In one of the most impressive feats we’ve seen from a poker player in recent years, Matt “mcmatto” Affleck scored big in back-to-back runs in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. In 2009, Affleck (no relation to actor Ben Affleck) went busto on Day 6 of the Main Event and cashed in 80th place for $69,000. In 2010, he came back strong once again, entering Day 7 of the $10,000 buy-in tournament with the 14th largest stack at 5.32 million. He bowed out in 15th place after his aces were cracked by jacks and earned $500,000.
Affleck, who plays under the persona “mcmatto” on the virtual felts of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, hails from Mill Creek, Washington and could be found atop the chip counts throughout much of the 2010 WSOP Main Event. While his success in the live arena is somewhat limited to the Main Event in Las Vegas, he’s been a force to be reckoned with online.
His signature score is a chop in a $3,150 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day tournament during the 2009 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) for a colossal $470,000, one of the largest paydays ever given out in the virtual space. The final table of the high-stakes SCOOP event also featured DoylesRoom’s Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark, Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong, and North American Poker Tour Venetian Main Event runner-up Sam Stein. Affleck is a proven force on the most challenging live and online stages.
Affleck also owns a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) jersey, which came in February 2010 and was good for $80,000 after a heads-up chop. Other scores include a win in the Full Tilt Poker $150 rebuy for $64,000 and a victory in the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance for $46,000.
Affleck is one of eight Americans in the top 15 in chips entering Day 7 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event. In a thread on PocketFives.com detailing the biggest suckouts that players have recorded, Affleck noted that a hand from his SCOOP run took the cake: “Check jammed KQo on JT8ss board on final table bubble of Scoop 3k last year. He had K9s and K hi held for me.”