Matias Gabrenja, aka “Matt”, is a professional poker player from Argentina, born on the 19^th of August, 1984 in Buenos Aires. He has been playing since 2002 and since then his resume includes five $100 Rebuy victories and 4 final table appearances in the Super Tuesday $1000 MTT. His largest recorded cash was a $104,650 prize which he received for a 7^th place finish in the WCOOP $10,300 No Limit Hold’em High Roller tournament.

Matias is the youngest of the siblings in his family, having one elder sister and 5 step brothers. Interestingly enough, he is the first sibling to have had a family. Already at the age of four, his Father taught him how to play chess. He also had an interest in playing soccer, but he had a preference for strategic games such as Chess and Magic (the gathering). By the time he turned 16, he was one of the best Chess players in the under-16 category in Argentina.

When Matias turned 21, a close friend of his introduced him to Limit Hold’em Poker. Since then he never looked back to either Chess or Magic, and decidedly fell in love with poker.

Gabrenja’s favourite cash games are NL Hold’em where he regularly plays $25/$50 up to $50/$100. Matias is an expert in CAP and 20-50BB games. He has one of the most impressive winrates at those games beating the game at 2BB/100 over thousands of hands. Matias can also be found playing PL Omaha at the $3/$6 to $5/$10 table . In his spare time he invests in sustainable companies, runs, cycles and does daily yoga.

Matias resides currently in Mexico. He is currently married to Lucia Ochoa and has a small child and four dogs, including 3 Daschaund’s and one Boxer.

 

Matias’s favorite food: Sushi, Thai and Mexican

Matias’s favorite poker player: Phil Galfond

Matias’s favorite starting hand: AsAh (Ace of Spades and the Ace of Hearts)

Best experience of his life: “The most awesome experience is to have the opportunity to work at home, recover from tilt by watching my beautiful son enjoying life as well as having the resources to travel around the world easily.”

Worst experience of his life: “Thinking that you can’t or you are not good enough, when you run bad.”

Matias’s favorite quotes:

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” (Tony Robbins)

“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” (Tony Robbins)