Like many young men before him, Matt Giannetti dropped out of university after catching the highly contagious poker bug. But unlike the scores of people who leave the educational system to concentrate on poker, Giannetti has made it pay off, massively. He already had scores of results in the live tournament arena and over the weekend he managed to add a World Poker Tour title to his impressive resume after he took down the inaugural WPT Malta Main Event.
Giannetti first appeared on the live tournament scene in 2006 when he finished in eighth place in a $2,000 side event at the WPT Fourth Annual Five-Star World Poker Classic for $12,605. He followed those results up by cashing in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event and in WPT Foxwoods Word Poker Classic, but it was cash games that the Texan made the majority of his money from, playing online under the alias “hazards21.”
Despite being a cash game specialist Giannetti still participated in numerous WSOP and WPT events and in 2009 he almost won his first WSOP bracelet, placing fourth in a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event for his then best score of $66,544. However, it was 2011 WSOP that has really put the 26-year old on the map as he made it through to the final table of the WSOP Main Event, the November Nine, where he is guaranteed to take home no less than $782,115 but being third in chips when play resumes he has a very realistic chance of the massive $8,711,956 first place prize.
When he does return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in November he will do so with a WPT title to his name after he outlasted 239 opponents in the Main Event to get his hands on €200,000, a solid silver card protector and an induction to the exclusive Champions Club. He played some superb poker from the very first day and when he found himself heads up against the extremely unpredictable Cecilia Pescaglini very few people doubted he would walk away with the honours.
His heads up battle with Pescaglini, who could have become the first-ever female winner of a WPT Main Event, only last ten hands and the final hand saw Pescaglini lead out for 550,000 chips on a 10c-8h-2c flop and then call when Giannetti moved all in. The last woman standing held the best hand in QsTd but she would have to avoid a jack or a six if she wanted to double up as Giannetti held 9c7d for an open-ended straight draw. The jack of spades in the turn left Pescaglini drawing to one of the three remaining nines but the river was a black deuce and Giannetti had won WPT Malta!
The next European-based WPT Main Event runs between November 1-6 in Amneville, France.
Final table results
1st: Matt Giannetti: €200,000
2nd: Cecilia Pescaglini: €116,700
3rd: Filippo Bianchini: €76,820
4th: Simon Trumper: €53,430
5th: Tristan Clemencon: €39,810
6th: Fabian Sartoris: €30,730
