge grin, loads of chips, and empty Michelob bottles all over the place. Unfortunately, I won't be buying the PPV now, and I could really not care less who won now. Nobody in at the FT interests me. BORING.

A couple years ago I remember an interview Scotty gave on a WPT episode, right after he busted out. He told the interviewer something to the effect that he always blows it or something like that. He comes in the leader, and blows it. It was sad to watch because you could see the hurt in his eyes. I think this pill is going to be a lot harder to swallow because of the history involved, but I hope Scotty pulls through.

[Jasper109]

I think that all of these really great players have a lot of "degenerate gambler" within them along with a certain arrogance. (I feeling that they are better than the other players)

This is what makes them great, but it also leads to inexplicable meltdowns like the one we witnessed last night.

He could have folded to the final table which would have further cemented his legacy, but something inside him just wouldn't allow him to do that.

Or maybe he was just unlucky, and I don't know what I'm talking about.

[True North]

I was waiting for someone to say this. I went to bed with Scotty between 4-5 million in chips, and when I started reading the hand logs from after I went to bed and got to Scotty's big double up, I was certain he'd be at the final table, probably sitting on the second or third-biggest chip stack.

I was disappointed to read what followed, but after thinking about it, I can't say I was all that surprised. It shouldn't have been all that shocking that he tried to run over the table playing Scotty Nguyen poker, instead of staying away from the big bluff and letting the overmatched amateurs play big pots with him drawing slim or dead (like the nines full hand that doubled him up). It's almost as though he didn't want to make the final table if he couldn't play his style of poker.

[montanajo]

He wanted to win the tourney today and thought with his stack he can push everyone around.If he made final 10 maybe it would have worked,how tight the others were playing on tv bubble

[greg nice]

nooooooooooooooooo

[True North]

But being bullied off hands is not how people have been eliminating themselves this entire tournament. For every big fold to a bluff, there have been about ten horrendous calls for huge amounts of chips. I don't think there was much to gain by trying to run the table over at that point as opposed to playing tighter, given how much people have been overvaluing their hands the entire way.

[Austiger]

Respectfully, the AQ hand was not "trying to push everyone around." It was donking off a stack. No better hand folds and no worse hand calls.

As sick as I feel about Scotty missing the FT, I can only imagine how it would feel if I were the one who missed it. As they say, it's a "hard way to make an easy living."

[pknight212]

scotty didnt play to make the final table, he was playing to win. Gotta give him props for having the cajones to play the way he did once he got the chips.

I went to bed before he started his big rush, which I'm kind of glad about now, because I wouldve been all the more devasted when I woke up and found that he was eliminated.

As disappointing as it is, 11th place isnt bad in this minefield. Major props to all the bigname pros who've managed to go deep in the past couple years.

[Jasper109]

[ QUOTE ]
Respectfully, the AQ hand was not "trying to push everyone around." It was donking off a stack. No better hand folds and no worse hand calls.

As sick as I feel about Scotty missing the FT, I can only imagine how it would feel if I were the one who missed it. As they say, it's a "hard way to make an easy living."

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd figure that a top pro wouldn't donk off most of his stack with TPTK. Hard to explain.