Poker Articles

We’ve all critiqued Harrah’s pushing the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event back until November. Would it stunt a player making a run at the $9 million first place prize? Would it mean that skill would be the determining factor? Would a professional poker player finally reclaim the title of WSOP Champion? We all have opinions on the issue. They’ve been expressed on PocketFives.com and other major online poker forums. One PocketFiver whose opinion we should all respect is Scott r_a_y Montgomery, currently third in chips in the Main Event and now in the middle of a 100 day layoff until November 9th.

Montgomery and the other eight members of the Main Event final table are spending the next 100 days seeking endorsements and sponsorships, obtaining poker training, and scouting their opponents in high definition on ESPN. He commented that the next few months “will be too stressful for me to enjoy the experience at all. I'd have been happier if we played right away with no break.” Here is his official take on the drastic move that the casino goliath made just a few weeks before the WSOP began: “I understand the reasons behind it like extra publicity and increased suspense. I can accept that it'll be better for poker as a sport, but as a player, I'm not overjoyed. It gives the amateur players at the final table a lot of time to improve their games, whereas the pros won't be able to improve their games as much in the same amount of time.”

On July 14th, the Main Event played down to its final nine contestants. Some of those around the poker world, including myself, were tuned into GSN that night watching Montgomery finish fifth in the World Poker Tour’s L.A. Poker Classic. He won $296,860 in the process. I asked him about the coincidental air date of the WPT event: “It must be destiny. When I saw the WSOP schedule, I noticed that the Main Event finished on the airing date, so I thought maybe it was a sign.”

When the tournament resumes in November, Montgomery is expecting a high-paced affair, as each of the nine players will air out the tension from the layoff: “Even when everyone expected the tournament to slow down in the last few days, it never did. There are still four or five aggressive players left, so there's no chance, in my opinion, that play will slow down at all.”

Like many other of the top poker pros today, Montgomery began playing four years ago. He was in Japan and quipped that he was “pretty bored, so it was a good distraction.” He’s been a full-time poker pro for the past two years, splitting his time between live and online play. Online, his style varies considerably from many of the ranked PocketFivers’: “When I play, I’m 100% focused on the game. That’s why I rarely play more than one game at a time online. I also try not to play live games where the stakes are so low that I don't care if I win or lose.”

Online, Montgomery finished second in a UBOC event in December for $15,701.50. His concentration explains his success in live events like the World Series of Poker Main Event. He explains why he does not normally multi-table: “I understand why people do it, but I always thought of online play as training for live play. Playing ten games at once will make you more money, but your game won't improve as much as it would if you just concentrated on one high-level game.”

If you’re looking for advice on what it takes to make a WSOP final table, Montgomery is a good resource. He commented, “In my mind, every player should have a few different gears: rock solid, tight, a little loose, aggressive, and crazy aggressive. I think the weakness of a lot of players is that they don't have the crazy aggressive gear. Sometimes that's how you have to play.”

Here’s a look at the complete lineup of the final table of the 2008 WSOP Main Event along with each player’s starting chip stack:

Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
David 'Chino' Rheem - 10,230,000
Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
Kelly Kim - 2,620,000

Best of luck to Scott r_a_y Montgomery in the second largest live poker tournament ever held. Stay tuned to PocketFives.com for more details.