By Pauly
Less than twenty minutes ago, Scotty Nguyen bused out in 11th place at the WSOP main Event. I had not been that dejected in a tournament since I saw Fossilman bust out in Benny's Bullpen during the 2005 WSOP. Deep down, I was rooting for Scotty Nguyen. I think we all were.
Scotty started the day 27th in chips out of 36 remaining players. He went on a run and doubled up as the field started to hit the rail quickly. After the dinner break, Nguyen won a couple of pots to jump into 5th place in chips. He sat at the feature table with a big smile and quickly became the crowd favorite. Harrah's suits, ESPN execs, and the majority of the media were rooting for a Scotty Nguyen final table.
"It's good for poker," Laurie the dealer said.
She was right. Scotty Nguyen is one of the more animaed characters in poker. It seemed as though he could have folded into the final table. With 11 players remaining, he was a lock. Then things got ugly. Fast.
Tuan Lam raised from the small blind to 480K. Scotty Nguyen reraised from the big blind to 1.48M and Lam called. The flop was Kh-5s-4h with over 3M in the pot. Lam checked and Nguyen fired out 700K. Lam called. The turn was the Kd and both players checked. The river was the Jd and Lam bet 1M. Nguyen went into the tank before he raised to 3.5M. Lam sat and went into the tank for several monutes before he called with 10s-10h. Scotty Nguyen tabled 4d-3d. Lam took down the pot woth close to 11.5M.
Scotty Nguyen was visibly rattled. He looked pissed and had that look like, "How the fuck could you call me, baby?!?"
Then Nguyen lost a big hand to Philip Hilm from Denmark in another battle of the blinds. Scotty Nguyen raised to 530K from the small blind and Hilm called from the big blind. The flop was Qc-6h-5d. Nguyen bet 600K and Hilm called. The turn was the Kd. Nguyen checked and Hilm fired out 1.2M. Nguyen moved all in and Hilm could not have called any quicker with 5s-5c. Nguyen flipped over Ah-Qd. He was drawing dead and by the look on his face, Nguyen knew that. The river was meaningless and he slipped to 2.35M.
Just a couple of hands earlier, Nguyen appeared as though he was going to make his third final table of the 2007 WSOP. Instead he busted out in 11th place. When he missed his flush draw against Philip Hilm to get eliminated, Nguyen shook Hilm's hand and made a quick exit off the feature table. His diappeared for a while.
When Nguyen returned to the final table to tape his interview with ESPN. According to BJ Nemeth, after that was complete, Nguyen took the microphone and said...
"First, I want to congratulate all the players here, and 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."Flipchip told me he saw Scotty Nguyen leaving the Rio with a armed security guard and a plastic bag with bricks of cash. He won $476,926 for 11th place.
At this point, a woman screamed out, "We love you!"
Scotty continued:
"I want to thank ESPN, the Bluff, the whole crews, the whole staff, and everybody here. I wish I could give you more, but for 2007 [he pronounced it as "two-thousand-oh-oh-seven"], that's the end of me. I'll see you back here in 2008."
I heard a sad story about Scotty Nguyen, which probably is why he was totally crushed after busting out of the main event. When he won the WSOP in 1998, his brother back in Vietnam was so excited that he jumped on his moped and drove around their village telling everyone the good news. Sadly, his brother died in an accident when he was hit by a car. To this day, Nguyen lives with a tremendous burden of guilt. He honestly believes that he caused his brother's death by winning the WSOP. Had he not won, his brother never would have been riding around and would have averted that fatal accident.
The final table was set as the ten remaining players were consolidated to the feature table. They would play down to nine. Here's the final ten players:
Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme - 12.875 millionHevad "Rain" Khan is one interesting dude. I first read about him on PokerStars Blog. Actually, what caught my eye were the deranged look on his face on multiple photos that were captured by Stars photographer Neil Stoddart. I heard rumors that Stars froze his account because they thought he was a bot. Why? Because he was playing 40 SNGs at once. He videotaped him doing that and sent a copy to Stars support. They quickly unfroze his account.
Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko - 2.81 million
Seat 3 - Lee Childs - 18.05 million
Seat 4 - Jerry Yang - 6.13 million
Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson - 11.715 million
Seat 6 - Steven Garfinkle - 4.925 million
Seat 7 - Tuan Lam - 20.1 million
Seat 8 - Philip Hilm - 19.31 million
Seat 9 - Jon Kalmar - 20.2 million
Seat 10 - Hevad "Rain" Khan - 11.035 million
Rain Khan
Khan has been screaming a lot, almost always at the top of his lungs. On Day 4, he kept yelling, "Bulldozer!" as he ran over his table.
I caught one hand that might have been one of the biggest hands for Khan thus far in the WSOP. Jerry Yang limped and Hevad Khan raised 500K. Yang called. The flop was Ad-Ks-Qd. Yang checked. Khan counted out his chips and gently pushed out a 650K bet. Khan had been deliberate about how he bet the entire time. Most online players have a big flaw and that's how they handle their chips. Seasoned pros will pick up on the slightest variation on how you bet when you have a strong hand, a weak hand, a drawing hand, or a stone cold bluff.
Khan had been unusually quiet for most of Day 6. He sat in dead silence as Yang counted down his chips then announced a raise to 1.65M. Khan looked at Yang, then looked at the board, before he moved all in for 1.825M more. Yang stood up as Khan sat in silence looking down at his cards. He avoided eye contact and sat still holding his breath as Yang went into the tank for a few minutes and stared at Khan.
"Get a read yet?" shouted someone from the rail.
Yang sat down before he said that he'd call.
"I got two pair," said Khan as he flipped over Kc-Qs
Yang shook his head as he sheepishly turned over Ac-6c for just top pair. Then Khan unleashed his inner monster.
"Hold. Hold. Hold!" screamed Khan as the volume of his voice increased as Laurie the dealer burned and then dealt the 5d. Yang was praying to the poker gods for help as Khan prayed that he would avoid elimination and double up. The 8h fell on the river and Khan went berserk. He jumped up and down and ran over to his friends on the rail. He looked like a player at Lambeau Field who just scored a touch down and dove into the stands at the end of the endzone. Khan looked as though he was ready to dive into the spectators and start crowd surfing like Kurt Cobain at a Nirvana concert circa 1992. Khan jumped up and down several times before he returned to the table.
"Thank God!" he screamed as he looked into ESPN's camera. "I play this game to win, not to lose!"
That hand pushed Khan over the 7 million. After being card dead for most of the afternoon, Khan woke up. He made the final table and when his name was announced he stood up and let loose with a few spastic moves and loads of screaming.
"I bet that guy Rain is amazing in bed. I hope he doesn't live in an apartment," joked Tom Sexton.
Moving on...
It took 36 hands before Steven Garfinkle bubbled off the final table. He was busted by Ray Rahme in 10th place.
Here's the final table of the 2007 WSOP:
Seating Assignments:The chipleader is Philip Hilm with over 23M. BJ Nementh and I will be live blogging the final table for PokerNews.com starting at Noon on Tuesday.
Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme
Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko
Seat 3 - Lee Childs
Seat 4 - Jerry Yang
Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson
Seat 6 - Tuan Lam
Seat 7 - Philip Hilm
Seat 8 - Jon Kalmar
Seat 9 - Hevad "Rain" Khan
Final Table Chip Counts:
Philip Hilm - 22,070,000
Tuan Lam - 21,315,000
Jon Kalmar - 20,320,000
Raymond Rahme - 16,320,000
Lee Childs - 13,240,000
Lee Watkinson - 9,9250,00
Hevad "Rain" Khan - 9,205,000
Jerry Yang - 8,450,000
Alex Kravchenko - 6,570,000
Final Table Payouts:
1 - $8,250,000
2 - $4,840,981
3 - $3,048,025
4 - $1,852,721
5 - $1,255,069
6 - $956,243
7 - $705,229
8 - $585,699
9 - $525,934
Day 6 Money Winners:
10 Steven Garfinkle $476,926
11 Scotty Nguyen $476,926
12 Ray Henson $476,926
13 William Spadea $429,114
14 David Tran $429,114
15 Bob Slezak $429,114
16 Kenny Tran $381,302
17 Kevin Farry $381,302
18 John Armbrust $381,302
19 Scott Freeman $333,490
20 Mikkel Madsen $333,490
21 Jason Welch $333,490
22 Stefan Mattsson $333,490
23 Bill Edler $333,490
24 Ryan Elson $333,490
25 Daniel Alaei $333,490
26 Roy Winston $333,490
27 Jeff Bryan $333,490
28 Paulo Loureiro $285,678
29 Ron Kluber $285,678
30 Jason Koshi $285,678
31 Peter Darvill $285,678
32 Kevin Kim $285,678
33 Christian Togsvard $285,678
34 Hoa Nguyen $285,678
35 Allan W. King $285,678
36 Robin Bergren $285,678
Bouncin Round the Room on Main Event Day 6...
The uber-drunk railbirds returned. They could really be heard after the final ten players were seated. The TD had to say something more than once. One guy let loose a few f-bombs. A few of them were cheering for Scotty even though he had busted out almost an hour earlier. Lightweights could not hold their liquor. EVentually, Nolan Dalla got sick of the drunk and 86'd him. A security guard escorted him from the Milwaukee's Best No Limit Lounge.
In the World Series of Online Poker Branding, Full Tilt edged out PokerStars. It was like 10-7 at last time I checked.
Rain Khan wore a PokerStars SuperNova shirt that looked a little tight. I think it shrunk. Hey Otis, hook the brother up with a new shirt!
I tried to throw a wadded up paper towel at Feldman from ESPN while he stood in the hallway and I nailed a security guard in the face by accident. He wasn't happy.
Otis finally won something at Lime Tossing. He almost nailed it in the trash. Alas, he still hit the garbage can and I lost $20.
Jesus was in media row hanging out, while Phil Gordon looked like he was doing prep work for his ESPN PPV final table broadcast.
There was a Johnny Chan sighting at one point. I wonder who he had a piece of.
Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Alex KGB Kravchenko
2. Kenny Tran
3. Chris Jesus Ferguson
4. Lee Watkinson
5. Scotty Nguyen
Bonus Code: Pauly
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.
And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.
For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.
Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
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