Glantz Quoted in The Inquirer!

In the chips

Lafayette Hill's Matt Glantz was an options trader - one of the biggest gambles there is - before he quit.

To become a professional poker player.

That was January. He set a goal of making $200,000 at the tables this year.

He more than doubled it last weekend.

Glantz, 33, finished second in a hold 'em tournament at the Rio in Las Vegas. More than 1,000 players each had bought in for $3,000.

Glantz walked away with $414,620 - including a $50,000 "save" he'd negotiated with the eventual winner to hedge his bet.

And on an idle day before the tournament, he bought into a $500 hold 'em event, outlasted 138 players, and won $24,700.

Glantz says he's just going where the money is.

"Poker now is like the [options] market was five years ago," he said from Vegas the other day. He stuck around to play, starting tomorrow, at the World Series of Poker's main event, a multimillion-dollar pot whose buy-in is $10,000.

As for improving your own game, remember that "nothing beats experience," Glantz says. "Read all the books you want, you can study all you want, you can play on the computer. But the most important thing is experience."

And one other thing. Get yourself a poker face.

"People I know tell me I show no emotion," he said - quite calmly at that.

- Posted in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thu, Jul. 07, 2005