UNDER THE GUN 5 QUESTIONS WITH ANDY BLOCH

1
You’ve taken some abuse from Norman Chad for the snakeskin cowboy hat with the hole in the brim. What do you consider to be the worst fashion accessory in poker today?

First off, getting abuse from Chad is a compliment! To answer your question, the worst fashion accessories are Perry Friedman’s hand puppet, Stu, and his red hair streak.

2
You lost an extraordinary heads-up match with Chip Reese in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event in 2006, and luck seemed to favor him in most or all of the big hands. Looking back, how upset are you that a few unlucky breaks prevented you from staking a claim to the unofficial title of “best all-around poker player in the world”?

Ninety-three percent of the time, I would have won one of those all-ins and been the champion, so it’s really like I lost to a three-outer with one card to come. Finishing second after such a long match was disappointing at first, but it’s not the worst beat in the world, and walking away with a check for $1,000,000 made a lot of the pain go away.

3
When’s the last time you went on tilt at the poker table?

I go on Full Tilt all the time. I can’t remember when I last went on regular tilt.

4
As both a poker pro and a blackjack expert, what’s your take on Elimination Blackjack, and can it ever become as popular as tournament poker?

The game is easier to learn, but you don’t have as much hidden information and bluffing as in poker. One thing that makes poker good on TV is that the viewer knows more than the players. I think one or both starting cards should be dealt face down in Elimination Blackjack, and they should use hole-card cams.

5
If you had to name one poker player who’s a completely different person when the TV cameras are turned off, who would that person be?

None. Of the top pros, all their personalities show through when they are on TV. Some players might be a little less restrained when on TV because they are playing to the cameras. But if I had to say someone, I’d say Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow. Although they sometimes berate their opponents at the poker table, they are both nice guys away from the table.

The In-Zeid Scoop

BY CORY ZEIDMAN
Please Shut Up!

IT’S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT I talk more than anybody you’ve ever played with at a poker table. I like to have a good time while I play and am able to still maintain maximum concentration while chattering away. One of the fringe benefits of doing a lot of talking at the table is that it can take some people off their game. The “noise” bothers them. They should eat my shorts. If they don’t like it, they should stick to online poker (which I’m sure some do). As far as I’m concerned, talk at a poker table should almost be mandatory. In the Old West, I’m sure table talk led to some heads getting blown off, but hey, it made for plenty of interesting stories, so it was worth it.

I am smart enough, though, to shut up if I’m bothering the wrong person (e.g., the “fish”). Another thing I won’t do is make inappropriate comments that could screw up a hand. Unfortunately, with the current poker boom, with all the TV cameras going and with players becoming household names, some of them don’t know how to shut their mouths when it’s necessary.

Simple rules to follow: If you’re not in a hand, don’t comment on anything to do with the hand until it’s over; if you’re in a multi-way pot, don’t comment on anything concerning what you think until the hand becomes heads up. It gets really nauseating when you watch some of the star players break these simple rules, and the problem isn’t that these players don’t know better; it’s that some of them are so full of themselves that they think for some twisted reason the TV audience or the other players at the table want to hear their words of wisdom.

A perfect example that I’m sure many of you have seen was during the U.S. Poker Championship at the Taj Mahal a couple of years ago. There was a hand involving Amnon “Eric” Filippi and Mark Seif. I’ve played with both, and I’d rather have a nasty paper cut on my tongue. Anyway, there was a very important all-in hand taking place at their table. Two guys were hooked up in a situation where the first guy to act post-flop moved in on an open-ended straight draw (a semi-bluff), and the other player was contemplating a call for a while (he also had a draw—a bigger straight draw with two overcards). The call would have cost him about 20 percent of his stack, and as he was deliberating, the two geniuses, Filippi and Seif, started bantering about the hand, making totally inappropriate comments.

Look, people are playing with millions of dollars at stake. No one, and I mean no one, is bigger than the game. And that includes Jamie Gold, who really brought this issue to the forefront during his World Series Main Event title run in 2006 when he repeatedly made inappropriate comments during hands with three or more players involved.

In cash games, you tend to witness this behavior particularly often. You see people feeling a need to comment as they muck or call while others are still waiting their turn to act. Heads up in a hand, I personally feel that all comments are fair game. But when three or more are in a hand, there should be very strict penalties for talking out of line.

I am a huge proponent of table talk. But it has to be done within the confines of the rules.

Cory Zeidman can be reached at CSZALLIN@aol.com.

Making Histor-E

Harrah’s brings the WSOP to Europe, and Annette Obrestad wins one for the young, for the women, and for the Europeans
BY WENDEEN H. EOLIS

NO SOONER THAN HARRAH’S ANNOUNCED IT had acquired London Cubs International (LCI) in late-2006, World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and his WSOP team hit the ground running with a bold plan in mind. The forward-thinking marketing group of Pollack, Ty Stewart, Gary Thompson, and Craig Abrahams was poised to set down stakes for a spectacular poker event to show off the art and drama of the WSOP outside the United States.

The first meeting between WSOP and LCI executives was held at LCI’s headquarters in London a mere three days after the Harrah’s announcement. Accompanied by Abrahams, Commissioner Pollack opened discussions for a grand World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) event in London.

***
In September, the inaugural WSOPE, presented by Betfair.com, played to its thunderbolt conclusion at LCI’s flagship property, Casino at the Empire, on a poker stage that was fittingly a stone’s throw from the grand art of London’s National Gallery in the heart of the city’s venerable Theatre District. Even the group of creative thinkers that make up the WSOP’s marketing team could not have dreamed up the triple-barreled, record-setting performance of Norwegian player Annette Obrestad. More than 150 reporters from all over the world took notice of her astonishing play in the final event and have embraced her as the new media darling of the poker world. So has sponsor Betfair, which signed a deal with her to represent the company—even before her extraordinary victory.

Hours before her 19th birthday, Obrestad won the main event of the inaugural WSOPE, a £10,000 ($20,137) buy-in event that yielded a £1,000,000 ($2,013,734) first-place prize for her. Obrestad bested 362 players in a field of talent that included many of the most accomplished and seasoned players in the world. The likes of Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, David “Devilfish” Ulliot, Marcel Luske, and Gus Hansen were all part of the starting list. Obrestad had her work carved out for her.

In one fell swoop, Obrestad permanently destroyed any vestiges of a felt ceiling over the heads of female players, while also crushing the hopes of a large contingent of visiting American poker pros. Obrestad was the talk of the tables from the beginning to the end. A known quantity on the Internet, she was the new girl in town when she knocked out Jennifer Harman. She became the one to watch even before she took out Annie Duke.

Obrestad moved up the ladder passing every other male marquee player in her quest to reach the final table. With the departure of Hansen in 10th place, there were no more big-name live-tournament players to kick around anymore. After a grueling series of battles, Obrestad’s set of sevens overpowered John Tabatabai’s two pair, sending the young Englishman to the rail in second place. Obrestad raised her hand as the heavyweight champion of poker in Europe with a million pounds weighing her down.

Both Obrestad and Tabatabai were learned veterans of Internet card room competition. Their performances reflect ample proof that cyberspace offers an incomparable, fast-track training ground for young poker players. Obrestad had reportedly scored hundreds of thousands of dollars of winnings in online tournaments—against large fields of players that spanned six continents from America to Australia—prior to taking her seat at the WSOPE main event. Commissioner Pollack commented about Obrestad’s win: “It is a great message about the power of women poker players, and she clearly represents the new generation.”

***
At 18, Obrestad was of legal age to compete at Harrah’s London-based venue. Her highly publicized win, nevertheless, created a double-edged sword for Harrah’s. The American-headquartered company offers all of its other poker events across the United States, where the legal age to gamble is 21.
Her win put a brilliant spotlight on the WSOP brand in Europe, but from now until September 2009, she will not be able to journey to any of the WSOP Circuit Events, nor will she be eligible to participate in the fabled Las Vegas-based original WSOP. The World Series is the richest and most prestigious poker event on the planet. ALL IN asked Commissioner Pollack (who prefers to be called Jeffrey by friends, colleagues, and players he has met), “How does Obrestad’s win affect the image of Harrah’s and its responsibility to young people?” He responded, “Harrah’s is committed to responsible gaming in every market in which we operate. The legal age for gaming in the United Kingdom is 18, so Annette was welcomed to enter the tournament and we proudly crowned her champion. In the United States, however, the legal age is 21, so she has a couple of more years to go before she can experience the WSOP in Las Vegas.”

The conflict between the legal age to gamble in the U.K. and the U.S. did not impede Obrestad’s negotiations for a sponsorship deal with several European online poker sites in the weeks leading up to the WSOPE. Betfair was the successful suitor, picking up the wunderkind as its poker ambassador and as part of the Betfair Pro Poker Team. The U.K.’s largest online betting company announced its coup before her play at the final table, noting that it was her previously proven poker skills and personality that interested the company, without regard to the outcome of her final table appearance at the WSOPE.

How sweet it was, both for Obrestad and Betfair, to add to her resume in the WSOPE finale. Under the bright lights of television and in the presence of reporters from around the world, Obrestad expressed pride in her new association with Betfair and displayed humility about her history-making win, proving Betfair’s assessment on the money. Betfair also made a deal with Thomas “Buzzer” Bihl, who won the opening £2,500 pound H.O.R.S.E. event to become the first player in history to win a WSOP bracelet beyond American shoes.

***
If not for the marketing genius of the WSOP team that brought its product to Europe, Obrestad might still be branded as a Norwegian poker prodigy. Instead, she will be known henceforth as the European queen who beat the worldly kings of poker. The story of her historic WSOPE Championship performance is part of another story: Harrah’s decision to rev up the marketing engine of the WSOP brand.

In August 2005, Pollack joined Harrah’s as vice president of sports and entertainment. The two-time Emmy Award winning media and sports executive had previously been managing director of broadcasting and new media for NASCAR, where he led the use of advanced media and the newest technologies to increase fan accessibility. He also helped direct NASCAR’s network television partnerships and spearheaded NASCAR’s season-launch marketing efforts. As executive producer of NASCAR IN CAR, he received a 2003 Primetime Emmy for outstanding achievement in interactive television programming and garnered a 2004 Sports Emmy for outstanding innovative technical achievement. In 2004, he was honored with the first-ever Billboard Digital Entertainment Award for best interactive television programming.

Pollack was a natural to lead the way for Harrah’s in extending the WSOP brand worldwide. In January ’06, the formal role and title of commissioner was added to his initial responsibilities. “I have always been attracted to opportunities to do things that haven’t been done before, and it was obvious there were lots of opportunities here,” he explained when asked what about the new post appealed to him. He described his plans as follows: “to essentially modernize a 38-year-old brand that has rich traditions and heritage.” He added, “The job has been what I expected it to be, and more–all of it good.”

The commissioner also explained how the additional title came about. “Harrah’s management decided, given the nature of the work that needed to be done and our desire to further establish the WSOP as a leader and innovator, it made sense to hold one person publicly accountable–on the line when things go wrong.” Jeffrey sees the most significant mandates of his job as “community building and accountability.”

Immediately upon his arrival at Harrah’s, Pollack started to work the phones, reaching out to top players and others with longtime experience at the WSOP. He didn’t shirk from hearing or addressing complaints. The outgrowth of his listening tour was the creation of the Players Advisory Council (PAC). The concept of a player sounding board and a cooperative discussion group between players and Harrah’s WSOP executive staff worked so well that the group has evolved from a half-dozen players at its inception to 16 players today. “The PAC has had an enormous and invaluable impact on the WSOP,” Pollack observed.

“When we started, I thought we would meet two or three times a year and that would be it. The interaction and dialogue is year-round, and even weekly. There hasn’t been a major decision made about the WSOP in the last year in which the PAC hasn’t had an opportunity to weigh in on operations structures and other matters. Each member comes with different perspective and cares deeply about the WSOP. What is so special about the Council is they are open forums and every perspective is encouraged.” The PAC has worked so well that last spring Jeffrey decided to expand the concept for international players (called the “IPAC”), as the WSOP team readied to roll out the 2007 World Series and the WSOPE in rapid-fire succession.

Full disclosure: Early last spring, Jeffrey sat me down and proposed that I help organize such a group. Over lunch he reminded me, as he had in other more casual conversations, “Customer issues are immensely important in the scheme of growing both the WSOP and WSOPE brands. So much of my job is about listening, diplomacy, finding a way for people to understand each other. Getting to know your constituency is very important.”

Jeffrey Pollack is not afraid to talk to people with different views; he actually seems to enjoy the challenge of turning around people who are critical. Ask noted pro Steve Zolotow, who upon meeting Jeffrey was more interested in securing his boss’ telephone number to complain about him than in listening to the commissioner’s excuses for the long WSOP registration lines and the new playing cards that had been introduced without adequate testing of suitability. A week later, Pollack and Zolotow had a lunch meeting. Steve has since joined PAC.

Long before meeting up with Zolotow, however, Jeffrey Pollack recognized there was much to do to enhance the image of the WSOP and extend the brand. It was no surprise that immediately upon assuming his position at Harrah’s, Jeffrey assembled a highly credentialed, hard-charging team to consider, modify, and expand on the vision for extending the WSOP brand.

Gary Thompson, a longtime Harrah’s communications executive with a love for our game was already overseeing communications issues for the WSOP. Jeffrey quickly counted the blessings of having Thompson in the mix. Pollack also scored a touchdown in hiring his longtime friend Ty Stewart, who previously had a seven-year stint with the NFL in creative sports marketing. He joined Harrah’s as director of sponsorship and licensing. Craig Abrahams came aboard the WSOP team as director of broadcasting and new media after serving as an intern with Harrah’s the previous summer. The freshly minted Harvard Business School graduate had impressed one and all at Harrah’s throughout his internship, so Pollack scooped him up quickly. The blended experience of Pollack’s team produced the ideal think tank required to bring the WSOPE concept to life.

Jeffrey applauds everyone on the WSOP team, going beyond the front line of his marketing team to include all those that have paved the way for the possibility of a WSOPE through their significant contributions. He made special note of Howard Greenbaum, Geno Iafrate, and Joe Scibetta. He added more praise for the yeoman efforts of “hundreds of others at the Rio and throughout our company. Without these fine people, the business doesn’t work. Their expertise and passion make a big difference every day.”

Continuing to extol his praises for the people he works with, Pollack said, “In the instance of the WSOPE, Ty and Craig really led the charge with an incredible assist from Angele Marshall. Jack Effel, Gary, and I really showed up after the hard work had been done.” Jeffrey is never satisfied with merely rattling off a few deserved acknowledgments. He wants us to appreciate, as fully as he does, the value of others’ contributions—high level colleagues and critical supporting casts alike.

“Ty is simply one of the most creative sports marketers I’ve ever met,” he continued. “Craig is an analytic genius.” He called Thompson his consigliere and “the voice of experience and wisdom at every turn.” He continued, “Jack does a masterful job pulling together the tournament operations and helped us immeasurably in making the transition from Las Vegas to London.” He said of Angele Marshall, who had been based in London with LCI prior to the Harrah’s acquisition of the British gaming company, “She is an incredibly gifted, young event coordinator who has launched her career with the WSOP in grand style.”

While Laura Tibbs operates mostly behind the scenes, the commissioner wanted to insure that every top player and every customer knows that “Laura is the heartbeat of our team.”A dedicated assistant to Jeffrey and the entire team, Tibbs also helps manage player relations and coordinates everything with PAC and IPAC.

Given his credo, “Good ideas belong to the team; bad ones are my fault,” it is no wonder that he credits the idea for the recently concluded WSOPE as the brainchild of an exuberant team that developed its strategic marketing plan with gusto. He said, “We started thinking and talking about WSOP events outside of the U.S. in late 2005, really when I got to Harrah’s. We’d been exploring doing something in Europe for just about all of 2006, and when we acquired LCI, that accelerated our thinking and our plans.” Once Harrah’s was set to purchase London Clubs, “It was easy to decide to stage an event, it was just a question of when.” The rest is history.

***
In addition to becoming the youngest player ever to win a WSOP bracelet event, Annette Obrestad also eclipsed Annie Duke’s single-event women’s record for earnings, as Duke won $2,000,000 in the 2004 Tournament of Champions. Duke tipped her hat to Obrestad after the event, commenting that she had been seated to the left of this cool-as-a cucumber opponent during part of the tournament and never wanted to face that challenge again.

By anyone’s standards, Obrestad’s achievement is genuinely awesome, particularly in light of the stiff competition she faced in the main event of the WSOPE. From WSOP world champions Jamie Gold, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and Greg Raymer to fellow Norwegian Thor Hansen, Obrestad was surrounded by the best of the best, including perhaps the premier all-around female poker player in the world, Jennifer Harman.

Like Obrestad, Harman is petite and known to be lethal at the poker tables. She has won millions of dollars in a single session at the Big Game in Las Vegas as well as two WSOP bracelets. In the opening event of the WSOPE, a £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, Harman cruised from the starting gate to the final table, where she accumulated a massive chip lead. She could almost taste a historic win. But a sudden reversal of fortune turned into a downspin. She landed with a second-place finish in the maiden WSOPE competition, while Thomas Bihl of Germany became the first player in the history of WSOP competition to earn a bracelet outside the United States. At the end of a 13-hour final table, Bihl, a four-year pro, showed the power of discipline, desire, and determination at the poker table to win £70,875, or about $141,000.

Between the hoopla of the opening H.O.R.S.E event and far more hoopla at the finale, the WSOPE rolled out a £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha competition. Until the recent No-Limit Hold ’Em craze, Pot-Limit Omaha had been the predominant game of choice in the major poker centers of the U.K. for decades.
As it was in the other two tournaments, so it was here—young Europeans rose to the top, with Italy’s 23-year-old Dario Alioto finishing first for £234,390 and Istvan Novak of Hungary taking second place to go home with £137,280. Americans Ted Forrest and Andy Bloch went deep into the tournament, pushing their way to the final two tables.

While the WSOPE did not see the kinds of numbers or the frenzy that invariably marks modern-day WSOP tournament affairs in Las Vegas, the WSOPE was a definite hit with the European players and is a surefire bet to become a tradition. Pollack, who never really feared throwing a party in an empty room, said, “We are very pleased with the turnout. It is never about quantity; it is about quality.”
During the WSOPE, Pollack and the rest of his team often held meetings and chatted up players in a restaurant overlooking the proceedings. The constant and boundless work required to strengthen the WSOP brand is evident in the efforts of a lot of folks, but it is the team of Pollack, Thompson, Stewart, Abrahams, and Marshall that stood out most here. Their quest to extend the WSOPE brand is unmistakable. Like Bihl, Alioto, and Obrestad of 2007 WSOPE fame, the WSOP team is a group of doers who will not be denied.

***
The WSOPE is over. But Pollack still has a few thank yous to extend. He cited sponsor Betfair as a “world class company with a similar DNA to ours,” and offered a few more final words of praise for others: “Launching a new venture and brand extension like we did is no easy task, but—thanks to the good folks at LCI and our terrific sponsors at Betfair—we all did it as one team with style, success, and impact. They helped make poker history and do what many thought could not be done.
“And, they tolerated our invasion with a smile,” the commissioner added. “We’re proud to call them colleagues and hope they welcome us back.”

Official WSOPE Results

Event #1: £2,500 H.O.R.S.E.
1. Thomas Bihl £70,875
2. Jennifer Harman £40,688
3. Kirk Morrison £28,250
4. Chris Ferguson £21,656
5. Alex Kravchenko £17,714
6. Yuval Bronshtein £14,438
7. Joe Beevers £11,812
8. Gary Jones £9,118

Event #2: £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
1. Dario Alioto £234,390
2. Istvan Novak £137,280
3. Tony G. £94,380
4. David Callaghan £65,520
5. Antoine Arnault £49,530
6. Sherkan Farnood £38,220
7. Sampo Lopponen £30,420
8. Andy Bloch £22,020
9. M.H. Razaghi £16,380

Event #3: £10,000 No-Limit Hold ’Em
1. Annette Obrestad £1,000,000
2. John Tabatabai £570,150
3. Matthew McCullough £381,910
4. Oyvind Riisem £257,020
5. Johannes Korsar £191,860
6. Dominic Kay £152,040
7. Magnus Persson £114,030
8. Theo Jorgensen £85,0707
9. James Keys £61,540

Time To Steal

Advice for opening up your game and stealing in the right situations, rather than A-B-C-ing your way to mediocrity
BY DAVID WILLIAMS / WORLD SERIES OF POKER BRACELET WINNER

PLAYING NO-LIMIT HOLD ’EM TOURNAMENTS by the books, or fundamentally sound poker, will often get you deep in tournaments and may even get you into the money. However, playing outside the box a bit, and with a little more risk, is what adds massive amounts of chips to your stack.
There are so many players out there that play A-B-C-style poker, trying not to go broke and trying their best to get it in the middle with the best hand every time. I see these players often breathing a sigh of relief when we have reached the money bubble in the tournament. Then shortly thereafter, they are forced to get it all in with a weak ace or small pocket pair, and they often wind up walking away shrugging their shoulders, bemoaning the fact that there was nothing else they could have done with a stack their size.

What these players fail to realize is that their last hand wasn’t the hand that sealed their fate in that tournament. Most times, it’s the decisions they made throughout the tournament that put them in that position in the first place. Amir Vahedi, a poker player known for his aggressive style, famously said, “You have to be willing to die in order to live in this game,” at the final table of the 2003 World Series of Poker.
If you are one of those players who always thinks to himself, I always get close to the end, but I never seem to make my big score, and then figure that one day the cards will break even and you will make a big score, you are failing to realize that you have to, without question, add a couple of low-to-medium-risk plays in order to build your stack and have a shot at winning.

Here’s an example of this that I call the “Free Money Play.” In this play, you want to pick up the dead money already in the pot. Let’s say there are 10 players at the table and blinds are at $100/$200 with a $25 ante. The first player limps in under the gun. Then, three more players limp in after him, as does the player on the button.
Now you look down at 7-2 offsuit in the small blind. The worst starting hand in poker is in your hand, and a great play right here would be to make a big raise and scoop up all the limpers’ money. You are relying on the fact that, if the original under-the-gun limper was in with a weak hand, using logic, all the players that limped in after him also must have marginal-to-weak hands. If they had anything better, they would have raised it up to thin the field.
So, with five limpers and the blinds and antes in the pot, this pot has $1,550 in it. I’d say a bet of $1,300 to $1,500 would be the perfect bet to make everyone fold a good percentage of the time. Make sure that none of the limpers are sitting on a short stack—since that might make it worth it for them to make a marginal call—and those chips could be yours for the taking.
Another example of a stealing opportunity to look for is when the board is paired and you’re in position.
You see the flop with a marginal holding. The flop comes Q-Q-3, and you miss it completely. There are four players in this pot including yourself, and the three players check it to you in the cutoff seat, essentially serving as the dealer position since the button folded before the flop. You should fire out a bet of 60-to-80 percent of the pot. It’s a risk, since some people could be slow-playing the queen, but a small bet in an attempt to win the pot is a play that helps you build up your stack. If you are called or played back at, you can safely shut down your play at the pot.
In order to amass a large enough chip stack later on in the tournament, it’s often important for you to break the barriers of what plays are deemed “fundamentally sound.” By taking risks, it builds better table image so you get your big hands paid off more. It builds your stack, and it gives you the cushion of losing a pot or two. That way, when it really matters later on, you have enough left where you can rebuild without panic and worry.

This article brought to you by Bodog nation. Play with pros David Williams and Evelyn Ng at BodogLife.com.

A Prince At Peace

Done grinding and more grounded, Scotty Nguyen basks in the glow of a great year at the tables
BY JONATHAN GROTENSTEIN

“I ain’t like that no more. I ain’t the same, Ned. Claudia, she straightened me up, cleared me of drinkin’ whiskey and all. Just ’cause we’re goin’ on this killing, that don’t mean I’m gonna go back to bein’ the way I was.”

—William Munny (as played by Clint Eastwood), Unforgiven

IF POKER HAS A ROCK STAR, it’s Scotty Nguyen. His jet black hair remains long, his face shaded by what have become his signature tinted glasses, his body—still sinewy at age 44—perpetually draped in flashy bling. He’s also blessed with a rock star-sized ego.

“I’m the number-one fan favorite!” proclaims Nguyen. “It don’t matter where I play. I’m the home team, you know, baby? Even when I go to England, everyone cheers for me. I go to Paris, everyone cheers for me.”

It’s not bragging, as the expression goes, if it’s true. A propensity to speak of oneself in the third person, most often to proclaim one’s unparalleled awesomeness, while punctuating every other sentence with the word “baby,” would doom most players to a life of constant ridicule. In Nguyen’s case, however, it’s widely accepted as part of the package. An entertaining and often dangerous package. Few players electrify a room more than Nguyen. Fewer still are able to outplay him. “Scotty will go down as one of the best tournament players of all-time,” asserted fellow pro Howard Lederer. “His tournament record is pretty spectacular.”

Or even very spectacular. Over the last 16 years, Nguyen has cashed in more than 240 tournaments, earning four World Series bracelets and a World Poker Tour title along the way. He’s coming off what might be (save for one brief but horrible meltdown) his best WSOP ever—including the year he won the whole thing. He still knows how to take over a table, if not with cards, then with charisma.

He’s not the same Scotty Nguyen, however, who won the 1998 WSOP Championship, a chattering, hard-drinking poker gunslinger. He’s still a chatterer, and certainly still a drinker, but something more complicated has crept into his persona. He’s no longer in it for the fight, or at least not the daily grind. He sticks to the big buy-in tournaments—$5,000 or higher—and will rarely, if ever, sit down to a side game. With more than $7.5-million in tournament winnings and a comfortable endorsement deal with Oklahoma-based Cherokee Casinos, he plays less for a living than for his love for poker

“I want to win,” said Nguyen, “but if I don’t, I still live good.” He’s also discovered the ability to place poker on a second tier behind his wife, kids, and home. Yes, “The Prince Of Poker” has been domesticated. Which is not the same thing as saying he’s been wussified. Home life, if anything, seems to have made him an even more dangerous poker player.

***
Thuan “Scotty” Nguyen’s remarkable life story has been well-documented: born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, one of 15 children raised in the midst of the war; convinced by his mother, somewhere around his 12th birthday, to board a boat for America; a new life with a host family in Chicago, then Costa Mesa, California, but it took Las Vegas, on a gambling trip with a group of friends, for Scotty to find his new home.

The friends returned to California, but he remained behind, securing employment as a busboy, then a poker dealer at Harrah’s. He’d make between $150 and $300 during his shift, switch to playing, and generally lose what he’d earned. When he managed to win some, he’d quit poker in favor of craps, blackjack, and sports betting. If there was something left after that, well, there were always women, alcohol, and drugs. Going broke, to Nguyen, was as familiar as air. “I didn’t know how to manage my money,” he confessed. “You remember this: Poker never break me. Only Scotty Nguyen break himself.”

His poker, however, continued to improve, providing him with shelter from his other vices. Nguyen modeled his game after another hard-living poker player. “Growing up, the only I guy wanted to be was Stu Ungar. The year he passed away, I had a chance to play with him a lot. [Living] the dream, you know, baby?” Nguyen’s continuing success, however, led to grander aspirations. “Before, I want to be like Stu Ungar. But after I played with him? I wanted to be Scotty Nguyen. One day, Scotty Nguyen’s name bigger than Stu Ungar!”

Nguyen, young gun that he was, hoped to make his name by outplaying his idol on a public stage, but fate had a different idea. Ungar, just a few months away from turning up dead in a motel room, was a last-minute no-show to the 1998 Main Event, thus missing Nguyen’s ascension to world champion (as well as his delivery of tournament poker’s greatest line, “You call, gonna be all over, baby!”)
“When Stu passed away, [not winning the title against him was] the only thing I regret,” recalled Nguyen. “So in my head, it’s just like, ‘Scotty, just go out there and be you, and be bigger. Make yourself a name.’ Every year, bigger and better. Nothing less, baby.”

Today, Nguyen finds himself on the other side of the equation. “A lot of young kids these days, they look up to me,” he said. “Kids, nine or 10 years old, come over and tell me a story about their home games. They take turns every weekend—who’s going to be Scotty Nguyen this week?”

And just as Nguyen once gunned for the stars, a new generation of younger players are gunning for him. “The young guns, they know how to play poker. They bet aggressive. They know exactly what they’re doing.” Nguyen clearly recognizes himself in their faces, and has already lived through the hard lessons they almost certainly will face. “Sometimes, you can get too cocky. Some young gun will score a million dollars. They just go out there and play the biggest game, one they don’t have any business being involved in at all. I just want to remind them to be careful. A lot of rocks out there. Sharks out there. A lot of good players. Don’t underestimate the older, baby!”

***
“I’ve worked hard to make a name,” Nguyen admitted. “A personality. That is so important.” Given his long-term success, his “personality”—a loud and incessant stream of friendly discourse, fueled by plenty of beer—might be viewed as a calculated attempt to unsettle his opponents.
“I am sure his chattiness is very effective at getting amateurs off their game,” observed Lederer, adding, “It has no effect on pros. As for the drinking thing, all players figure out a way to win, and it seems like he has figured out a way to win while on a good beer buzz.”

Nguyen, however, is dismissive of any suggestion that he might be acting. “I get along with everyone. Don’t matter what color. Ugly. Pretty. I always give them a smile. Because that’s me. I love people. I love the game … Whatever you see on TV, that’s exactly what I’m like outside the poker game. I’m real, baby!”

Nguyen may be the same person at the table as he is away from it, but one thing that isn’t the same is how much time he’s spending at the table. That has decreased significantly of late. Part of the reason is a diminished appetite for the blood-letting involved in high-stakes poker, especially cash games. “I’m the friendliest poker player out there,” he said. “In the cash games, you cannot play friendly. You end up getting hurt.” He has also discovered a new commitment to family. Nguyen’s first marriage ended in divorce, scattering five kids around the country. He seems determined not to make the same mistakes with his new family, wife Julie, two young children, and a pet monkey named “Jackpot.”

Nguyen credits Julie with bringing balance to his life. “She helps me a lot. She don’t like to go out. She don’t drink. She don’t gamble. Most time, my off-time, I just stay home with her, kick back, watch TV, play my videogames, and get ready to play poker.” He’s found something that looks a lot like domestic bliss, and is willing to push poker aside in order to maintain it. “When the family is not happy—especially when the wife is not happy—you cannot win. You might as well stay home. You’ll give your money away. I never go play when something is not perfect at home.”

Nguyen believes that emphasizing family over poker has made him a better player. “When I walk out of the house, and everyone is happy and has got what they need, that gives me the strength to go out there and do what I do best.” Putting fewer hours in at the tables has also helped Nguyen to avoid the kind of burnout that comes along with 20-odd years of bad beats. “Every time when I play, I’ve missed it. You know, when you miss the game, you love the game. That’s the only way you win.”

***
Scotty Nguyen did not cash at the 2006 World Series of Poker. This may not seem like such a big deal, except that Scotty Nguyen always cashes at the World Series of Poker, having done so every year since 1995. He entered the 2007 Series with a chip on his shoulder and a renewed desire to prove himself. By almost every standard, he succeeded.

“I had my best World Series this year,” he said. “I’m in the zone. I’m focused. Plus, I have my wife behind me.” Entering the Main Event, he’d already cashed five times, including a second-place and a fourth-place finish, and showed no signs of cooling off as the opportunity to win a second world championship hurtled toward him.

“For six days, seven days, every day I improved. ‘Scotty’s right there, Scotty’s right there.’” Winning tournaments, however, requires peaking at the right time, which is exactly what Ngyuen seemed to be doing when he eliminated Ray Henson in 12th place, building his stack to $15.5-million, entrenching him among the chip leaders and, in all likelihood, enabling a downhill coast to the final table. “I was doing so good, and then … ” Nguyen sighs. “Someway, somehow, one of the player get into my skin. And I start getting personal for no reason at all.”

He won’t name the offending party, but it hardly takes a mind-reader to establish that it was Philip Hilm—a 30-year-old young gun from Denmark who separated Nguyen from his stack over the course of three critical hands. Having crippled Hilm earlier in the day when he turned a full house, Nguyen took a stab at a queen-high flop holding ace-high. Hilm, whose middle-pair blossomed into trips on the river, was unable to extract any additional money out of Nguyen, but the encounter seemed to unsettle him more than it should have. “When I look back now,” said Nguyen, “I say, ‘What did he do to me?’ Nothing. He just play his game … Why did I have to get personal?”

A few hands later, Nguyen, holding A-Q, had the misfortune to flop top pair against Hilm, who had flopped a set. Nguyen certainly could have gotten away from the hand when a king fell on the turn, leading Hilm to fire a bet, but instead moved all-in, drawing dead, and lost most of his stack. A few hands later, Nguyen used a flush draw and the chips he had left in an attempt to push Hilm off top pair. Hilm didn’t budge, the board didn’t flush, and The Prince Of Poker was eliminated in 11th place.
“You know, baby, it’s haunted me until now,” Nguyen confessed. “I close my eyes and I see it … It makes me so sad, so angry, so disappointed, because I just blew the biggest chance all the players out there dream of.” After letting out a sigh, he continued. “Mistake is all good as long as you learn from it. I learn from it, baby. The lesson is priceless.”

Nguyen doesn’t spend too long dwelling on the past; there are too many things left to do. “My goal is win every main event out there at least once. But the World Series, my goal is win again. I will prove that to you in ’08. Young gun, legends, I don’t care. When I sit down at the poker table, baby, they watch out for me. I don’t be looking out for them. Scotty Nguyen is first, baby!”

It’s certainly possible. But you get the sense that if he isn’t first, that will be okay, too. “I have my wife behind me,” he said. “Julie is a big part of what my success is. Whatever I do, win, lose, I come home, she always comforts me.”

And his enthusiasm spikes as he imagines another goal for himself, the opportunity to face a different young gun:
“Twenty years from now, when my youngest son is grown up, I want him to sit at the same final table as me at the World Series. Kody Nguyen, you’ve got to remember that name. Twenty years from now, baby, he’s going to be the next World Series champion!”
How appropriate it would be if Scotty Nguyen’s “baby” does indeed carry on his legacy.

ALL-TIME NGUYEN-INGS
Nguyen’s $7.5-million in lifetime tournament winnings places him in pretty stellar company. Ignoring the last three WSOP Main Event champions (each of whom made $7.5-million or more for winning one crummy tournament), only seven players have earned more: Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, T.J. Cloutier, Carlos Mortensen, Phil Ivey, and that other Nguyen (no relation), Men “The Master.”

SCOTTY NGUYEN: RANDOM FACTS
You probably didn’t know that …
• A Google search for “Scotty Nguyen” and “hair” returns more than 600 results.
• In the Hendon Mob poker database, listing anyone who’s ever cashed in a significant poker tournament, Scotty is one of 255 players with the last name “Nguyen.”
• Nguyen used to have two pet monkeys. Today, only “Jackpot” survives. The name of the unlucky deceased? “Lucky.”

Going Pro

Flexible Hours, Great Pay … And No Job Security
Understanding the pros and cons of choosing the life of a poker professional
BY MARC LICHTENFELD

THINK YOU’D LIKE THE LIFE of a professional poker player? Waking up at the crack of noon in glamorous places such as Las Vegas and London, matching wits with the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson, pulling in huge wads of cash at various tournaments? Sounds like a dream job, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, what you see on television isn’t necessarily an accurate representation of reality.

Sure, the players can sleep late if they choose, travel the world, and don’t punch a clock. But it’s more of a grind than you might think. If you’re considering telling the boss where to shove that nine-to-five in order to pursue a career at the felt, heed the stories of several pros about what it takes make a living playing poker.

Many of the players that ALL IN spoke with for this story never really had a traditional career, much less a job. The ones that did toil for “the man” turned to poker after becoming unemployed, rather than quitting in order to play.

Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Kristy Gazes, and Vanessa Rousso all made good money playing poker when they were still in or just barely out of school. Greenstein only took the more traditional path and went to work at Symantec due to child custody issues. “The courts would never give custody to a professional gambler,” he explained. “So I had to get a job.”

Joe Sebok and Erik Seidel tried poker full-time after the companies they were working for shut their doors. Sebok worked for several dot-coms that ultimately closed. After the last failure, he was trying to figure out what to do next when a conversation with his stepfather, who happens to be Barry Greenstein, sparked his interest in poker. “Bear [Barry] brought up how well he thought I could have done at poker had I gone in that direction, and I just took it from there,” he said.

At the time, Sebok didn’t even know the hand rankings. His family had purposely kept him away from poker, stressing education instead. Joe read every poker book he could get his hands on and, from day one, approached it as a career. He logged hours and hours on computer simulators and live small-stakes games as he honed his skills. Certainly, having Greenstein as a mentor “took years off the learning curve,” Sebok acknowledged. He made two final tables and cashed for about $100,000 at his first major tournaments at the 2005 World Series of Poker and has never looked back.

Seidel was an options trader before playing poker full-time. After his company closed in 1995, Seidel’s wife suggested they move to Las Vegas to pursue the dream. “She knew I hated working and loved playing poker,” he said. Seidel had been playing for 10 years at that point. “I knew I had the skills to be successful,” he stated. Everyone else knew it too—Seidel had already won three World Series bracelets and finished second to Johnny Chan in the ’88 WSOP Main Event. The Seidels arrived in Vegas with a plan to give it five years. Five more bracelets and about $6-million in tournament winnings later, things seem to be working out just fine.

Others like Gazes, Rousso, and Greenstein started playing poker at very young ages. Gazes used to sneak into casinos while still a minor. Rousso, who learned the game as a child, began playing online as soon as she turned 18 and in live games at the Seminole Indian poker rooms in Florida when she became 21.
While they all taught themselves the game by various methods, one thing they agree on is that a lot of hard work goes into being able to play at the level where you can even begin to think about being making a living at it.

Gazes, who is now actually trying to spend more time trading options than playing poker, said she was infatuated with the game when she started out. While working various odd jobs, Kristy would always find herself in the poker room during her spare time. “It was never a conscious decision to become a pro,” she said. “I was just always there.” But while she loved to gamble, when it came to poker, “I was a true grinder for 10 years.” She started by setting small goals for herself such as winning $50 per day. Then she raised it to $100 and so on. Gazes attributes her longevity to a conservative approach. “I never played super high stakes and was always careful about managing my money correctly,” she divulged.

Similarly, Seidel said he played tight to the vest when first starting out as a full-time player. Greenstein could also be considered a grinder, having made a lot of money in cash games before televised tournaments became popular. He explained, “People have to realize, there are great poker players who are never on TV, who you’ve never even heard of, making a great living playing poker.”

Those who do will tell you that there are an abundance of both pros and cons to playing cards to pay the bills. Everyone we talked to loves the freedom of not having to answer to anyone but themselves. Rousso also enjoys the “depth of exposure to people and places. I get to travel to amazing places,” she beamed.
However, it’s not all big money and fancy hotels. “It can be an emotional rollercoaster,” said Harman, a thought conveyed by several others.

While they clearly love the game, a few players expressed the desire to do something more productive. “There is a lack of tangible creation,” Sebok said. “We don’t really get to create or build anything, other than bankrolls, and I miss that feeling.” Gazes echoed that sentiment and added, “We feed off other people’s weaknesses, especially chronic gamblers.” Seidel stated that poker can be so consuming, it’s difficult to find time for other things.

While each of these pros’ stories are somewhat unique, their advice for wannabe pros is fairly uniform. “Read all the poker books out there,” said Rousso (see sidebar). “If you don’t, it’s like trying to be a doctor without going to medical school.” The third-year University of Miami law student also advises, “Have a backup plan.”

The pros all advise putting in lots of hours before thinking about sitting down at a table with one of them. Harman believes it takes about 2,000 hours for a player to accurately determine if they can be successful. Rousso suggests playing tournaments for two years and keeping accurate records of how you play in order to assess whether you have the chops to make it.

Not surprisingly, Sebok advises finding a mentor or mentors. “Pick the brains of players who are better than you. Spend as much time with them as possible, as they will push your thoughts in new directions that would normally take you much longer on your own,” he counseled.

Gazes recommends playing online in addition to live cash games because you’ll see more hands per hour online. Both she and Seidel believe cash management is key, especially in the beginning. Seidel offered, “Take it slow. Many people I meet have confidence beyond their abilities.”
And that’s precisely why many people believe they can make it as professional poker players, only to fail. But if you move at a measured pace and allow your confidence to advance in step with your abilities, maybe, one day, you’ll be able to travel the world, sleep until noon, and get rich outplaying the very pros whose advice you’ve just absorbed.

Marc Lichtenfeld is a radio host and writer from South Florida.