World Series Debutant Scott Blumstein Wins $8.1 Million on his First Ever Tournament
The 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event, with its $8.15 million prize, got its winner on Sunday.
Scott Blumstein won the series’ marquee no-limit Texas Hold’em on July 23 in Las Vegas. Blumstein, a 25-year-old graduate of Temple University, is from Brigantine, New Jersey, and he is a regular on New Jersey online poker rooms but he has never cashed in with the World Series of Poker.
After the tournament ended, he praised his many hours playing online poker for helping him win big on this particular event. In his opinion, the key for success is repetition and practice both of which he obtained playing online.
“When you play online in New Jersey, it’s hard for any live pro to see even close to the amount of hands I’ve probably seen in the last two years.”
Apart from his $8.1 million pay-out, he also won a bracelet made from white and yellow gold, diamonds and rubies.
Blumstein says the money is not what motivates him to play and that this prize will give him the chance to do whatever he wants to do whether that is to play more poker, go into business or continue school.
“I’m really happy about how I played,” said Blumstein, who first played poker in the basement with friends as he grew up on Richlyn Court.
“This is just one poker tournament. It takes variance and luck and playing your best, and all those things came together so I’m happy to be the winner.”
Blumstein combined skill, good decision making and luck to win the 2017 World Series of Poker Main event that started with 7,221 players and which was played out for more than 10 days spread over two weeks. The famous tournament was the end of this year’s series, in which dozens of tournaments drew 120,995 entrants from around the word, crushing the attendance records.
At the final table, Blumstein eliminated another poker main event rookie player, Daniel Ott from Altona, Pennsylvania, on the 246th hand of the final table. Blumstein’s ace of hearts and two of diamonds were stronger than Otts’ hand. Ott went all in with ace of diamonds and eight of diamonds. The community cards were a jack of spades, a six of spades, a five of hearts, a seven of hearts and a two of hearts.
It was when the last card landed that Scott jumped from the table for a joyous celebration with his supporters in the room, relatives and college friends. Daniel Ott came second winning $4.7 million while Frenchman poker pro, Benjamin Pollak, came third scooping $3.5 million. Unlike the last several years, the last nine players didn’t have to wait until November to take their spots at the final table since they were all guaranteed at least $1 million.
