PokerWorks

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.