Home >> Interviews >> PTP Q&A with Scott ‘Icallseat3′ Sitron

PTP Q&A with Scott ‘Icallseat3′ Sitron

The perfect combination of confident and humble, dedicated and driven, Scott Sitron might be the best player around that “nobody’s ever heard of.” 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Stars $100+R for a total of $40,000, an outright win in the 6 max $215 and a 3rd in the FTP $90K the same day for another $19,000, $13k live cash at the Wynn, and we’re talking about a list of scores a player like myself would be proud of having over the course of an entire year…. Scott? Try the last 40 days.

This is not some flash in the pan running good at the moment either. Scott was crushing SNGs on PartyPoker before anyone had even heard of ICM, and transitioned that experience to live cash game felts and most recently to the online and live MTT scene. The guy has been doing his thing for the last five years, and doing it well. $750,000 cashes and a quarter-mill profit in Stars MTT’s alone, and “oh yeah”…. a 400K live cash when he took 2nd in Event 52 @ the 2008 WSOP, and the resume begins to compare with the very best players in the world….. Scott was kind enough to give an hour of his time to run through a little Q&A, enjoy!

EDIT: (14 hours after this interview and the intro I wrote above, Scott took down the Sunday Warmup for $111,000. Currently he is the 15th ranked player in the world according to OfficialPokerRankings.com… might climb a few spots by the time they update that list IMO.)

PTP : First, just generally sum up how you got into poker and online poker to begin with please…

Sitron: Sure. I started at 14 years old, playing 25 cent between the sheets. Moved up to $2 max bet dealers choice, and then I watched Rounders and started playing only Hold’em. I played live $20 SNGs and tourneys and then I noticed my friend playing on PartyPoker. I started playing around with $5 SNGS, read Phil H.’s book, then all the books, and moved up playing mostly sngs and the occasional MTT.

Then Party got stolen, so I went and played live 2-5 NL for a year at a casino. Got burnt out pretty quickly, but still made $60k in 6 months and then I went back to online.

PTP: Was there a key moment that sticks out to you as when it became a serious game to you? More than just throw $50 online and play around?

Sitron: Always serious, but I first realized I could make a living from it my junior year in college. Quit my job Senior year.

PTP: Did you always practice good BR management? Or did you learn it from trial and error?

Sitron: I was really good about BR management because I only played $109 sngs. Variance isn’t too bad. Would lose like 3k most in a downswing, roll was 20k.

I did flush my entire $15k bankroll over the span of two nights on Party Blackjack though. Wanted to die. Got my $2300 rakeback and that’s all I had. I ran that back up to 20k, and pretty much never looked back, other than when I had 2/3rds of my bankroll suck in Neteller for about 6 months which was a bit of a worry.

PTP: That is pretty sick. Did you have some time between the rakeback payment and the big loss to clear your head and set a plan for the $2300 because you knew it was coming? What did you play to get back to a comfy roll for the $109 SNGS?

Stiron: I just jumped back in the $109s. Ran good early luckily. They were so soft though, the swings weren’t that bad. Rarely have losing sessions and averaged $100/hr 6 tabling. And the Neteller debit card was an atm.

PTP: So how did you perfect your sng game? The icm and stuff, was it prevalent then?

Sitron: I just played really nitty. Then with four people left lossen way up. See, I still don’t even know what ICM is. Never was a pokerstove guy, just played super tight and on the bubble loosened way up. The players were so bad. The would call raises with A9 off, flop A and stack 100 bbs off. If i knew then what I know now I’d be a millionaire for sho. (Don’t have to add that last part)

PTP: lol

Sitron: Did you play back then? Online?

PTP: Just the $50/$100 deposit degen, one tabling $3/$6 fixed limit full ring. I’m laughing right now just thinking about those days.

Sitron: Haha. Was so much fun. I played the $25 NL on Party, one table, was life or death lol.

PTP: Ok, so Party shut their doors in 03-04, whenever it was; what did you do from that point?

Sitron: That’s when I grinded live for 6 months at a casino in Milwaukee. $60k at 2-5nl.

PTP: What kind of hours were you putting in? Setting a schedule or would you just play when you felt like it?

Sitron: like 40-50/hrs a week max. 5 days a week, 10 hrs a day. I’d leave early/late sometimes if the game was good or bad. Always had to keep a schedule especially with a lady friend. They like knowing you are setting time apart for them.

PTP: Words to live by. How important do you think relationships are for poker players, like do you feel Amanda makes you a better player?

Sitron: Actually… Kinda funny cause I was always kinda break even till I started dating her. Like two months into it I build up a 15k roll and quit my job. I think you have to have a good mindset to be a good player. You need confidence and you need to be happy with where you are and what you are doing. I’ve definitely had my down moments like everyone else, I get depressed and shit too. Everyone does it doesn’t matter how successful you’ve been.

PTP: What do you do to fight out of it? How do you know when you’re at a point when you need to fight out of something, and how do you know when you’re “back”?

Sitron: Well, poker wise if I’m in a downswing I can usually tell. I can tell when I’m not playing winning poker so either I take a break and watch a video, or take a break and just come back two days later. By that point I’m itching. Also I watched a Jon Turner video on PokerXFactor.com when I was in a downswing about a year ago, completely turned my game around.

PTP: What are your thoughts about poker training sites in general? And your response to critics of training sites who argue the sites are bad for the game?

Sitron: I dislike that they are so easily available, because it will make players better quick and they don’t have to read like I did. But….. I also feel you have to have an indepth knowledge of poker just to comprehend alof of what players say in the videos, so a beginner might misunderstand a play or something and donk out of their tourney. Poker is alot of feel so a video can’t be there iwth you in the moment. Still the player has to put in the time and watch the video so I don’t think they are all that bad.

PTP: So if a break-even MTT player came to you and asked for the short version about how he could improve his game, what would you tell him? Is there an a-b-c, a one single tip, or impossible to summarize?

Sitron: Well, I never had a mentor, so I don’t think it’s necessary. I’d say just log tons of hours. And I used to watch good regulars play, and just rail them. It helped to get a feel for how they played live.

PTP: Best moment of the career so far?

Sitron: Best moment was bluffing Fazadi at the WSOP final table. I was bb, he was sb. 5 handed. He raised the sb 3x, I flatted 9Tcc, flop A67 one club. He c-bet, I floated. Turn was a 5, he checked I bet 1/2 pot and he calls. River is a 3 he checks, I move in and he snap folds. Showed bluff and his face turned pale. Very big pot. Two hands later he spewed out to me with a9 for like 30 BB’s into my TT.

PTP: That’s awesome. So the WSOP score, life changing?

Sitron: Super life-changing. Validated it for my family, people that used to judge me now are on the bandwagon. I still remember who supported me though, before the score; and they are held higher in my mind. Felt like I had been grinding so long and finally was rewarded for hard work.

PTP: Well this is for a poker staking website, thoughts about backing and playing backed in general?

Sitron: Well I’ve never been backed. Personally I’ve sold pieces of myself and kinda don’t like the pressure of playing for someone else. I sometimes feel like it makes you afraid to spew because you want to get it in good. But I think it can be good too, for the player it may be good. Like if they aren’t thinking about the money and just playing good poker. If the backer finds a good horse its like free money because once they make them money its a freeroll for the backer. But; if they get deep in makeup might put a strain on the relationship and make the backer feel more fearful of continuing, and with the extra pressure its hard for the horse to play good poker. But for the guy with bad money management its very good.

PTP: You mean forced to play a certain schedule?

Sitron: No, that would be bad. I never put pressure on my horses to play.

PTP: You’re talking about the guy who scores for 4k and goes out to buy a big screen tv then…

Sitron: Exactly. Or wins a $30 freezeout and starts playing $100+R.

PTP: So you mentioned not putting pressure on your horses to play, what do you do to keep their heads up during a downswing?

Sitron: Well I only back people I know personally. They are friends, so it’s just like any other thing in life. When shit goes bad, just gotta be happy with what you’ve got, realize the good things you did in the session, and that Sunday will be back next week. The big misses are starting to hurt less and less and will the more you play. Can’t win every tourney you play, etc.

PTP: Well sir. That is about all I’ve got. Best of luck tomorrow, get some rest the Warmup starts in about 6 hours.

Sitron: Thank you for doing this with me. GL tomorrow, sir.

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