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Matt Dean
learned to play Texas Holdem poker from his mother when
he was 5 years old.
He
honed his skills at a fraternity house at Southwestern
University in Georgetown before parlaying a $32 bet
online into a seventh-place finish out of 2,576 players
at the 2004 World Series of Poker in May.
The
win garnered the 24-year-old Woodlands resident a
$675,000 payout.
The
event began airing on ESPN on July 6 and will feature
the HoldEm Main Event in late August, with Dean joining
eight others at the final table.
Dean
spoke last week with Houston Chronicle reporter Joe
Stinebaker:
Q: What are you doing now?
A: I was planning on being a math
teacher. This summer I was planning on getting my
teacher certificate through a summer program. But I’ve
gotten some opportunities through
Texas
Holdem
poker,
so actually for the next year I’m just going to play
poker and then I think try to teach maybe the year
after.
Q: So for right now you’re a professional poker
player?
A: Yes, technically.
Q: Ever think you’d be able to say that?
A: No, and it’s different, but it’s
cool.
Q: How long have you been playing hold ’em?
A: Probably about a year and a half.
I got started with hold ’em with the fraternity I was
in. There were maybe four or five guys that had a small
5- or 10-cent game that they invited me to one night.
Q: How did you end up going to the World Series
of Poker?
A: I went online to see if I could
find any strategy guides. ... Once I started dominating
the home game, in March of last year, I started playing
online. And the World Series was my first live
Texas
Holdem
tournament with a buy-in of over $100. The World Series
always had this mystique, and that was always the one I
wanted to play in. That’s kind of it for poker, too.
There’s no close second.
Q: Tell me about walking into the Horseshoe
Casino, knowing you’re in the World Series of Poker,
seeing these famous poker players and knowing you’re
playing with them.
A: Oh, yeah, that was a thrill to
me. Once my friends got word I was in the World Series,
I was like an automatic hero. They flocked. They weren’t
going to miss it.We had like nine guys crammed in a
room. The atmosphere is just crazy there. You’re seeing
Phil Hellmuth and Scotty Nguyen (former World Series
winners).
It’s
happening so fast, it almost seems surreal. Just being
there was so neat for me that everything was gravy, but
I was still very, very nervous.
Q: You were in second place with $4.9 million in
chips going into the final day. What about your last
hand?
A: It was like three hands later,
and I raised with ace 10. And I got re-raised by a guy I
found out later had (a pair of) aces. ... After the flop
I moved all in trying to take it, and he called
immediately.
Q: Yeah, but in the end, you won a serious chunk
of change.
A: Yeah, no regrets. They cut you a
check right there on the spot. It was neat. The crowd
got excited for me and they all clapped.
The
Horseshoe was pretty generous. They said, "If you want
to, we’ll take you out in a limo anywhere you want to
go." I was just on adrenaline. I was just going all
night. |
