Scott Montgomery: What's My Line?

Every Thursday, Card Player sits down with some of the best in the game to discuss pivotal hands from the week’s biggest tournaments on the circuit.

While some members of the November Nine have gone into hiding, choosing to seclude themselves from the spotlight of media attention, Scott Montgomery has no doubt done the opposite, scheduling a non-stop itinerary of tournament action between now and the World Series of Poker main event final table. Montgomery is a self-admitted poker junkie and is far removed from the crowd who believes that the grind of tournament poker is less about fun and more about work.

Montgomery is loving every minute of his newfound fame and is rarely seen with anything other than a smile at the tables. During the first days of the 2008 European Poker Tour Barcelona main event, Montgomery played an intense hand with Julien Sallin and was at first adamant to keep his holecards a secret.

Despite his reluctance to disclose what he held, Montgomery spoke with Card Player to discuss the hand and gave us his analytical breakdown of what happened.

The Hand

Scott Montgomery raised to 1,200 in middle position and was called in the cutoff by Julien Sallin. The flop came 4 4 4, and Montgomery continued with a bet of 2,000.

After a slight hesitation, Sallin made the call, and both players saw the 9 hit the turn. Montgomery checked, and Sallin bet 4,000. Montgomery then check-raised to 10,900, leaving himself with just 10,000 behind.

Sallin thought it over and finally made the call. The river was the J, and Montgomery asked the dealer how much Sallin had left. The dealer approximated about 12,000 in chips, and Montgomery moved all in. Sallin tanked for two minutes before folding, saving his last 11,900. Montgomery took the pot and chipped up to nearly 40,000.

The Interview

Julio Rodriguez: Can we talk about a hand you played today?

Scott Montgomery: [Laughing] Do you honestly think I’m going to tell you what I had that hand? I can’t give away all of my secrets.

JR: Well then, you can keep it to yourself and we’ll just talk about the hand anyway. You raised it to 1,200 preflop, and he made the call in position. What is your read on him at this point?

SM: He is the super nittiest, most pure nit player in the entire world. I’m pretty sure that was the only time he had called a raise the entire time I was at the table. He had reraised a few times, but I had never before seen him just call a raise. Of course, that means that he either had a pocket pair or … a pocket pair [laughs].

JR: To be more specific, what range of pocket pairs did you put him on?

SM: Against most players I would say anything, because of my pretty small preflop raise, but against him I would say pocket eights and up. Probably somewhere between eights and aces.

JR: So you think he would flat-call with aces?

SM: I don’t know. I have no other read on him other than he is a rock, super tight.

JR: The flop comes and your mystery hand has improved to at least trips.

SM: Yeah, I know at this point that he has a full house, but I bet the flop anyway, which should tell you a little something about my hand. I bet 2,000, and he called.

JR: Did he hesitate at all?

SM: No. He was a pretty slow player, but he threw out the call after about 5-10 seconds.

JR: The 9 hits the turn, and you go for the check-raise after he bet 4,000. With about 21,000 behind, you raised to 10,900, pretty much committing yourself to go with the hand. Yet another clue as to what you were holding.

SM: [Laughing] Yeah, I pretty much min-check-raised him, but I put out a bunch of my smaller denomination chips to make it look like I might be bluffing. [Laughing] But then again, I might have been bluffing.

JR: The J hits the river, and you ask for a count of his stack. The dealer gave you an approximation, and knowing you were slightly covered, you moved in for your last 10,000 or so. He folded, and you later found out that he held pocket tens. Do you think he would have made the call if an undercard to his pair had hit the board?

SM: [With hesitation] Yes.

JR: So … would you say that the jack was kind of a bad card for you?

SM: [Laughing] I’m not saying that, no. Maybe it was the card that saved me. Maybe I held A-K and I got lucky to push him off the river! [Laughs]

JR: Still not going to give it up, huh?

EDIT: The following is a continuation of the conversation with Montgomery.

SM: [Sighs] Alright then. It’s pretty obvious I had aces. But let me just say to my opponents, I would not play that hand the same way at the WSOP main event final table. I give those guys way too much credit as great players. This guy was clearly still learning some things about the game, and I played accordingly.

JR: Finally, you give up the goods!

SM: All right, but this is the last time until after November.

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