Matt Matros is a professional poker player. He was born in 1978 and grew up in the East End of Long Island, Westhampton, New York.
Matt Matros has been playing poker since he has been a child. He learned the fine points from his father who was also a poker player. Matt Matros was the valedictorian of his high school class and went to study mathematics at the Yale University. Although he played poker with his high school friends he didn’t take the game seriously until the fall of 1998 - his senior year at the college. While taking an undergraduate degree at Yale University, Matt Matros began to improve his poker skills by using his game theory and probabilities skills learned in the classroom, practical skills achieved at the poker table, and by reading books from experts. He uses his knowledge at math in the poker game. Matt Matros claimes that poker and math had a lot in common, such as pot odds and calculating possibilities of hand improving. After Yale, Matt Matros had worked as a software quality engineer for 3 years and meanwhile continued to play poker.
The first time Matt Matros appearaed on a tournament was on July 29th, 2001, in the Tournament of Champions 2001 Main Event - No Limit Hold'em where he finished 39th and won $4.000. In 2002 he left his job to pursue a degree in fiction writing at the Sarah Lawrence College. After his first year at the college Matt Matros made poker his full time job. He used the money, won by playing poker, to investe in his education. He financed his second year at the college entirely with that money. At the Sarah Lawrence College he signed a contract for writing a book named “The Making of a Poker Player”.
At the same time Matt Matros took part in several tournaments such as ESCARGOT No Limit Hold'em, ATLARGE 2004 Event #2 - No Limit Hold'em and New England Poker Classic Limit Hold'em. On April 23rd, 2004, he made his greatest success ever in the Five-Star World Poker Classic - WPT Championship Season 2 WPT Main Event - No Limit Hold'em where he finished 3rd and went home with a prize of $706.903. A few months before his win in the tournament Matt Matros had finished the final chapter of the book he was writing “The Making of a Poker Player” but after this he was forced to rewrite it. Matt Matros received his M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence immediately after his success at the Bellagio.
After his success Matt Matros participated in several other tournament such as Borgata Poker Open - WPT Season 3, The Trump Classic, 36th Annual World Series of Poker, World Poker Finals / WPT Event Season 4, Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure - WPT Event Season 4, 37th Annual World Series of Poker, 2008 Crown Aussie Millions Championship Event #12 - Poker Pages Ranking Main Event - No Limit Hold'em. His last appearance was on the 39th World Series of Poker 2008: Event #9 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em Six Handed, Event #49 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em, Event #52 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em and Event #54 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em Championship. His total winnings in 39th WSOP exceed $244.695. And his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,107,269.
Matt Matros now resides in Brooklyn, New York. He works full time as a writer, poker player and a poker coach.