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