It ’s the culmination of the 1998 WSOP Main Event final table. Scotty Nguyen, the aggressive pro, is heads-up against amateur player Kevin McBride. McBride knocked out T.J. Cloutier in third place and star ted with a big chip lead against Nguyen, but it has now been reversed.third place and star ted with a big chip lead against Nguyen, but it has now been reversed.

Blinds: 25,000/50,000
Scotty Nguyen: J♦-9♣
Kevin McBride: 10♥-Q♥

VINCE VAN PATTEN (ESPN commentator): The duel of the desert continues. We rock on, both players looking a little fatigued at this point, maybe a little agitated, especially Kevin McBride from Florida, the big underdog in this event playing, of course, against Scotty Nguyen.

JIM ALBRECHT (ESPN commentator): And Scotty’s got all the chips except for about 600,000... which Kevin is holding. And Kevin makes it 100,000 to go. Action goes back to Scotty and he’s there. We’re going to get a flop.

The flop: 9♥-9♦-8♣ (Nguyen checks and McBride bets 100,000. At this point Phil Hellmuth wanders into the commentary booth.)

NGUYEN: How much you got left man?

MCBRIDE: Hmmm, maybe 350... (Nguyen calls)

HELLMUTH: Look at this, Scotty calls 100,000. Boy oh boy, I have no idea what Scotty has at this point. He’s giving indications like he’s got a Nine or an

Eight or something.

The turn: 8♥

(Nguyen checks, McBride bets 100,000. Nguyen plays with his chips and eventually makes the call.)

HELLMUTH: Oh my God, what is going on here? Could Scotty be slow-playing the Nine here?

The river: 8♠

(Almost immediately Scotty Nguyen makes an ‘all-in’ motion with his hands.)

NGUYEN: All-in

HELLMUTH: Oh my God... Scotty just moved all-in. I think Scotty has a Nine here and I think he’s gonna get... Well, we’ll see if he gets called or not. (Nguyen stands, blows a mouthful of smoke out and takes a swig from his beer)

NGUYEN: You call, gonna be all over baby. (McBride goes to call, thinks again, and then finally calls)

MCBRIDE: I call. I play the board. (Nguyen turns his cards over to reveal the Nine, and celebrates with his fans, including an extremely happy Mike Matusow. He’d staked Nguyen for a third of his satellite entry fee and was about to get $333,333 in return) (Nguyen kisses his girlfriend and starts crying)

NGUYEN: We did it, man! Did Nguyen’s bit of speech play make any difference to the hand? This is McBride being interviewed by Vince Van Patten afterwards...

MCBRIDE: I wouldn’t have called the bet, the only thing is Scotty said, ‘If you call it’s all over.’ I didn’t think he was telling me the truth, he was, it’s all over. It was a great play by Scotty... If he hadn’t said that, I would have folded the hand. I mean it was all over for me in all likelihood anway, but I would have folded the hand.