Barstool Sports Actual Interview with Scott Fischman

September 3, 2004

Actual interview alert! Actual interview alert!

The first weekend in May I was out in Las Vegas for a bachelor party when my friend Marc, who resides in Vegas, asked us if we wanted to come down to Binion’s where his buddy Scott was competing at the final table of a Hold ‘em event at the World Series of Poker. Thinking it was some $50 scrub event, coupled with the fact that Binion’s is no place to spend the final night of your buddy’s bachelor party, we instead opted for a night of short skirts, paramedics and Elvis impersonators at Club Rain. Well, wouldn’t you know, I found out the next morning from Marc that Scott ended up winning a WSOP bracelet, a cool $300,000 and celebrating the rest of the night at the Spearmint Rhino.

As you probably have figured out, the “Scott” Marc was referring to was Scott Fischman, and the tournament, shown last month on ESPN, was the $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold ‘em event (slightly more prestigious than I thought) where many of you saw Fischman, after back-flopping on the table in celebration, boldly proclaim that he and his poker buddies, the now infamous “Crew”, were “taking over the poker world.” Later in the WSOP, Fischman, at age 23, became the youngest player ever to obtain 2 WSOP bracelets after winning the H.O.R.S.E. event and another $100,000. And although he and the rest of “The Crew” finished out of the money in the $5 million Main Event, Fischman has earned over $541,000 in 2004, and is currently the 7th ranked player in the world. After a few emails, we were able to settle on last Friday where we had the following phone conversation.

Barstool Sports: When did you come to Vegas and when did you start seriously playing poker?

Scott Fischman: I was born in Philly and grew up in South Jersey. My family moved to Vegas when I was 12. I went to UNLV for a year, I started dealing at the Sahara and then the Mirage. I’d say I seriously started playing in 2002.

BS: How was “The Crew” started?

SF: I got in with The Crew really in January of this year when Brett (Jungblut) asked me to come out to Tunica (Mississippi) to play out there for a month. I wasn’t doing anything at the time, so I did. We started playing and winning a lot, and they liked me. Brett, Dutch (Boyd) and a few other guys all were living out in Culver City (CA), and we just started playing a lot.

BS: Is it true that (Chris) Moneymaker turned you guys down when you asked him to join “The Crew”?

SF: No. That’s not true.

(Awkward pause)

BS: Let me read a quote from an online chat that ESPN did with Phil Helmuth. Not sure if you saw this or not. This is a quote from a random emailer to Phil. “What are you feelings on “The Crew”? My roommate has to physically restrain me from destroying the television set when they’re on screen.” Then Phil says, “I would say that I’ve been asked about 10 questions about The Crew in the last few weeks. I really like and respect Scott Fischman. Dutch Boyd seems OK to me. But not everyone in their group gives respect to the old-time players.” Do you think that’s accurate?

SF: Well I think Phil is referring to Brett. He’s really in your face, talks a lot of shit at the table.

BS: So you think the rest of you are ok, just Brett can get a little rough?

SF: Yeah, I think me and Dutch show respect. Brett likes to push people around at the table. He and Phil got into a huge blowup at the table one time.

BS: What do you think of Helmuth?

SF: He’s a great poker player. I haven’t really had a lot of table time with him…

BS: He whines all the time, you heard him say, “If it wasn’t for luck, I’d win every time”, right? What do you think of that?

SF: Yeah, I heard him say that. The thing with Phil is that he gets really upset when he gets beat by inferior hands and it affects him emotionally. You can’t let that happen. You have to adapt to people playing inferior hands against you. People play different against you. I just talked to Scotty Nguyen and he told me “people play crazy against you when you’re a big name. If they win, they can tell people they beat Scotty Nguyen and if they don’t, they can say they lost to Scotty Nguyen.” I think Phil’s got to adapt.

BS: The hand that basically won you the $300K at the Hold ‘em tournament has been talked about a lot - he (Joe Awada) raised you pre-flop, then you re-raised with AK. Flop came 9-7-4, and you went all-in with less chips than he had. I’m curious what kind of hand did you put him on? (Awada had pocket 5’s.)

SF: Well I thought he had AJ, AQ, KQ, KJ. Any of those hands. Maybe AK. Maybe a small pair.

BS: Then you went all-in with just Ace high…

SF: Sometimes you gotta gamble. AK is a strong hand you know. I went all-in, and he called, which I thought was a questionable call by him. Next card paired the 9, and the river paired the 7, and I won the hand with the Ace kicker.

(Awada lost with my favorite hand – 3 pair)

BS: What were you thinking when you won $300,000 and dove on the table? The most money I’ve ever won was $800, so I have no idea what that’s like.

SF: You don’t really think. Your mind goes blank. Just blank, you know. It was a dream come true.

BS: How did you feel 2 weeks ago when you finally saw what Doyle Brunson had against you in those 2 hands at the Main Event? He got you pretty good I thought.

SF: The first one I had AK, he had 7’s. He had me beat. The other one I had 9’s, he had QJ of spades for no pair and he outplayed me. I thought he played it great. I was glad when I saw that on TV. That’s why he’s a great player.

BS: Do you think ESPN portrayed you fairly?

SF: Yeah, I think so. I was happy with what they showed about me. I didn’t like that they only showed like 3 hands heads-up with me and Joe (Awada). The heads-up lasted 3 hours and only they showed 3 hands.

BS: Who do you think are the top 2-3 tournament players in the world?

SF: That’s a tough question, it’s hard to say… Daniel (Negreneau), me, Doyle (Brunson). There’s so many greats.

(He wasn’t kidding)

BS: I heard Negreneau plays cash games at the Bellagio with the discards? Is that true? That’s pretty sick.

SF: Yeah, he plays Tobey Maguire’s discards.

BS (surprised to hear THAT’s whose discards he plays): Tobey Maguire’s discards?

SF: Yeah, he and Tobey will be at a table, Tobey’ll fold, and Daniel will take Tobey’s folded cards and play them. He’s so smart, he’s incredible. If the flop comes 2-2-8, Daniel will fire at it and people will assume he’s got a deuce even though he probably doesn’t. That’s the thing about No Limit Hold ‘em, it’s such a mental game

BS: How about Ivey or Lederer? What other players do you admire and respect?

SF: I respect all of them. They’re all different. Howard (Lederer) plays different from Doyle. I play different from Daniel. Hasseen Habeeb is amazing. ‘Miami’ John Ceruto has been to like a gazillion final tables. They’re all incredible players. They’re all different. And that’s what The Crew is all about. We’re about sucking up as much information as we can, and adapting. Not RE-acting. I think that’s really important. Like, reacting is when you’re playing and some guy keeps raising your blind and you say – ‘yeah, you raise my blind, I’m gonna fuckin raise your blind’. That’s reacting, adapting is saying, ‘let him have the blind’. Raise someone else’s blind when you can. Adapting your play is the important thing.

BS: I’ve been treading water online the past year or so, what one thing do you think I need to do to get over the hump and start winning consistently?

SF: You have to control yourself. You have to be precise in your decision making at all times. You can’t worry about bad beats and mistakes. Start-out playing as many low-limit tournaments as you can. Analyze it, talk about it afterwards, chat on IM with friends, discuss what happened and learn from it. Even if it’s a Freeroll. Play it for real. When I started out I bought-in for like $200, and I was playing $1 tournaments like it was the fuckin World Series.

(Update – I went broke Sunday night on Party Poker, need to re-buy now.)

BS: What do you think is the most common mistake amateurs make at the table? I’ve heard playing too many hands.

SF: No, not playing too many hands. I’d say calling with overcards. Most people play Ace-anything or King-anything. Let’s say you have AK, and the flop comes 2-5-7, then you make an Ace on the turn, and you think you’re in good shape with Aces, but the fact is you’re probably not because somebody probably has A7, A5 or A2 and you’re beat. So calling with overcards I’d say is the most common mistake.

BS: What percent of your time is playing online vs. live poker? 50-50, 60-40?

SF: I’d say 50-50. I was just out in LA and was playing online like crazy the last 5 days.

BS: What sites do you play? Party Poker, Pokerstars?

SF: All of them.

(Note: Many of you saw his house when ESPN did a segment on “The Crew” during the WSOP. He has a room set up like Billy Baldwin’s apartment in “Sliver”, but instead of Sharon Stone and Tom Berenger, he’s got 5 or 6 flat screens on the wall running online poker games.)

BS: Do you think Ben Affleck is legit?

SF: Yeah! He’s got a lot of money, so he can afford to make mistakes. He had Annie Duke helping him, he learned from his mistakes and got good. He’s been playing for over a year now, I think he’s legit.

BS: Is it true you’ve never read a book on poker, if so, why not?

SF: No, still haven’t read a book. I keep thinking I want to, I’d like to, but I don’t think I ever will. People talk about them, but I don’t know. I hate reading.

BS: More impressive: Moneymaker last year, or (Greg) Raymer this year?

SF: Equal. They both can play. They’re NOT dead money. Neither is (Robert) Varkoni (2002 WSOP champ). You can’t win a World Series tourney without a little luck, but that doesn’t mean they don’t play good. Anyone that’s ever won a tournament has gotten lucky. I want that to go in print.

BS: So you’ve got a few hundred thousand dollars now, that’s a nice chunk of change for a 24 year old in Vegas. I heard (Mike) Matisow on ESPN talk about how he lost $3 million on strippers and booze. We know what happened to Stu Unger. How do you prevent that from happening to you?

SF: That’s not who I am. I’m smart enough not to. I invested the money, I bought a new house. ‘No leaks’ is what it’s called in the poker world. You can’t have leaks. I don’t gamble or anything, just poker.

(Note: I’d go for the strippers and booze and take it from there...)

BS: What about fantasy football?

SF: No, I don’t do that. But I don’t have anything against it.

BS: What sports teams do you root for?

SF: All the Philadelphia teams. Eagles, Flyers, Phillies and 6ers.

(You can’t win at everything.)

BS: Are we gonna see you with Vince Van Patton on the World Poker Tour this year?

SF: I hope so. I’m going to the Borgatta, I’m going to Aruba, I’m going to Foxwoods. I’ll be at all the events.

BS: Finally, what’s the most ridiculous thing to happen to you since the World Series?

SF: I’d probably say the most ridiculous thing is that I’m kind of friends with Tobey Maguire now. He came up to me and said “Hey, you’re Scott Fischman. I saw you on TV.” Here’s one of the biggest actors in the world and he knows who I am. That’s fuckin nuts! He’s been playing a lot, and he’s getting real good. I think he’ll be winning tournaments within a year.

BS: All right, thanks Scott.

SF: No problem. See you later.

With over a half-million in earnings and 2 World Series bracelets, there’s no question Scott Fischman’s a talented player who’s having an outstanding year. There’s also no question that he’s extremely confident in his methodology and his ability at the table, which often times comes across as cocky. And that fact that he’s completely immersed in, and obsessed with poker is beyond doubt. But I do wonder if Fischman will be able to sustain the 24/7 pace he’s going at now in a year or two. No one can eat, drink, and sleep poker as much as he does without burning out. I don’t care how old you are. Maybe a few days at Club Med or a weekend trip to the Chicken Ranch isn’t a bad idea. Just to keep things fresh and mix it up a bit.

As my buddy Marc told me, who moved to Vegas to play poker 4 years ago before going into real estate, “I used to go to bed at night and dream about flops. That’s sick.”