Under The Gun: Inside the mind of Scott Blumstein

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What piece of strategy advice did you get when you first started playing that you wish you had ignored?

When I first started out, I was super-aggressive. When I got raised on , sometimes I’d go all-in with offsuit. They’d call with and I’d just be drawing dead. I had to unlearn those things.

You need to be able to make a move and do outlandish stuff, but the ability to believe people more often than not is important.

Scott Blumstein at the WPT Gardens Poker Championship, 2019

What's the dumbest thing you've ever seen or done at the poker table?

It's probably something I’ve done. The tournament before I won the WSOP Main Event I played the Wynn 1600. I came out to play two tournaments all summer and that was one of them. I waited four and a half hours to get into the tournament and when I finally got in I misclicked a chunk of my stack away on the second hand.

Then there was an online PokerStars tournament, 2015 or 2016. It was four-handed and it was probably going to be one of my biggest online scores at the time, and I was already celebrating. I got a little distracted and it folded to me in the small blind. I went all in for about 10 big blinds effective and the big blind folded, but the pot wasn't being pushed to me. I looked up and someone had opened. I had offsuit and they tanked for about a minute before they called with two kings. I bricked and got fourth place.

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. But the good news is if I can come back from that and have poker success, you can come back from anything.

What's your most memorable hand?

This is a lay-up. It has to be the time I got two aces against John Hesp with and just we were first and second in chips. Who can forget that one? It’s the one I get asked about a lot. To my credit, I played that cooler very well!

Hesp shoved into the nuts at the 2017 Main Event final table

What is your best piece of advice for players?

The best advice that I can give for poker is to listen to other people while still thinking for yourself.

Understand the fundamentals but also understand that it’s a game; there’s a human element, especially live. Don’t be afraid to trust yourself while taking in different advice from people that you respect, especially in deeper tournaments like Main Events with good structures. You’re playing post-flop and it’s not about getting it in. If you want a 2% edge, go buy stocks.

At the end of the day, if you want to say it’s a skill game, try to leave as little up to chance as possible.The game for me is about not making mistakes. It comes down to execution.

If you owned a poker room, who's the first player you'd want to sign as an ambassador and why?

Dan Colman. I always looked up to him.

He won those tournaments and he didn’t really want the publicity that came with it. He understood the game. Yes, it’s cool to be good at it and yes it’s cool to win, but we both see it similarly. We don’t really want our wins to be glorified, it’s more about the process.

At the end of the day, the game is about money. If you’re doing this for glory, you’re doing it wrong. It’s cool to get good at something and it’s cool to study and work at something to get better, but at the end of the day you have to be happy with your process and what you put into it. Play it because you enjoy it and you love the competition.

That’s Dan Colman and that’s why he’d be perfect.

^{Images courtesy of Joe Giron/WPT}