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MATT GIANNETTI
Age: 22
Residence:
Years playing: 3 years, 1 1/2 years professionally
Favorite form of poker: High stakes cash NL
One night during the LA Poker Classic, I strolled through the poker room and noticed Greg “FBT” Mueller anteing up $2,000 per hand, being dealt four cards for Omaha High, and running the board through to the river (without any bets). Also playing this sick game were Tim Phan, Nenad Medic, and a young kid named Matt Giannetti whom I’d heard a lot about. Through all the mayhem and swings (one player was stuck over $100k in the game that night), surprisingly the 22-year-old Matt seemed to be enjoying himself without much mind to the sums of money being exchanged.
Your first thoughts on hearing this story might be that Matt must be some kind of trust fund baby or something. Not even close. As it turns out, Matt had his real start in poker after a friend transferred him $40 on PokerStars. He started his bankroll with that seed money, playing $0.10/$0.20 NL all day. Things snowballed from there. Today you’ll find him playing the biggest NL cash games around.
Matt put in the hours. He feels that in NL deep-stack he thinks the game as good as anyone, game theory-wise, playing with extreme flexibility and the ability to adapt to any combination of players at his table at any time.
Matt used to be an online player almost exclusively, but these days he’s begun to make his foray into big buy-in NL tournaments, most recently with a 28th place finish in theLAPC Main Event, cashing for $36k. As he’s taking a serious approach to playing bigger tournaments this year, I feel we’ll see plenty more deep finishes from the kid.
STEVE SUNG
Age: 21
Hometown:
Years playing: 5 years, 2 years professionally
Favorite forms of poker: Big buy-in NL tourneys, high stakes cash games
Another fantastic player I met this year at the LA Poker Classic is Steve Sung. With about 100 players left in the Main Event, a table broke and we happened to get seated right next to each other. Steve had a big stack, and I noticed him involved in relatively few pots; but those he did play left a big impression on me. He knew how to build up the tension in each hand effectively by delivering just the right pause before each action he made, even if it were only to check. It was obvious he had no problem getting involved with any player at the table, regardless of style or stack size. And when he wasn’t involved, he was serious and quiet, letting others know he meant business.
As it turns out, like most other young players, Steve started out playing home games with friends. After seeing Varkonyi and Moneymaker win the WSOP Main Events, he became more interested in poker and started to frequent Indian casinos in
After having played with him only a few hours, I’d asked Steve if I could profile him for Bluff Magazine. Surprisingly, I had made the decision from my gut without having done any research into his accomplishments, but as it turns out Steve was a good choice. He later went on to place 21st in the LAPC Main Event, picking up a cool $46k. In addition, he recently took third in the Bellagio 5 Diamond $5k event, picking up $125k, and then placed ninth in the very next tournament (Main Event) for an additional $118k. Steve told me he’s gunning for Player of the Year. My gut tells me he’s got a serious shot.
