Scott Blumstein Discusses Life Post-WSOP Main Event Victory

This summer, New Jersey pro Scott Blumstein overcame a huge field of 7,221 players at the WSOP Main Event to claim a life-changing first place prize of $8.15 million. Since then, the 25 year-old has been reflecting upon the direction he envisions his poker career going, and recently held an in-depth interview with Card Player on the subject.
One point that Blumstein did make clear from the very start, however, is that for him poker always represented “a means to an end”, and by winning the Main Event he now feels like he has already “kind of beat the game”. Having claimed the most coveted prize in poker, Blumstein said that there are not many poker goals that would motivate him right now, with those goals that are possible restricted to the live arena considering online poker is currently offered by just a handful of states in America.
Nevertheless, Blumstein says that idea of competing in high stakes tournaments against some of the toughest players in the world was probably not worth his time or investment, although travelling around and grinding the regular tournament circuit may hold more potential as far as the young pro is concerned.
The interviewer then asked him whether he would consider playing in high-stakes cash games, and the level-headed player once again acknowledged the increasingly tougher competition featured at these type of games, stating that he doesn’t intend playing in a game that is even harder to beat than a high-stakes tournament. Furthermore, Blumstein said that he does not feel any great pressure to compete in such games, and that he hasn’t come under any pressure from the poker community to do so. He also said that no one had approached him with any coaching suggestions, either, which he said was nice “because that’s how you can get in trouble.”
Instead, Blumstein explained that he has more interest in helping people see the game as a more realistic money-making perspective, rather than a way to get rich quick, especially as players continue to become more sophisticated and advanced in their abilities. Imparting his experience borne from “making dumb decisions in the past”, Blumstein then had these words of wisdom to offer those players looking to make a living from the game:
“That should be the goal. With the game getting tougher, the margin for error is so small. It’s a problem in the long-term when people play above their means.