WSOP Event #24: Scott Clements Steals Phil Hellmuth’s Thunder

Let’s get the part that everybody was initially interested in out of the way right now. Phil Hellmuth was at his second final table of the 2006 World Series of Poker, this time in the $3,000 Omaha Eight-or-better fixed limit event. Having come up just short earlier in the WSOP in his quest for his tenth bracelet, he now had another chance to pull even with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. Now, to put that story to bed, he didn’t win. He came in 6th. The man who did win, and in dominant fashion, was relative unknown, Scott Clements.

Clements really could do no wrong in this tournament. He entered the final table with almost a $100 thousand lead on the next closest competitor, and with only 352 entrants in the tournament, that’s a sizable lead. An example of the mojo he was working occurred very early on, when he hit a one-outer (yes, ONE-outer) on the river to severely damage Alex Limjoco’s chip stack. On a board of Q-Q-4-2, Limjoco had already made a full house, Queens over fours. The Ace on the river gave Clements Aces over Queens…and Clements held the other three Aces. Limjoco was out on the next hand.

A while later, Clements hit a four-outer on the river to cripple accomplished pro, Peter Costa.

Once Hellmuth was eliminated in 6th place, Clements had a commanding chip lead, with more chips than the other four players combined ($535 thousand versus $532 thousand). He had more than triple the chips of his closest competitor, Thor Hansen (535 to 170).

Once Brent Carter dispatched Ronald Matsuura an hour and a half later, the rest of the proceedings were academic. While Clements said later that he never assumed he was going to win, he was probably the only one who didn’t. Details aren’t even needed to describe his march to victory. It was an absolute obliteration. Clements’ stack grew, and the other players’ stacks shrank. At one point, Clements had more than three and a half times as many chips as the other three players put together. Carter, Hansen, and Martin Corpuz made it to the dinner break, but they all served as Clements’ dessert.

Going into heads-up play, Clements had almost every single chip in the tournament. His 11-1 chip lead over Hansen was as big as you’ll ever see going into one-on-one play. Heck, Hansen only had three big bets left.

Somehow, it still took almost twenty minutes for Clements to capture the bracelet and $301,175, but maybe he was just relishing the moment.

Originally published July 18, 2006