Matthew Jarvis of Surrey, British Columbia took eighth place in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event title. He earned $1,045,743. Prior to the WSOP Main Event, Jarvis was a regular in the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza tournament series, registering several cashes.
Jarvis entered the 2010 WSOP November Nine fifth in chips with a stack of 16.70 million. He was a one-man wrecking crew as play dwindled from 27 players to nine and delivered the knockout that determined the final table. Brandon Steven committed his chips before the flop with A-K offsuit and was up against Jarvis, who held pocket queens for a classic race situation. The board ran out 4-3-10-4-5 and, much to the elation of the nine remaining players, Steven was bumped in 10th place from the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
Jarvis bounced Benjamin Statz in 16th place with K-Q against A-5 of hearts. Jarvis hit the K-K-Q flop hard and never looked back, shrinking the field to 15 players. Jarvis also sent two-time bracelet winner Scott Clements home in 18th place with A-K against A-Q.
His largest live tournament score came in November 2009, when he bubbled the final table of the British Columbia Poker Championship, earning a cash payout of just over $20,000. While a final table bubble in the Main Event would yield him quite a bit more as a consolation prize, Jarvis will certainly be setting his sights higher. The 2010 WSOP Main Event marks his first ever World Series cash.
Jarvis came in to Day 7 of the Main Event sixth in chips and stayed relatively quiet for most of the day, avoiding any major fireworks and slowly building his stack through a number of small pots. Towards the end of the day, he suffered a slight setback when Patrick Eskandar cracked his pocket aces.
Jarvis raised to 240,000 from early position and was called by Eskandar on the button; the big blind also called. The flop came down 8d-Kc-9c and Jarvis led out for 425,000. Eskandar thought for a moment before moving all-in for his last 1.965 million, prompting a fold from the third player. Jarvis called with Ah-As, but was not pleased to see his opponent’s red nines. There was no ace to come for Jarvis and he was forced to re-group. He did just that, showing great composure, surviving the day, and continuing his quest for the elusive championship bracelet and poker immortality.
Jarvis learned to play poker by reading various books and talking and playing with a number of close friends. He is currently a post-secondary business student.
*** Poker News Daily caught up with Matthew Jarvis right after the 2010 November Nine were set for an exclusive video interview. ***
