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Twenty years ago, Scott Lazar doubled up eventual champion Joe Hachem and coolered Mike Matusow at one of the most entertaining and memorable World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final tables ever.

Two decades later, the 2005 sixth-place finisher in poker’s most prestigious event ran deep in another WSOP event. This one, Event #48: $1,000 Senior’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship, a tournament that attracted 7,575 entrants. Lazar, who spoke to PokerNews on a Day 3 break, busted in 31st place for $21,950, his second-largest tournament cash since his televised $1.5 million score.

Scott Lazar Back in Action

Lazar quickly made his presence felt during ESPN’s 2005 Main Event final table broadcast, and he left Matusow on fumes right off the bat.

Matusow, a Full Tilt Poker pro at the time, headlined a star-studded 2005 Main Event final table, the last one held at Binion’s on Fremont Street. The poker boom era superstar, on the second hand at the final table, had his world title dreams all but shattered in the blink of an eye, but he almost won a monster pot instead.

The hand began with Maryland’s Steve Dannemann, the eventual runner-up, raising to 250,000 with J*♠J♣. Lazar, one of the smallest stacks entering the final table, three-bet — or, for proper 2005 terminology, re-raised — to 1,250,000 with A♥A♦*.

“The commentary said I made it 1 million, but I actually 5x’ed it — 1,250,000,” Lazar explained.

Matusow, who spent time in jail months before the 2005 WSOP, picked up K*♥K♣* and moved all in, having all the players left to act covered. Dannemann folded his jacks before pocket aces snap-called. The flop came out Q*♥6♥K♦, and Matusow celebrated hitting his set. But the 2♥* on the turn brought about a flush draw, and it was followed by the J*♥* on the river to complete the flush.

“Because I had already been playing for 17 years, when the king hit, it didn’t faze me,” Lazar recollects. “And then when the turn came, it was a heart, and I thought ‘oh, that’s interesting.’ And when the heart hit the river, I exploded because of the emotion of that moment.”

Lazar shot up the chip counts, while Matusow later busted in ninth place, a disappointing end to his second Main Event final table appearance despite the $1 million payday. But Lazar began to unravel before long, and he admits he didn’t play his best at the final table, which inevitably cost him a shot at the bracelet with six players remaining against Hachem.

The key pot took place against Hachem, who three-bet jammed all in with A*♠Q♠, and Lazar, the original raiser, called with K♠9♠. Both players flopped a flush draw, and the Ax* on the turn locked the hand up for Hachem, which sparked his comeback at the final table.

“This is the portion where I had the meltdown,” Lazar shared his thoughts on the loose call. “I wasn’t thinking. I was in this auto mode. Look at my hand, playable, fold. I wasn’t thinking, I wasn’t doing math. I was so tired after so many days that I had really almost collapsed mentally and physically.”

Lazar said he made a bad fold on the previous hand with a suited ace “getting five-to-one” in the big blind.

“I just auto-mucked it, and I remember being upset because I should have called. And, of course the flop came out ace, ace, and an ace on the turn. I would have made quads, and both of them had pairs over the other cards on the board.”

Lazar said he felt he had been playing too tight, which led to a couple of loose calls, starting with the aforementioned play against Hachem, and it ended by snap-calling with Q*♣10♦* after Andrew Black, who had him covered, moved all in with J*♠J♣*.

No help came for the California poker player on the five community cards. He was eliminated in sixth place for $1.5 million, while Black, an Irishman, was the next player out, a $1,750,000 score.

Poker Player 20 Years Later

Lazar, who wouldn’t be recognizable to 2000s poker fans these days given he’s now scruffy and gray-haired, still speaks fondly of that once-in-a-lifetime experience despite the abrupt end to his title chase. He immediately became friends with Hachem, the 2005 champion, and is still close pals with the Australian poker legend. But he said the world champ can’t make it to Las Vegas this summer for the 20th anniversary of his title due to prior commitments.

The two families remain close. Lazar has two children who are friends with Hachem’s kids, including Daniel Hachem, a skilled poker player who finished runner-up in a $1,500 mixed bomb pot bracelet event last summer. Joe Hachem sat on the rail to cheer on his son until the final card was dealt.

Lazar only has about $165,000 in live tournament cashes since the 2005 Main Event, according to The Hendon Mob. But he still frequents the cash game tables. He was one of the most experienced players at the memorable final table, having played professionally for 17 years before that.

“I chose not to go into poker full-time after that,” Lazar said when asked what he’s been up to the past 20 years. “But I never stopped playing. Believe it or not, I really only stopped playing for about six months after that tournament because I was so devasted by how it finished, bought a house, raised a couple of boys and watched them go off to college and become successful, and never re-married. Unfortunately, my wife and I separated just before that World Series.”

Lazar didn’t run hot at the final table, but he did catch one lucky break. He said his divorce had been finalized not long before the Main Event began, which meant he didn’t owe her a penny from that seven-figure score.

“She called me the day after I final tabled and said, ‘You won how much?’”

The newly minted millionaire went on to produce the 2008 poker movie, Deal, starring Burt Reynolds. Lazar was among a star-studded cast of poker players who made cameo appearances in that flick. Shannon Elizabeth, Mike Sexton, and Jennifer Tilly were just a few of the players spotted in the film.

“Almost within months of the Main Event, I got a call from a producer I’d worked with before, and he said, ‘Hey, I’m doing a script based on poker with Burt Reynolds attached, would you executive produce it?’ And I didn’t even have to think about it,” Lazar said.

Lazar, who lives in the Los Angeles area, came up a bit short of the final table in the Seniors event on Thursday. But he showed that he can still play poker at a high level, 20 years after nearly becoming a world champion.

*Feature image courtesy of PokerGO.

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