Poker Stories: Matthew Waxman

Matt Waxman learned the game in high school, but really got his career going in 2009 when he final tabled a $5,000 no-limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker. The Parkland, Florida native won a WSOP Circuit ring the next year in Atlantic City, and followed that up with his biggest score to date, taking down the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris for just over $720,000. Waxman nearly won the Festa al Lago Classic the next year, and in 2013, he won his first WSOP bracelet, banking $305,000 for topping a $1,000 no-limit hold'em event. Waxman had a deep run in the 2014 WSOP main event, and just last year, he picked up his second WPT title, pocketing $463,000 at the WPT Tournament of Champions. In total, the 34-year-old has more than $4.1 million in live tournament earnings to go along with millions more won online. Highlights from this interview include being a resident of the world, flipping noodles for profit, being on the middle school basketball team with Alex Jacob, poker on the boat, playing among the ashtrays, the benefit of ignorance, being British at the tables, catching cheats, going broke, blinding out of an FTOPS win, having parents unimpressed by six-figure scores, a WPT championship in France, being a millionaire and feeling empty, a seven-hour heads-up match with Eric Baldwin, bad news from home a world away, pushing time shares, hearing 'water' in his ear, and dealing with stabbed TVs and the police.