WSOP Q and A: Scott MontgomeryRecent Bracelet Winner is Deep in Another $1K No-Limit Hold'em Event |
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Scott Montgomery has a chance to win back-to-back $1,000 no-limit hold’em events at the 2010 World Series of Poker.
Montgomery won event No. 36 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em) and is still alive in event No. 47 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em) at the end of play early Tuesday morning.
The Canadian currently sits with 151,000 in chips with 33 players remaining. Action will resume at 2:30 p.m. PDT Tuesday.
Montgomery outlasted a field of 3,102 to win his first bracelet not even a week ago. A slightly larger field size of 3,128 has also proved easy for the poker pro.
Probably best known for his main event run in 2008, Montgomery has a hyper-aggressive image at the table. His poker scouting report is partially due to an all-in bluff deep in the 2008 championship that received television coverage and subsequent criticism.
At one of the final three tables, Paul Snead bet 300,000 from the button and then called a reraise to 800,000 from Scott Montgomery in the big blind. The flop came J
10 3
and Montgomery bet 1,500,000. Snead raised to 3,000,000 and Montgomery reraised all in for 1,760,000 more. Snead went into the tank for five minutes before eventually calling. Snead tabled the J 7 and was in great shape versus the A
4 of Montgomery. The pot stood at over 11,000,0000 when the 8 fell on the turn. Montgomery was down to just two outs. The A peeled off the deck and landed on the felt, giving Montgomery the hand and crippling his opponent.
The draw-out catapulted Montgomery into great chip position. He eventually made the final table and finished in fifth for a payday of $3,096,768.
After a disappointing follow-up WSOP in 2009, Montgomery has validated himself this summer as a solid no-limit hold’em tournament player on the circuit.
Card Player caught up with Montgomery during a break near the end of day two in event No. 47.
Brian Pempus: Last year you struggled a little bit at the World Series. How does it feel this year to be a bracelet winner and to be deep in another $1,000 tournament?
Scott Montgomery: It’s been a good year. I had a couple of good runs before the bracelet. That tournament everything just seemed to go well. I’m kind of trying to defend my title here. Back-to-back would be ridiculously great.
BP: What would it mean to just final table this event, or win it?
SM: Anything less than winning would be another good cash. But winning two bracelets in the same year would be something people would remember. Especially in the same ridiculous 3,000 player field, that would be an accomplishment I could brag about for a long time.
BP: Do you feel like your main-event finish, your bracelet, and this event proves you’re a great player in large no-limit hold’em fields?
SM: I don’t think there is any real difference between the big fields and the small fields, other than the length of time, and sometimes you see people falling apart after a while because they can’t handle the pressure of playing four, five, or six days of constant poker. I hold up better under pressure than I see a lot of people doing.
BP: How has your style changed based on your image from TV coverage and what people know about you?
SM: My style is always completely variable. I have a pretty wide range of how I can play. It depends a lot on the table. I am more than willing to fold every hand but monsters if that is what I am going to get paid of with. That’s how I won the bracelet in the last event. Up until the final table I played super-nitty the whole tournament. I was mucking small pocket pairs and most aces preflop.
Every time I got a big pot there would be like three people all in, and nobody noticed that I was playing one in every 30 or 40 hands. However, earlier today I started off on a really weak table, so I kept stealing the blinds because that’s what you do at a table like that.
BP: So do you think people still view you as a hyper-aggressive player?
SM: Yeah, exactly. People don’t pay attention to what’s going on at the table. People don’t realize a player’s style changes from day to day. I can play with someone and see them go nuts one day and play with them the next day and I notice if he’s playing tighter than usual. You should be able to do that.
BP: Has the ability to change gears been something you’ve worked on recently?
SM: It is something you always work on. It’s one of the most important skills for a poker player. It’s something you are always trying to improve.
BP: Do you feel like your performance this year has silenced some of the people who were critical of how you made the main event final table a couple years ago?
SM: I don’t think it would be possible to silence critics in poker, so I just ignore them.
Update: On Tuesday afternoon Montgomery was eliminated in 29th place for a $11,232 cash.
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