Scotty Nguyen Drunk HORSE Escapades
If you happened to catch the 50K buy in HORSE tournament last night on ESPN, you saw a touching tribute to Chip Reese during the first 10 minutes. Chip passed away last winter unexpectedly and left a legacy as one of the classiest, most successful poker players in history. Because of the mutual respect that spanned the entire professional poker-playing world, it was a nice gesture of the WSOP to memorialize Chip by presenting a trophy adorned with his name to the winner of this event. Chip won the inaugural 50K HORSE event two years ago, making his name to even the most casual poker fan.
Scotty Nguyen had an opportunity to not only win this tournament but personify his “prince of poker” alias that many know him by. Instead, once the cocktails (cocktails apparently means cheap beer by the bottle to Scotty) started flowing his total lack of class began to manifest itself. Earlier in the tournament, 23 year old Michael DeMichelle went a little over the top as he raked a few big pots. The most notable coming against Barry Greenstein when his celebration bordered on juvenile.
As several of the pros took jabs at the youngster, Scotty began to drink heavily. By the time it was three handed with Eric Lindgren in the mix, Scotty proceeded to absolutely make an ass of himself. His constant banter and repeated use of the “F bomb” and other profanities even pushed Eric to the brink. Amazingly, he was never cautioned on TV or got any sort of “Mike Matusow” penalty by the tournament director. By the time Eric was eliminated, he even took the unusual step (for Eric) of telling the young DeMichelle to take out Scotty.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be with DeMichelle losing the event to Scotty shortly after heads up play began. He was never able to overcome the 6-1 chip deficit and lost in the limit hold’em session with A 3 vs. Scotty’s A 10. By this time, Scotty was too drunk to even be interviewed on television. At least ESPN and the WSOP knew to stop the bleeding at some point. Too bad it wasn’t earlier in the tournament, it could have helped the game save some face. It certainly was the antithesis of what the tournament’s namesake represented.
Here is the video of Scotty Drunk at the table:
Randy G said
am August 21 2008 @ 12:42 am
All the times I have seen Scotty Playing he always has his bottle of Budweiser. He has an amazing capacity for his body weight. I think he uses the loud drunk antics against unsuspecting fish, however it did get out of hand during this tournament. Away from the table Scotty is generous with fans and very friendly. At the table he is ruthless.
During his final hour at the 2007 WSOP Scotty succumbed to his demons and blew through his stack. I think he needs to slow down on his intake for longer tournaments in order to make it to the end with any kind of decorum.
He has now become the “Dark Prince of Poker”. However, with celebrities all media coverage is good (like Poker Brat Antics).
Even with his drinking, Scotty is still one of my favorite players to watch. I can imagine WSOP or WTP stopping cocktail service during the final tables. That might not fly with Budweiser sponsorship of the WTP table cams.
Kevin said
am August 22 2008 @ 2:41 am
Wow what a travesty that a tournament with that type of dedication was finished in that manner. That was one of the rawest displays of a meltdown of human emaotions. Unless he makes a public apology, I think Scotty will be forever removed from the hearts of many of his fans.
CoolHand said
am August 23 2008 @ 3:05 pm
Yeah I was in a bit a shock when I was watching this on tv. I always thought Scotty was a classy guy but I guess I was wrong. This was a sad display. Maybe he will get some help with his drinking and come back and prove my initial thoughts about him correct.
Beer Pong - New WSOP Event in 2009 said
am August 25 2008 @ 1:17 pm
[...] light of the recent breakdown by (non) recovering alcoholic Scotty Nguyen the WSOP announced today that Beer Pong will be added [...]
Dolemite said
am September 4 2008 @ 9:48 am
Come on, who here has never done something stupid while drunk? I’ve done countless things while intoxicated that I’m not proud of. Of course my shenanigans were at local bars and not at the WSOP. Long live Scotty and his hilarious antics.
GIR said
am September 8 2008 @ 6:45 pm
Scotty was drunk and nasty. It was bad to watch.
Will the final nine be allowed to drink and cuss?
WSOP needs to deal with the drinking and bad language.
I’ve seen players penalized for bad language during a tournament. Why wasn’t Scotty?
WSOP WISE UP!
Easy Solution to Muzzle Scotty Nguyen said
am October 4 2008 @ 12:07 pm
[...] are still trying to figure out how to silence one Mr. Scotty Nguyen to avoid a repeat of his drunken meltdown at the 50K HORSE Event, it appears Mike Matusow has figured it out [...]
Delirium said
am January 5 2009 @ 2:33 am
Scotty Nguyen not only won the H.O.R.S.E. tournament, he won the horse’s ass tournament as well. It is bad enough to show that little class in general, but to do it at a memorial event is disgraceful. I hope both the tournament director and the “Prince of Poker” are ashamed of themselves. The whole thing really pointed out what a gentleman Erick Lindgren is.
johnathan young said
am January 17 2009 @ 2:45 pm
yea dude, someone needs to spell check this dude.. its not WTP its WPT. “World Poker Tour”. Unreal….