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.