Say it aint so...Scotty?

I, along with lots of other people in the poker community, was completely floored to go to bed knowing that Scotty had over 15 million in chips and was cruising to Tuesday's final table, only to wake up at 4am for a drink of water only to wander over to my still open computer to see he was eliminated before the final table. Hell...he was eliminated in less that an hour. I can only imagine the ESPN personnel on staff that wanted to cry. Having Scotty at the final table, with a bunch of chips, would have made for great...did I say great...TV. I now wonder how they were "Brainstorming" ...how they just wanted to "Figure out a way" to get him to the final table. No, they had a plan to get Hellmuth to the final table, but they just could not figure out a way to get Scotty there. I am going to cut and paste from an article by Andrew Feldman called "Why Scotty...Why" as Andrew was there watching. I am going to make comments on the hands...etc. Keep in mind that Scotty is one of my favorite players and I am in no way going to second guess his decisions.

"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"

This was the comments from Watkinson. I have to think that after seeing the hands that maybe he was thinking about Jamie Gold last year, and he was convinced he would need a dominant chip stack at the final table to win it all. Maybe he thought he would need at least 40% of the chips in play...I don't know.

"Even the supporters of his opponents cheered for Nguyen when their friends weren't involved in the hand against him. Imagine that at any other "sporting" event"

Sort of a..."The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...logic

In the first hand, Nguyen called a preflop raise only to have another player move all-in over the top. Nguyen folded.

Easy enough...

In the second hand, Lam raised from the small blind to $480,000 and Nguyen reraised from the big blind to $1.48 million. Lam called and the flop came Kh-5s-4h. Lam checked and Nguyen bet $700,000 only to have Lam call. The turn was another king and both players checked, slowing down momentarily. On the river, a jack came and Lam bet out for $1 million. After what seemed like minutes, Nguyen raised to $3.5 million and five minutes of deliberation later, Lam called and showed pocket 10s to take the pot. Nguyen showed 4-3 on his busted bluff attempt, and the negative swing continued.

The most crucial hand I think...thoughts ...comments? We all know that feeling. Being deep in a tournament on a stone cold bluff with your opponent in the tank for...it seemed like an eternity...only to have him say "Call" ...and then you get that kick to the stomach...Ouch

The very next hand practically marked the end for Nguyen. With a board of Qc-6h-5d-Kd, Nguyen re-raised Him all-in and was instantly called to see a set of fives. Nguyen, with A-Q, was drawing dead heading to the river and was crippled.

Somewhat of a "cooler"...but I want to think that he should have gotten away from this somehow. He just lost a "Huge" hand right before this one . We don't know the pre-flop play but I am sure there was raising involved...I don't know

The agony ended when Nguyen called from the blind and pushed all-in when he was first to act on a board of Kc-7c-3s. Once again Him instantly called with a pair of kings (Ks-Qc) and Nguyen, holding 9c-10c, needed a club to stay alive. Missing both the turn and river, Nguyen was eliminated and grabbed hold of the microphone to acknowledge the support he's received over the past few days.

Jam with a club flush draw.

My heart hurts just typing this. What hurt me the most was as I was reading this, I knew what the eventual outcome will be...He busts out. What also hurt was I can just see myself in a similar situation making these same types of calls/plays...and then being totally pissed off at myself. I would call Bill/Ray/Tex and rant and rave about "How could that guy have called with pocket 10's"...etc. "Why did I continue to Bluff", or "Why fire that last bullet after the river...just call and keep 2.5 million". My wife would then have had to see me mope around for a week, and then dig my nose into yet another poker book to figure out "What went wrong?"...Not Scotty though

I still have a long way to go, and I will finish this post off with a quote from a true champ..."Baby".

"First, I want to congratulate all the players here," Nguyen said. "I wish the best to all of you. But the most important thing is I want to thank the fans. Without you guys, we wouldn't have Scotty Nguyen. We're disappointed, but let me tell you, you guys gave me all I need"
Poker Champ Scoty Nguyen after being knocked out of the 2007 WSOP Main Event