New York poker pro wins $189K in WSOP victory

Matthew Matros won the $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold'em Championship at the World Series of Poker early on Monday morning to claim $189,870 and a WSOP gold bracelet. The Brooklyn-based poker pro has had a decade-long commitment to poker and the study of game theory.

"I caught great cards today," said Matros. "At one point, I was eighth in chips. So, it was a combination of good cards, and minimizing losses and maximizing wins and basically running good and having the cards fall my way."

Matros grew up on Long Island in West Hampton. N.Y. He earned a degree in mathematics at Yale University and received a Masters Degree in fine arts from Sarah Lawrence University. He is the author of The Making of a Poker Player, which chronicles his early years transitioning from student/employee into a full-time poker pro. Matros hopes to finish work on a novel (not about poker) within the next year.

"I do not know if this is going to motivate me to play more poker or spend more time writing now," said Matros. "But I think I can look at my resume now and say I've got all the pieces checked off."

Matros worked as a software engineer before deciding to pursue a poker career. He was a dedicated poker player long before the poker boom, playing seriously since 1999 and relying on poker for the majority of his income since 2002. He has accumulated nearly $1.5 million in overall career tournament winnings.

"I started studying the game in 1998," said Matros. "I really focused and studied limit Hold'em. So, this is really the culmination of 11-and-a-half years of work."

The 33-year-old has previously cashed in several major tournaments, including the New England Poker Classic, World Poker Tour, and the World Championship of Online Poker. He also final tabled the Tournament of Champions back in 2001. Matros has 15 career cashes at the WSOP; in 2008, he finished 78th out of 6,844 players in the Main Event.

"I've really wanted to try and keep playing to try and win a bracelet," said Matros. "I made a lot of final tables at the WSOP and WPT and had some deep cashes in the Main Event. What I had been lacking was the victory, so to come in first place here is really gratifying."

Ahmad Abghari, from Los Angeles, Calif., finished second for $117,272. The final hand of the tournament came after Matros had used his big stack to grind down Abghari to a small stack. Matros was dealt queen-eight versus Abghari's ace-10 suited. After making an initial pre-flop raise with the suited big cards, Abghari found himself pot committed, even after missing the flop. He was all in and watched helplessly as Matros won the tournament with two pair, queens and eights.

Terrance Chan from Vancouver, B.C., was third. A former high-tech consultant who formerly worked for a major online poker site, Chan now plays poker professionally and is widely-acknowledged as one of poker's top limit Hold'em specialists, both live and online.

Georgios Kapalas from Athens, Greece, was fourth, while Adrian Dresel-Velasquez, an ex-Peace Corps volunteer originally from Nigeria who now lives in Sacramento, Calif, was fifth. Jason Potter, a poker pro from Tulsa, Okla., was sixth, while Jameson Painter from Goodfield, Ill., was seventh.

The eighth-place finisher was Roberto Truijers, from Oostvoorne, Holland. Truijers was born in Spain and works in real estate. The ninth-place finisher was Mark "Milkman" Burford, from Gloster, La. He earned his nickname by working as a dairy farmer prior to taking up poker as a profession.

There were 625 players in the tournament field, and the top 63 finishers collected prize money. Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included Matt Keikoan (30th), Anthony Rivera (43rd), Andre Boyer (47th), and Phil Ivey (53rd).

(Modified from original notes by Nolan Dalla for www.wsop.com)