Scott Freeman

Quick, someone call 911. Send the Los Angeles Fire Department to extinguish Scott Freeman's blistering computer monitors. The dual flat screens stand ablaze with 15 tournaments simultaneously; a mouse scorches from resteals to all ins, to quick calls, and a snap fold at one table when the board flushes on the river. Good read. Easy laydown. Next.

"Damn," mutters Freeman as he takes a sip of water and continues to click, click, click away. The warm summer's day has just begun for the self-confessed competition junkie.

From the moment poker hooked Freeman during home games as a sophomore in high school, the drive to be one of the best firmly took root.

"I read everything," says Freeman. "I spent all my time on online forums. My AIM buddy list is now filled with hundreds of players, and all we do is talk about hands all day. And I really don't play poker for the money, but for the need to be great at something."

At the 2007 World Series of Poker, that need was partially fulfilled, even if it did come with a dose of residual disappointment. The University of Southern California senior took a shot at the nirvana of all poker players' dreams, a world championship title. Freeman came close enough to smell what the ESPN final table was cookin'. A 19th-place finish would pad his bankroll with more than $333,000, yet once again raising the bar for loftier goals and pumping more tournament adrenaline through a fiercely competitive heart.

Craig Tapscott: Did you enjoy your WSOP main-event experience overall?

Scott Freeman: It was pretty crazy. I mean, just the number of different people I played with during the entire event was fun. The play was about what I expected, though, overall -- awful. That tournament is such a crapshoot. It had nothing to do with that I'm somehow better than all of the great players who didn't go deep. There is so much variance. But I don't believe in luck. It's just math and probability.

CT: Online players made a great showing once again.

SF: There are a ton of live-action players who are very, very good, like J.C. Tran. But many known live-action players really have no clue.

CT: So, some online players have an edge. How so?

SF: My main argument is that I'm sure I've played more no-limit tournament hands than Doyle Brunson. That is one of the online players' advantages.

CT: What is one of the key concepts of which some players lack understanding?

SF: The concept of fold equity is completely misunderstood by most players. They don't understand the difference of moving in with your opponent having a chance to fold versus calling off all of your chips. Fold equity is probably the single most important aspect of no-limit tournaments.

CT: What else?

SF: Assigning hand ranges. For every single decision you make, you must assign a hand range to your opponent. At this point for me, it's instinctual and unconscious, from playing so many hands.

CT: At the WSOP, what was the biggest flaw you saw in most players' games?

SF: Stacking off with bad hands. They don't know how to fold.

CT: What do you need to do to improve your own game?

SF: Putting in the second, third, and fourth raise when I know I don't have the best of it. And being able to reraise when I know I have fold equity or four-bet preflop when I know I have the worst hand. I see some of the better players doing it, like Imper1um and lilholdem.

CT: Come on. Nothing else?

SF: (Laughing) Well, I need to tilt less. I play so emotionally. I need to remove that from my game. If I played my best game at all times, I would have much better results.

CT: That's scary. Two days before we met for this interview, you won the Full Tilt Poker $1,000 event for $33,000, you've won a PokerStars $100 rebuy event and taken a second place for more than $44,000 total, and you won an Absolute Poker $1,000 buy-in event for $33,000 this year. (Freeman plays as SCTrojans online.) Will your need for competitive speed make you careless with your winnings at 21 years of age?

SF: My dad is a financial advisor, so I've been raised with a very good money mindset. It's never been an issue with me about blowing a bunch of money. I don't spend a dollar on anything. And it helps that my parents are really supportive.

CT: Any parting advice?

SF: Stop trying to outplay your opponents every pot. You can do it by winning a ton of chips with the best hand, by getting the maximum value out of each and every hand.