Scotty Nguyen created one of poker’s seminal moments, and best poker quotes, when heads-up at the 1998 WSOP Main Event. This is how it went down…

After getting staked by Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow and winning his seat through a Super Satellite, Scotty gets to the heads-up stage against Kevin McBride. He has him massively outchipped when he calls a pre-flop bet of 0,000. The flop comes 9-9-8. Scotty checks and McBride bets 0,000.

Scotty fiddles with his chips and then tersely asks McBride, ‘How much you got, man?’ McBride has a quick count and answers, ‘0,000, maybe.’

Scotty mulls it over and calls. It’s one of those perfectly befuddling plays that transmits no information and leaves the bettor clueless as to where he’s at in relation to his opponent. When an Eight comes on the turn, Scotty calls another 0,000 bet. Phil Hellmuth, who is sitting in the broadcasting booth, wonders, ‘Oh, my God, what is going on here? Could Scotty be slowplaying a Nine here?’

When a third Eight hits, Scotty immediately pushes all-in, stands up and, holding a beer and exhaling smoke, looks at McBride and says, ‘You call now, and it’s all over, baby.’ McBride moves to call, pauses for a brief second and says, ‘I call. I play the board.’

Scotty flips up the Nine, raises both fists in the air, and announces, ‘Party time, baby.’

In the post-game interview, McBride admits that he was compelled to call by Scotty’s verbiage: ‘I didn’t think he was telling the truth. If he hadn’t said that, I would have folded the hand. It was well played by Scotty.’

See this hand for yourself at www.youtube.com. Search for: ‘98wsopfinalhand’