We might have called this article “The Return of Dan Scott.” Such a title would have had a few different meanings, all of which apply pretty well here.
Playing from Canada as “woodbine ave,” a few days ago Scott managed to top a 205-entry field in the $1,050 No-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event to win the title and a handsome $40,815.52 first prize.
“It was a long time coming,” explained Scott when talking to PokerStars Blog this week. “I won a WCOOP bracelet in Badugi back in 2012 — I think it was the first year they had Badugi.”
Indeed, it was seven years ago in the $320 Badugi event that Scott topped a 300-plus player field and a tough final table that included our late, great friend Chad Brown (who finished third). Scott earned over $17K for that victory, and in fact he talked with PokerStars Blog about the win and how he was then balancing having a full-time poker career and spending time with his five children.
Dan Scott enjoying some family time
Scott had been playing full-time since 1998, and continued to do so up until about four years ago. “Then I started doing some businesses on the side and they started making more money than poker, so poker is now a part-time thing,” he explains. “I have a company called Mudhead Distribution — we do Hammerhead Off-Roads, like dune buggies. I have another called Elevated Shade where we have bamboo sunglasses and wood watches, all handmade.”
Scott still plays the WSOP each year, and along with WCOOP that usually means focusing on poker “about three months out of the year,” all told. So in a way here was Scott returning to the tables, much as he does every year. And it was him returning to the WCOOP winner’s circle, too.
The “Return” theme applies in at least one other way as well. This is where the rest of the Scott clan enters the story once again.
With 20 left, Scott played a game of sorts with his family
“Once I got to the final 20, I decided not to tell my family,” he laughs. “Usually I do, but I decided not to this time because I’ve been getting seconds and thirds and it was frustrating!”
Speaking of, Scott had just a couple of weeks ago taken second place in the 329-entry $530 NLO8 tournament (Event #18-H) won by “PodKrepkimCh.” Perhaps feeling a bit superstitious, when the $1K NLO8 got down to the last few tables, Scott decided to alter his pattern of letting his family in on what happening.
“I didn’t tell them I was doing well in this one, because I had a feeling this was the one!” he says.
Winning smiles
In a wild game like NLO8, players are often ready and willing to get their chips in and gamble. But Scott prefers patience, avoiding hands with small edges and instead looking for spots postflop to get his chips in more favorably.
“If you’re short-stacked you have to take risks,” he says. But if you have chips with which to be more choosy, “you can risk it on the flop when you’re 75-80 percent instead, and from the final 30 on down I was able to avoid those risks.”
Scott says he was never especially short-stacked, even at the final table where the Norwegian Ola “Odd_Oddsen” Amundsgaard (who finished fifth) was among those who fell before him. Finally he reached heads-up against the Netherlands’ “oranjewm.”
“We had a good heads-up battle,” says Scott, who adds that after making a heads-up deal and losing the earlier NLO8 event, he wasn’t looking to make a deal this time.
“Once he had me outkicked on a big hand and after that he had an 18 million to 5 million lead, but then I battled back,” Scott continues. “I definitely had the experience advantage over him in NLO, I could tell, so I was willing to grind it out. I had just lost my last heads-up battle… so I was not losing this one!”
The Return of Dan Scott to heads-up went better for him this time, as after a bit more back-and-forthing he prevailed to capture his second WCOOP title.
Big congrats to Scott on the victory, and thanks as well to him for returning to join us here at PokerStars Blog!
More WCOOP winner interviews:
• Maxim “Pylusha” Pylev: From 15 big blinds to NL08 champion
• “Mr. No way”: It’s not easy beating “Colisea” heads up. Or is it?
• Germany’s “Gaul4200”: “$44K is a lot of money for a 20-year-old student in Germany”
• Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs: Captures second career WCOOP title in $530 NLH PKO
• “myIT4”: “The WCOOP… it’s the World Cup, and I was representing Russia!”
• Filipe “Zagazaur” Oliveira: One week, three WCOOP titles!
• Espen “_sennj_” Sandvik: “It’s my first win in an official tournament”
• Rodrigo “guinHuuh” Freire: Brazilian’s roller coaster ride turns $11 into $13K
• Patrick “prepstyle71” Serda: No more pizzas for the three-time winner
• Jeffrey “Jefffrr8” Reardon: He wanted a five-figure score. He got one.
• Maxime “Daghemuneguu” Chilaud: Malta-based Frenchman wins first WCOOP of the series
• Norway’s “19_Kumite_79”: First two-day event, biggest field, biggest cash
• Viktor “TsiTool” Kovács: Puts Hungary on the WCOOP map
• Italo “sep_itl1914” Carandinas: Brazilian chooses his own adventure
• Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara: Woken up by a kick from his 3-year-old, plays Razz and wins!
• “snovalshik1”: first-timer, who turned $5.50 into $3,408
• Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin: Won PLO while streaming live
• Alex “dynoalot” Difelice: Second win, but “I feel I have a ways to go.”
• Pedro “PaDiLhA SP” Padilha: Akkari’s acolyte, who sets the record straight
• Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb: Seventh title, surely not the last
WCOOP is over, but the online action continues. Click here to open a PokerStars account.