A Young Turk is more likely to win the WSOP 2009 Main Event than a legend. And it would mean great things for the sponsor whose shirt he is wearing. Hence in the pre-WSOP months there are a lot of young poker pros, who have been identified as potential Main Event winners, being signed up by online poker rooms. One such player is the 25-year-old Matt Graham. Ultimate Bet, the sister site of Absolutepoker just signed him to its Star Players team.
Hailing from New Orleans, Graham was studying medicine in Connecticut. He first started playing poker in small dorm games in college. He then began to play low stakes games online at Ultimate Bet. He turned an initial investment of $50 into a sizeable bankroll. It was then that he decided to give up medical school in favor of full time poker. He first took the online poker world by storm playing as “mattg1983” and then made his presence felt in live tournaments.
In 2008 Graham had three prestigious wins. He first won the 2008 World Poker Challenge; then his first and only WSOP bracelet in the Limit Hold’em Shootout event and finally the 2008 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. This made him jump to the 36th position in the Player of the Year (POY) Rank for 2008 as compared to the 178th position he had secured in 2007. He has again fallen to the 175th place in the 2009 POY Rank but enjoys the 46th place in the Bluff Power Ranking. His live tournament earnings to date are $978,118, just short of a million.
He now lives in Las Vegas. On the personal front Graham is single and his favorite celebrity is Jennifer Aniston and his favorite place is Norway. Apart from poker he plays hockey.
Annie Duke, designated as Ultimate Bet’s Cardroom Consultant welcomed Graham by saying, “I am so thrilled to have Matt Graham on the team. Matt epitomizes the all-around poker player. He has great results in all the games, live or online. Matt is an amazing addition to the Ultimate Bet team.”
On his part Graham expressed his delight at being with Ultimate Bet. He said, “I look forward to the opportunity to represent Ultimate Bet both online and in the live arena. I never would have thought I would be a site pro when I began my online poker career at Ultimate Bet four years ago, but now here I am. I am very excited to be a part of the future of this site.”
