Scott Clements had quite the booming start to his poker career, but after winning two gold bracelets right out of the starting gate, it’s been more than a decade since Clements wrapped World Series of Poker jewelry around his wrist.

“I think that in all of my other pictures, I didn’t smile,” Clements joked after he won the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice on Wednesday night at the 2019 WSOP. “This one, I’m definitely smiling because I finally got it back.”

Clements’ first recorded live cash was in March 2005. Just over a year later, he won his first gold bracelet in the 2006 WSOP $3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo tournament for $301,175. One year after that, Clements won another bracelet at the 2007 WSOP. This time, he was victorious in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $194,206. After that, the drought came and Clements couldn’t quite close it out in WSOP events. From 2008 to 2018, Clements had 19 finishes in the top 10 of gold bracelet events. Of those 19, six were runner-up results.

“Trust me, if I would’ve got second in this it would’ve been pretty rough because I have a lot of seconds and I did not want another second,” Clements said.

He wouldn’t have to deal with that, though. Clements topped Tim McDermott in heads-up play to win the gold. Coincidentally, McDermott, who doesn’t have a WSOP bracelet yet, now has two second-place finishes and one third-place finish at the World Series of Poker over the last two summers.

Clements is now one of 96 players to have three WSOP gold bracelets to date. While the first one may have been sweet, Clements said that it’s this third one that might be at the top of the list.

“It’s probably number one because it’s been 12 years,” Clements said. “I was pretty cocky back then when I won the first two right off, so this is probably number one. Plus, I have three kids, so now I can give them all a bracelet.”

Clements is no stranger to mixed games. His two bracelets before this one were in Omaha variants, and now he owns one of the ultimate mixed game bracelets out there – a dealer’s choice one.

“Only during the Series,” Clements said of how often he gets to play all of the different games that were available in the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice tournament. “I love it, and I’m excited for Sunday with the eight-game. I love this tournament. No Limit Hold’em, I’m sure you guys all know, sometimes it can be a little bit boring, slow, tanking. This whole tournament was just great, you get to play all the games, and I love it.”

Part of the strategy in the dealer’s choice tournaments at the WSOP is about picking the games to play when it’s your turn. During the final table, McDermott picked pot-limit Omaha twice, which is a game Clements is very comfortable with.

“He might be really great at PLO, but I was OK with it,” Clements said. “I was like, ‘Oh, sweet. PLO? That’s OK.’ I didn’t like it when he picked no-limit deuce with the huge antes and no-limit hold’em. I still felt comfortable but I’d rather play small-ball for a while.”

Interestingly enough, Clements won the tournament in a round of no-limit hold’em against McDermott.

“I usually just tried to pick what other people didn’t look like they wanted to be picked,” Clements said of his own strategy picking games. “I feel pretty comfortable in most of the games, and I’m not always going to be right. Sometimes, I’m just lazy and take whatever the last person picked if I can’t think of anything. I really didn’t have any specific scenario. Just pick what other people aren’t as good at.”

With a win under his belt early in the 2019 WSOP, Clements won’t change his plans for the rest of the summer. He planned to be around playing everything and he’s still going to do that.

“I’m definitely going to be here for the whole Series.”