Matt Marafioti

Member of the young guard of poker players, known for his extravagant lifestyle and brash play at the tables, Matt Marafioti has certainly made an impression on the poker community during the recent years. Born in 1989 in Hillcrest, Canada, he grew up in the comfortable and privileged environment. He attended a private Catholic high school, and although he was a competent student, he did not display a level of giftedness or interest for math related subjects as one would expect. Very interested in video games, especially Counter Strike, he came in touch with online poker when he was 17. This offered him an opportunity to play the games online that would actually provide some real-life, tangible results. Marafioti found a niche that seemed to provide the best opportunity to achieve what seemed to be his goal since his early youth – become a millionaire. He was completely hooked. He played day and night, becoming known in the online arena under the alias “ADZ124”, a reference to his brother’s nickname. After some unpleasant events at the University, winning at poker became a way for him to get back at the world. And win he did. Pocketfives lists his online winnings at nearly $2.5 million. His largest single cash came after finishing 4th in Sunday Million on Stars in 2009, netting profit of nearly $79k. No wonder that Matt Marafioti dropped out of the University to become a full time poker player. He started playing live tournaments seriously around 2009, and has been making some noise on the live circuit as well. His first significant score came somewhat earlier, when he finished 1st in the Empire State Hold’em Championship, winning nearly $200,000. During the 2009 WSOP he came 12th in the $40k Anniversary Event, taking home more than $170k, and his biggest score came during the 2010 WSOP, after finishing runner-up in Pot Limit Hold’em Championship for $381,000 and change. He says that the key to his success is patience and practice. When he was way behind the pace to achieve Supernova Elite status on Stars during 2009, Mat Marafioti calculated that he needed to play 15,000 hands of cash every day during December to achieve his goal – and he made it. He loves to live extravagantly and burn through his poker winnings. For him, it would seem, how you spend your winnings is a measure of how well you live the poker life. One of his many crazy stories is the one of prop bet with Tom Dwan that he could drink ten shots of tequila in 15 minutes without puking. He won the bet and the $5,000, but was removed from the casino soon after for swearing. His take on charity is also curious one. According to an article written by Jason McBride for “Toronto Life”, Marafioti said that if he could exchange all of his winnings for the world peace, he would do it, but otherwise doesn’t see the point.