When Scotty Nguyen announced that he would quit playing poker professionally if he did not win $4 million at the 2009 WSOP, there were individuals who doubted that he would ever walk away from poker. It turns out they were absolutely right.
This summer, Scotty Nguyen added just $33,668 to his career earnings with an 11th-place finish at the $10,000 Stud World Championship, falling short of his $4 million goal. However, the Prince Poker was back on the poker felt at World Poker Legends of Poker event last week.
The 1998 WSOP Main Event champion said on August 28th, 2009 that players retire and then they come back on the circuit and the same circumstances applies to him. Nguyen currently sits in 12th place on the all time WSOP money list with $4,727,717 collected from thirty-seven WSOP cash-ins and actually considers the 2009 WSOP series his least successful.
Nguyen said that the 2009 WSOP series is one of the worst World Series that he ever had because he failed to achieve his goal. Before the 2009 WSOP, Nguyen's bold announcement actually developed into a prop wager with fellow poker pro Mike Matusow at the World Poker Tour Championship. Getting 3:1 on $5,000, Nguyen is trying to collect $3 million in event earnings over the next 3 years.
With a win in the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic's $9,900 H.O.R.S.E. event and a 6th place finish at the $25K WPT Championship, Nguyen earned almost $700,000 this year and seems well on his way to make the wager with Matusow quite interesting.
Despite not coming through with his promise of winning $4 million, Nguyen said that he is not apologizing for believing in himself. Nguyen busted on Day 3 of the WPT Legends of Poker, falling just short of the money.
09/03/2009 22:12 PM