Scott Baumstein

As a former trader before taking the leap to play poker full-time, New Yorker Scott Baumstein is certainly not averse to risk. Even his academic background revolved around money, studying Finance at the University of Colorado. He is a live poker specialist, catching the tournament bug after making his first ever live cash in the 2009 WSOP $10,000 Main Event. Since then, he has had 22 other cashes in WSOP events for a total of over half a million dollars at the World Series alone. Unluckily, a bracelet has eluded him up to this point – though he came very close to winning one when he finished 4th in the 2011 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event for $146,639. Outlasting other big names in the tournament scene like Justin Bonomo and Benjamin Tollerene, Baumstein has proven that he can hang with the best of them.

His biggest cash win to date was in an event he actually finished runner-up in – the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Championship event at the 2012 Borgata Fall Poker Open. Though he didn’t take home the trophy, he did get rewarded with $209,480 for his efforts. He has also made deep runs in numerous WPT and EPT events, receiving airtime during the PCA 2015 $10,000 Main Event regarding a situation where he called out a player that was repeatedly stalling at the table to make the money.

More recently, Scott had great success in two of the largest-field events at the 2017 WSOP – the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Millionaire Maker and the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack. In the former, he beat over 7,730 entrants to finish slightly short of the final-table. Going into day 3 as the chip leader in the Monster Stack event, he was again unfortunate to fall short of the top prize when he busted in 17th place for $47,353.