Scott Stewart’s $2.5M WPT World Championship Win a Family Affair

In the midst of the chaos and celebration, Scott Stewart had a singular thought as he posed for photos and videos on stage.

“I have to call my mom.”

Stewart had just become the WPT World Champion, triumphing after a 100-hand slugfest of a heads-up battle against Rob Sherwood to claim a first-place prize worth $2,563,900 – far and away the biggest result of his career. But after a light nudge from World Poker Tour President and CEO Adam Pliska, Stewart made sure his highest priority was fulfilled as he put his mom on speaker phone.

Her message was a simple one.

“Don’t spend money foolishly when you drink,” she said.

She had been up watching the stream, enjoying the action on the big screen TV back in California, and likely seen that both Stewart and his many friends on the rail had been celebrating with a few Budweisers over the course of eight hours as the final table played out.

“Mom couldn’t make it, bad right knee right now,” said Stewart. “It’s gonna get fixed, but for a little bit she can’t walk long distances. But I knew she was there in spirit. I knew she was gonna be awake. There’s no way she was going to bed without seeing if I won or lost.”

Stewart’s dad, Frank (“The Tank,” as Scott made sure to specify) was along for the ride at the final table, channeling the same energy as Scott and his friends as he wore an American Flag bandana and celebrated throughout the night. He was just trying to match the energy of some of Scott’s friends – a combined group of poker players and hometown buddies who made the 4-and-a-half hour drive from Long Beach to support him. Some of them even went down to Fremont Street in between the end of Day 5 on Friday night and Saturday afternoon’s final table at Wynn Las Vegas to have custom shirts featuring Scott wearing an American flag speedo and holding the American flag.

They certainly didn’t take their cues from out of thin air. Throughout the tournament and the final table in particular, Stewart sported a well-worn hat with a Budweiser logo and enjoyed a few frosty beverages of his own at the table.

When it came to the way in which that final table played out, Stewart seemingly needed every ounce of their seemingly boundless energy over the course of the WPT World Championship on Saturday. There were three eliminations in a flash, one of which greatly benefitted Stewart as his pocket aces held up, and after a rather hasty playdown to heads-up that took only 69 hands it appeared as though Stewart might run away with it.

It could’ve well been over in just 17 hands between Stewart and Rob Sherwood, as Stewart quickly whittled his opponent down until he had a lead of more than 9-to-1. On that 17th hand, Stewart got Sherwood all in with pocket queens against Sherwood’s ace-jack, only for an ace to land on the flop and breathe new life into Sherwood.

“That queens versus ace-jack hand, I had whittled him down to exactly where [I wanted him],” said Stewart. “He had a shove stack, and I had the perfect hand. Then after that, it just felt like it flip flopped, and he couldn’t lose.”

With that new life, Sherwood locked in for what would become a more than four-hour heads up match. The lead was exchanged repeatedly despite the fact that Sherwood was only all-in and called twice, and Stewart just once, very late in heads-up play.

“God, he was a tough player,” said Stewart. “Heads up, he was so stoic, and I felt like he never bluffed. Then he bluffed in the perfect spot where I really burned time banks, after [not having done so] this whole tournament.”

Stewart folded to Sherwood’s timely river bet, and the slog carried on for hours more. Stewart came back multiple times to take a solid lead, only for a most crucial hand to swing it back Sherwood’s way. Stewart eventually fell down by as much as 6-to-1 with only 12 big blinds left in his stack, and then, when he needed his rail the most, his family and his chosen family came through for Stewart.

The final climb back into contention for Stewart came on one of the wildest hands on a night where there was plenty of eye-popping action to go around. On a board that ran out a full house, nines full of jacks, neither player had anything. But after Sherwood led out on the river with king-high, Stewart saw his opportunity for a bluff that finally swung him back into the match for good with and moved all in.

“I think there was a timing tell,” Stewart said of the move. “I think he bet a little too quick. But, you know, you kind of fucking have it. You gotta have the jack or the nine, and he clearly didn’t have it. Give me the 20 million, and we’ll go from there.”

After Sherwood reluctantly folded, Stewart flashed his hand proudly to the players on the rail and injected one final surge of energy into their ranks.

“They were consistently the best rail ever,” said Stewart. “Never a dull moment, and never a moment of doubt.”

Just two hands later, Stewart picked up pocket kings against Sherwood’s pocket sixes for almost all of the chips in play, and this time around he held. After a few more hands to finish it off, Stewart officially became a WPT Champions Club member and wrapped up Season 22 of the WPT with flair.

It was a long-awaited moment of triumph in a career filled with smaller victories and close calls, like Stewart’s 13th place finish in the 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event.

On Saturday night Stewart finished the job, winning the WPT World Championship and securing the kind of cash that defines a poker career.

His parents’ support had never wavered over the 15 years Stewart’s been playing poker seriously. But as Stewart enjoyed the kind of victory he only could have imagined when he was 21, he was all too happy to make a joke about it – at the expense of some of those longtime friends, of course.

“In the beginning, they were like…” Stewart paused, looking out at some of his longtime friends who’d hung around all day on the rail. “I’ve got this friend, Sam, he’s a really bad influence on me. And then they were like, man, this guy, Jake, too, is bad news. Got to stay away from him. But I just kept plugging away. I lost my hair, gained some weight, but I’m still playing and it all ended up working out. It just took 15 or 16 years.”