The story of Blaž "Scarmak3r" Žerjav starts with him being a poker enthusiast who was grinding small stakes tournaments and trying to build his bankroll to chase his poker dream. While doing that, Blaž was a student of the English language and was playing football in Slovenia when one of the life-changing moments happened for him.
From Satelites to Millions
One day Blaž decided to fire up a $5 satellite, and he managed to qualify for the "MILLIONS Online" Tournament, which had a $20 Million GTD prizepool. He survived Day 1, and once he made it to Day 2 of the tournament, his focus was on getting ITM and laddering up as much as possible. By that time, Blaž had a bankroll of around $2,000, and every ladder multiplied his whole bankroll..
With a conservative strategy and avoidance of tough spots, Blaž managed to reach the final day, and at some point, he found himself at the final table with $218,350 locked in. This was already a fantastic achievement, as he more than 100x-ed his bankroll in a few days, but this was not the end of the story. He kept moving up and finished in astonishing third place for $1,364 million, beating his previous highest score of $6,000.
Life Changing Score, Coming to the Big Leagues
This was obviously a life- and career-changing moment for Blaž, and a young poker star was born. Blaž continued to play his usual stakes, as he realized he was not ready for the big leagues yet. He decided to invest some of the money into coaching before he moved up..
Once he moved up in stakes in 2019, we saw Blaž playing in his first WSOP, but without much luck. Blaž went on and won Winamax's biggest tournament ever for €281.756 and finished 4th in WPT Online Main Event for $552.006 in 2020.
He continued to play online and live every year until 2024, when he came 2nd in EPT Paris' €1,100 No Limit Hold'em—FPS Main Event, winning €294,530. Then, he won his first live EPT event, € 2,200 No Limit Hold'em—Deepstack, for €141,680.
Best Year of the Poker Career, Winning First WSOP Bracelet..
Blaž opened the year playing some events in Europe, where he had some decent success, but the events were not as big until he went on his sixth WSOP tour and won the WSOP $25,000 No Limit Hold'em—High Roller 6-Handed for the biggest score ($1,734,717 )of his career and his first WSOP bracelet.
There was also an interesting spot in the event's final table. Blaž went for a 4-bet but said a smaller size, and it was ruled just a call. Some media covered the hand and doubted it could be an angle, but Blaž said it was just a mistake..
In the end, Blaž beat Moorman, who had a big chip lead coming into the heads-up, but Blaž turned it around and denied Moorman his third WSOP bracelet while grabbing his first..
Blaž continued playing in the WSOP series, and it took him just 20 more days to pick up his 2nd WSOP bracelet by winning $ 1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better for $153,487. "It was kind of obvious that he had more experience than I, a lot more. His hand-reading ability is much better than mine in this game. It was a challenge, but I think I navigated it well." Blaž said when asked about his Heads-up opponent, Huck Seed.
This was another amazing achievement for the Slovenian poker star, and he continued to hunt for more scores and bracelets. He didn't have more big scores, but picked up a few cashes while coming in respectable 12th place in the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard just behind poker legends like Viktor Blom, Daniel Negreanu, and Brian Rast. Blaž is currently ranked #1 in Slovenia's All-Time Money List with $3,185,632 in total live earnings!
