Is it possible for Scotty Nguyen to win the main event? It’s certainly possible, but not very probable. The chances of winning both the $50,000 HORSE event and the $10,000 main event are pretty slim. After beating 180 of the best players in the world, he then has to beat over 6800 others to win the main event.

Scotty certainly has the talent to do it. He won it before, and finished 11th last year. He’s one of the best no limit holdem tournament players in the world. If I were a betting man I would be willing to give Scotty some real good odds against him winning it this year.

I would like to see him do it. He’s a great representative of the game and very entertaining to watch. It would be good for poker to have a known professional win the main event; it’s been so long.

1. David Pham won his second Player of the Year honor and $1.8M in earnings this year.

2. J.C. Tran was second in POY standings and earned $2.9M this year.

3. Jonathan Little earned $2.5M in tournament winnings including a WPT win in May.

4. Tom Schneider earned $733,589 including 2 WSOP bracelets in 2007.

5. Scott “BigRisky” Clements won over $2.2M and finished fourth in the POY standings.

6. Scotty Nguyen won over $800,000 and had seven final tables this year.

7. William “Bill” Edler won over $2.7M including a WSOP bracelet and a WPT championship.

8. David Fox won almost $700,000 including a WPT Finals event in November.

9. David “Devilfish” Ulliott has won over $1.2M this year including two WPT wins.

10. Jerry Yang won the WSOP main event and over $8M, he makes the list because he becomes the second-largest tournament prize winner in history.

1. Erik Seidel has to be the man. He has eight bracelets, four of them in the last six years. He has won over $7M in tournament play, plus his cash table earnings.

2. Allan Cunningham has five WSOP bracelets in the last six years, including three in a row. He has earned over $8.7M in tournament winnings.

3. Scotty Nguyen consistently cashes wherever he is. He cashed six times at the WSOP 2007, including an 11th-place finish in the main event.

4. Phil Ivey is one of the top players today. He has five WSOP bracelets in the last seven years, and two big wins in Monte Carlo in 2007.

5. Tom Schneider won two WSOP bracelets last year, one in Seven Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or Better, and also in Omaha/Seven Stud Hi/Low 8 or Better. He also made the final table of the $2500 HORSE event.

There are two three-time WSOP main event winners. Only Johnny Moss (1970, 1971 and 1974) and Stu Unger (1981, 1982 and 1997) were able to achieve that feat. They both won it twice in a row, as did Doyle Brunson (1976 and 1977) and Johnny Chan (1987 and 1988).

Other big-name winners include Chris “Jesus” Ferguson (2000), Phil Hellmuth (1989), Dan Harrington (1995), Scotty Nguyen (1998), Huck Seed (1996), Robert Varkonyi (2002) and Carlo Mortensen (2001).

Recent winners have won huge amounts, with the biggest winner being Jamie Gold ($12 million) in 2006. In 2007, Jerry Yang won $8.25 million and Joseph Hachem pocketed $7.5 million in 2005. Chris Moneymaker (2003) set the poker world afire when he won the main event, and $2.5 million, after winning his way into the tournament via an online satellite tournament. Greg Raymer was the other big main event winner, winning $5 million in 2004, and almost won it again the next year in 2005.

Thuan “Scotty” Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1962, the oldest of 12 brothers and sisters. When he was only 11 years of age, Nguyen left war-torn Vietnam and ended up in a refugee camp in Taiwan. He was able to get out of the refugee camp by landing a job, and when he turned 13 he found an American sponsor and found his way to Chicago.

From Chicago Nguyen went to Orange County, California, to be closer to his accustomed climate. After going though school in California, Nguyen journeyed to a place he had heard of as a young boy in Vietnam. That place was Las Vegas.

Nguyen began his life in Vegas cleaning tables at what is now Harrah’s Casino. His manager at Harrah’s gave him his now-famous nickname Scotty, because he believed nobody would be able to pronounce Thuan. Scotty went from table cleaner to poker dealer, and after taking a liking to the game he pursued a life as a poker pro.

At the poker tables Scotty is known for his contagious smile and boisterous sense of humor. When he first started playing poker, Nguyen ended up broke a few times and had to return to dealing to save up some money to get back in the game. His dealing days came to an end in 1998 when he won the World Series of Poker main event. Everyone remembers that win because of Nguyen’s infamous last words to his opponent, Kevin McBride. Nguyen had pushed all-in with a full house and said to McBride, “you call this one, and it’s gonna be all over baby.” McBride called anyway and the rest is poker history.

Since his WSOP World Championship win, Nguyen has added three more WSOP bracelets to his wrist, and racked up numerous other poker tournament wins. Nguyen has come a long way from Vietnam to Taiwan to cleaning tables at the casino – cleaning the poker chips off the tables, that is.