Scotty Nguyen v Kevin McBride

The 1998 WSOP Main Event

The scene is the final table of the main event of the 1998 WSOP. The weird and wonderful Scotty Nguyen is heads up with Kevin McBride, two very different players. Nguyen is massively more experienced than McBride, who most regard as a guy on vacation who hit some cards and got lucky with his draws.

The tournament hadn’t got off to a particularly auspicious start with defending champion and poker legend, Stu Ungar, upstairs in his hotel room and refusing to come down to play. With his nose caved in thanks to a 15-year coke habit he looked in the mirror and decided he wasn’t fit to play.

But once the tournament was under way, Scotty Nguyen, all his usual clanking bling in place, began to build a commanding chip stack. Boy did the cards come! He hit quads twice and each time his opponent moved all-in against him. Aggressively navigating through the field of 350 players, he reached the final table as one of the big stacks.

McBride started the final day by knocking out Lee Salem and Dewey Weum, leaving Scotty, TJ Cloutier and himself to play for the World Championship. Now it was McBride who was hitting cards, and he started bossing his vastly more experienced opponents, eventually knocking out Cloutier.

That left Nguyen mano-a-mano with the amateur. Scotty Nguyen started the heads up battle as the small stack but got back to about even. After Nguyen river a straight with J-10 to beat McBride's two pair, it was now Scotty who took a commanding chip lead.

It all came to a head in this last hand which you can watch online.

Nguyen was dealt Jd-9c while McBride had Qh-10h.

Odds Before the Flop:
Nguyen: 34%
McBride: 66%

McBride raised $50,000 and Scotty Nguyen called. The flop came 8c-9d-9h, giving Nguyen trip nines and McBride a gut-shot straight draw with two overcards.

Odds After the Flop:
Nguyen: 95%
McBride: 5%

Nguyen checked and McBride bet $100,000 on a semi-bluff. After thinking for a while Nguyen called. The turn brought the 8h, giving McBride a straight flush draw and Nguyen a full house.

Odds After the Turn:
Nguyen: 98%
McBride: 2%

Only the Jh would give McBride the best hand at this point – a straight flush. Nguyen checked and again McBride bet $100,000. Nguyen called and the river card was the 8s, which made a full house on the board.

Nguyen now bet out $310,000, which would put McBride all-in if he decided to call. As McBride was thinking, Nguyen famously goaded him saying: “You call, gonna be all over baby.” Falling into Nguyen's trap, McBride answered: “I call. I play the board.”

The hand won Nguyen the title and $1 million in prize money. As one of a rare breed of players, who drink alcohol whilst playing, a sponsorship deal with a leading US beer-brand shortly followed. Since 1998, Scotty Nguyen has remained one of the top poker pros adding many further titles and final table finishes to his poker CV.

The Judge's Verdict

Scotty Nguyen played this hand beautifully and if ever the words “class will out” applied to a WSOP main event final hand then this is the one.

McBride couldn't know for sure that he had walked into a monster but once Scotty called his semi-bluff after the flop, he should have slowed down especially once the turn bought a second 8.

Also his post-flop could have been half the $100,000 and achieved the same result. But by making a large bet on the flop and then following up on the turn, he had committed so many chips that it was very difficult for him to get away from the hand.