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Southwestern alum wins $675,000 poker jackpot
Teaching takes a back seat to poker
By Ken Hoffman
Houston Chronicle
September 11, 2004
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It's a safe bet that Matt Dean won't be teaching high school mathematics anytime soon.
"I was a substitute teacher last year at Oak Ridge High School, and I was in the process of getting my teacher's certificate," said Dean, who lives north of Houston in The Woodlands, Texas. "Then I got into the World Series of Poker. Things have changed."
That's something of an understatement. The 24-year-old won $675,000. It would take more than 15 years to earn that as a teacher.
"I still want to be a teacher . . . eventually. But for now, I'm going to continue playing poker."
And why not? Dean has just been invited to Ireland, all expenses paid, to play in a pro poker tournament. And he still gets to keep anything he wins.
Dean, who appeared this week for the first time in ESPN's coverage of the World Series, started playing poker in his fraternity house at Southwestern University.
"It was nickel and dime stuff. But when I kept winning, I realized that this was something I could win money doing. I've always been good with numbers and statistics, you know, probability and things like that."
Gambled away summer
After graduating, Dean and a buddy went to South Carolina for a fun summer. That's when he discovered that you could play poker -- for real money -- on the Internet.
"That was one of the best summers I ever had. We couldn't find jobs, so we played poker online. We spent eight hours a day online. It wasn't the healthiest way to spend a summer, but it was fun," Dean said.
On a good day, they won $20 or $30. By the end of the summer, Dean figures he won, maybe, $1,000.
That was small potatoes when you consider the amazing sequence of events that was about to occur.
Even Dean couldn't imagine the probability of going from nickel pots in a frat house to winning $675,000 in Las Vegas.
"I entered a small qualifier tournament for $2 online, and after 71/2 hours I had won a seat in the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Vegas," he said.
"It was amazing. I also won $1,000 spending money and a free hotel room at the Four Queens across the street from Binion's."
"The World Series of Poker," which seems to air 24/7 on ESPN, was taped over one week in May. More than 2,500 players anteed up $10,000 to enter the tournament. That's $25 million at stake.
Dean wasn't playing against frat boys at Southwestern University anymore. These were hard-core, grizzled, high-stakes poker players who don't flinch at $100,000 pots.
Dean survived the first day, then the second day, then the third.
When the field got down to the final 32, Dean found himself in 26th place.
In the money
"I won a $5 million pot. It still freaks me out to talk about it. We were playing with $25,000 chips and I had 20 stacks of them in front of me. I translated each chip into what it could buy. I'd hold one chip and see an SUV."
Because of his youth and inexperience, Dean flew under ESPN's radar the first few days.
But on Tuesday, Dean made the final table, the championship round, competing against the greatest poker players in the world.
He finished seventh -- good for $675,000.
"I was so nervous the night before. I woke up panicked and walked around downtown Vegas, almost throwing up. When I finally lost, it was like a relief. I wasn't prepared to get as far as I did."
Dean said he will invest his winnings.
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Good for him!!!
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