WSOP Diary of Scott Clements: Rested and Ready for Main Event

It didn’t go exactly as planned, but it was damn close. Scott Clements came to the 2008 World Series with some specific goals in mind: five cashes, two final tables, and one bracelet. Going into the main event, he was just a tad short, with four cashes, two final tables, and no bracelet…yet.

The young pro, who has accumulated more than $3 million in just over three years, is a motivated man who doesn’t shy away from a challenge and puts his heart and soul into accomplishing his goals. One might have thought that the odds were against him winning a bracelet at the 2008 WSOP, considering he won a bracelet each of the past two years and the odds against doing it again were significant. But Scott doesn’t listen to naysayers and never shies away from a tougher-than-normal challenge.

Therefore, Scott approached the 2008 WSOP main event with the same intensity with which he played every other tournament at the World Series. No matter his disappointment in a set of results that many would be proud of, Day 1D of the main event is a new day with a new challenge. He appeared energized and ready, which is exactly what he conveyed in our discussion just prior to the cards being dealt at the beginning of the day.

JN: How do you feel about your World Series performance thus far?

SC: I feel like I could’ve done a lot better. I made the two final tables, which were good but went the wrong way, and I ended up busting out toward the beginning of them. It was disheartening because either one of those could’ve gone either way with some different hands and plays. I did have a couple of other cashes but nothing significant. I bubbled a couple of tournaments, including that Omaha rebuy, which was not fun. And I made it deep in the PLO Championship and went really, well not card dead but lost a number of hands in a row where it definitely could’ve gone the other way. That was frustrating, and that was the last tournament before this main event.

So, now I’m excited for this. I hope I get a good table draw. Last year, I had a really aggressive table – not like a good internet player aggressive, but with blinds at 100/200, it was an average of 1200 to go, which is hard to play against. I like to play more small pots, and that made it tough. I would rather have players who are limping because I want to play hands out. The way my table played last year is a good way for amateurs to play because the luck factor comes into play and it becomes more of an even keel game, and that’s good for them. But I don’t want that; I want more of a wide range of playing hands out in smaller pots more often. That would be more to my benefit.

JN: Going into this main event, what are you thinking? What are you focused on? Do the last six weeks come into play?

SC: I’m not thinking about any of that. I’m thinking that I want to get to this table, find out how they’re playing, and counteract that strategy as best as I can. It’s one tournament at a time. And this is the main event, so nothing else should be affecting this. It happened that I didn’t have the greatest World Series…

JN: But you had better than most.

SC: I don’t even think I had that. Maybe stats-wise I did, but money-wise, I did not. I put a lot of money into buy-ins, so $70,000 in cashes doesn’t really cover all of the buy-ins.

JN: What would make you happy at the end of Day 1 today?

SC: It’s not going to be the chip count; I don’t go into it with a certain chip count in mind because that leads to problems. I want to end the day knowing that I played all of my hands correctly, that I was paying attention and making the right reads. It’s like the tournament I played at the Bellagio the other day. I didn’t cash – I ended up bubbling – but I played really well the whole time, making good reads, calling out people’s hands on the flop even when I wasn’t in the hand, so I was paying great attention. If I can take that into a tournament like this with a deeper structure and with possibly weaker opponents, then I feel really good about where it’s going to go.

JN: Do you feel well-rested?

SC: I feel very well-rested. That’s part of the reason I wanted to play on Day 1D. It’s a long World Series, and I really needed that time. My wife and I had fun on the 4th of July, but I got sleep, we went to bed early last night, and I slept in a bit. I played a couple of tournaments at other places after the World Series, but I still feel very well-rested and ready to go.