Capture the Flag -- Scott Seiver

Scott Seiver has held a wide variety of jobs, but in the back of his mind, he always knew that life as a professional poker player was for him. During his time at Brown University, he learned the game with fellow students and now professional poker players Isaac Haxton, Jared Okun, and Mike Graves.

Although he has since gone on to achieve tournament success and chalk up more than $2.5 million in career tournament earnings, the 25-year-old got his start with online cash games. In this interview, Seiver discusses his career and his plans for the future.

Julio Rodriguez: Let’s go back to the beginning. How did you get your start in poker?

Scott Seiver: I happened to stumble into a random home game at Brown. I had always been kind of interested in poker after seeing my parents play, but I really didn’t even know the rules. They were playing a $50 buy-in home game, which, to a college freshman with no job, was pretty big at the time. I went on to win something like $300, playing beyond horrible poker, but at the time, I thought I was untouchable.

Of course, I went from thinking that poker was incredibly easy to quickly realizing how little I really knew about the game. I met Ike (Isaac Haxton) in my sophomore year, as we both were computer science majors. He had been playing for a while, even before college, at Turning Stone Casino and in various home games. He was playing limit hold’em fairly seriously and doing well, and through him, I was able to get better and take the game more seriously.

After that, I put some money online and began to play limit hold’em on PartyPoker. With no bankroll management, I quickly went from $2-$4 to $5-$10 and was doing really well. It was at that point that I started to get backed for no-limit hold’em tournaments and sit-and-gos.

JR: Wait a second. You went from just learning the game to getting backed?

SS: Bill Gazes came to Brown to see Bill Clinton give a lecture, and through a mutual friend, he decided to come to our home game and hang out. We started talking, and I guess that he thought I was a pretty smart guy, so that’s when I got a backer. Looking back, I’d like to think that he saw potential in me and thought it could be a profitable situation for him, but I guess it’s entirely possible that he just liked me and was throwing me a bone.

I did really well on my first run, and somehow managed to build up an online bankroll of about $30,000. Of course, that didn’t last long, as after a series of poor life decisions, I lost it all. With no money online, my friend Jared Okun and I started to play the nightly freeroll on PartyPoker. The fields at the time were over 20,000 players, and the winner got $1,000. In a span of three days, both of us had won the tournament, so now we had some cash online.

JR: Someone asked you what you were going to do with all of that money when you won your bracelet, and you made a comment about “throwing it on the pile.” How had you fared online up to that point?

SS: Leading up to my bracelet win, I was playing better than I ever had before. I pretty much tore through the heads-up cash-game ranks online, beating everybody on my way to occasional shots at $25-$50. So, when I won that tournament, it was really just solidifying my place at those limits. The whole thing happened in a span of about six months or so.

JR: You’ve had more success than most, yet we don’t often see you playing with the likes of Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Patrik Antonius.

SS: To be completely honest, I have no interest in that kind of lifestyle. There is a high level of stress that comes with playing that high, and whether or not I have an edge is completely irrelevant. This is kind of going to be a non sequitur, but Chip Reese had that line about “being on the edge,” and how that was his thrill. For me, and perhaps some other younger players, it’s almost the opposite feeling. I’ve busted my bankroll three or four times in the past, and I never want to feel like that again. Along my admittedly short career path, I’ve gone from six figures to less than $2,000 a few times, even with good bankroll management. So, you can see why I’m not exactly in a hurry to jump into the highest games online, no matter what my current net worth is. I guess you can say that I’m risk-averse, and content with where I’m at right now.

JR: You say that, but you obviously have no problem with putting up $25,000 to play in the high-roller events.

SS: Well, you’re right. Nobody is really rolled [bankrolled] for these high-roller tournaments, but I find it easy to justify a shot or two from time to time in spots where I think I’m in a good situation. Of course, I’ve been doing so well in them that it’s easy for me to just keep moving on to the next one. I’m also playing very well right now. I know everyone says that, but I’ve always been pretty good about being able to distinguish my A-game from my B-game.

JR: What about being able to tell when you are playing your F-game?

SS: That’s probably one of my biggest strengths, actually. I think that in the modern world of professional poker, being able to walk away or shut down the computer when you know that you aren’t playing your best is one of the most important assets you can have, other than the technical knowledge of the game. Taking it one step further, you not only have to be good about quitting for the session, but also about returning to the game only when you have cleared your mind and are truly ready to play again.

JR: Are you happy with your career as a poker player?

SS: I’m really enjoying it. I’m having a blast, and I feel that it’s a very good lifestyle for me. I’ve tried other jobs, and frankly, I’ve discovered that waking up to an alarm clock just isn’t for me.

JR: Now you get a new chance to answer the question: What are you going to do with all of that Scott Seiver money? Is there any chance that you will invest some of it?

SS: At this point in my life, it’s mostly just for poker. I like to think that I’m investing in myself. I’m my own stock, and it feels like it’s on the rise right now.