Ryan Schmelzer

I’m a little late on this topic, but some people feel that the way Scotty Nguyen’s behavior at the 50k HORSE final table was bad for poker. I’m not so convinced about that.

He clearly was out of line with his antics and deserved penalties for his behavior. I have heard that Scotty came out and said that he wasn’t drunk. I have no idea how that is possible. In fact, if I were him, I would say I was very drunk because then there is a reason to act that way. I don’t travel the tournament circuit, so I have never seen Scotty in person. His TV appearance has always come off as a nice guy. This appearance clearly is crumpled up and thrown in the garbage after the HORSE table.

I don’t think this was really bad for poker, though. People already playing poker are going to keep watching poker shows and keep playing the game. This added entertainment to poker for people that aren’t big poker fans. I had heard about the drunkenness and was looking forward to seeing what exactly happened. While this isn’t the kind of attention poker wants, it will get viewers, which certainly is not bad for the game.

The one thing that Scotty’s acts did tarnish a little was the celebration of deceased Chip Reese. The night was slightly intended to honor the poker great. The barrage of swearing put a cloud over that a little bit.

Scotty will have some work to do in order to get the image he had by the fans back. I don’t think his actions will help poker a whole lot, but it did add some entertainment that isn’t always there. I don’t think this was bad for poker. That being said, this can’t be a normal occurrence. That would be terrible for the game by giving it an image of drunks. As an isolated incident, it’s fine. People get drunk. That is not a secret.