I caught an unusual situation recently that involved Scotty Nguyen. Unusual in the fact that not only does it not happen often, but you’re shocked as a spectator whenever it does happen.
We’re in one of the earlier rounds of the Full Tilt World Championship of Poker in Las Vegas back in 2007. We pick up the game post-flop, the only two players left are Robert Varkonyi and Scotty Nguyen, who the commentators remind us is “one of the most feared players in all of poker.” Hard to argue with that, but he won’t be for this one hand, at least.
So here’s the situation. Varkonyi has 9, 7 clubs – basically nothing. Scotty Nguyen has Ace, Jack off-suit. The flop comes up Jack (clubs), 2, King. Already, Nguyen, sitting cool in his red baseball hat and midnight black sunglasses, has a 93% advantage. That won’t stop Varkonyi, however, who’s ready and willing to try to take this hand with a bluff. He steamrolls in $1,600. His eyes give away behind his immovable mug that he’s praying Nguyen folds. But no such luck as the pro thinks for a second and then calls.
The turn is a queen of diamonds. On the PKR screen, Nguyen gets a check mark. There’s no way Varkonyi can with this hand with better cards now. However, both players check. Just by judging the game so far, I was convinced Nguyen was playing coy, and that he knew he had the man in a bad, half-assed bluff.
The River is a four of hearts, no help to either player. Varkonyi quickly turns to his chips and shovels in $3,000. This is a great but extremely bold and risky move. Great because it shows online poker balls, and he hasn’t really given away anything up to this point. Risky because he’s in for almost half of his chips with the bet on absolutely nothing. But you gotta spend money to make money.
Scotty Nguyen fondles his chips a few times…you’re just rooting for him to call or push back. But he doesn’t, he actually gives in to the bluff and folds his cards. I was more shocked to see him fold than I was to see the second bluff come out. An incredibly unusual, backward turn of events.
Of course, you can’t keep the most “feared player in all of poker” down for long. Just a few hands later, Nguyen gained his revenge and sent Varkonyi packing for good.