The Scoop - Scott Clements

Scott Clements has cashed for more than $4.7 million in tournaments, and has two World Series of Poker bracelets and 15 career titles. Most recently, he finished 18th in the 2010 WSOP main event, for $396,967. He stopped by The Scoop studio recently to discuss his deep run and how recommitting to his game with the help of fellow pros Jason Mercier, Dan O’Brien, and Allen Bari helped him along the way.

Diego Cordovez: You made it all the way to 18th place out of 6,000 players in the WSOP main event, probably one or two key hands away from the “November Nine.” So, a lot of the concepts you went over and the changes you made to your game, did they apply to the main event?

Scott Clements: I think the main event was probably one of my strengths, because there were so many players, a lot of whom were weak, and that was the best part of my game: addressing the weak players at the table and not playing high-risk hands against other strong players. I just waited for my spots against them, and played more hands against weaker players when I knew that I could take pots away from them. The concepts and changes to my game definitely helped me in certain spots, to stop making certain mistakes.

DC: In the end, was there any hand or hands that you look back on and have any second thoughts about? Or, was it just that you made your run and came up a little bit short, and have no regrets?

SC: When I first left [the Rio], I didn’t have any regrets. The very last hand, I reraise-shoved all in with A-Q for about 24.5 big blinds. That can be a standard play, but going back over it, I know that I could have played it differently. I don’t think that I played it poorly, and I’m not going to question my play, but I think there was room, because of the size of the raise that Michael [Mizrachi] made as the original raiser, for me to reraise and then fold. I didn’t feel that there was going to be any four-bet bluffing, or any four-bet with a light-value hand. So, I think that I probably could have reraised and folded if somebody shoved. I don’t hate my play, but I possibly could have played it a little differently.

DC: What did you run into?

SC: I ran into A-K. Michael raised from the cutoff. I was on the button with A-Q, and shoved for just under 5 million at 100,000-200,000 blinds, and Matt Jarvis had A-K in one of the blinds. I could have made it 1.1 million; part of the reason I shoved, though, was that Mizrachi does like to call and see a lot of flops, but he was short, as well, so I don’t know if he would have done it there.

Adam Schoenfeld: That is a very difficult situation, where you have Michael raising; he could have a wide range from where he is opening, or from any position, really, with the stack you’re describing.

DC: When the third guy wakes up with a hand, that is the problem, because you are making your decision based on the initial raiser, and you are just hoping that someone behind you doesn’t wake up with a hand and complicate matters.

SC: For sure. If Mike happens to wake up with a hand that beats me, oh well. I felt like his decision would probably be close with pocket tens, and he’d call with pocket jacks or higher and A-K; most of the time, he is calling only with hands that beat me, and he probably folds A-Q. I don’t hate it. ♠