Aug 31, 2017
There is a very select group of players whose first recorded cashes on Hendon Mob are victories. There’s an even smaller group of players whose first victory takes place in a major tournament setting.
This November it will be eight years since Antonio Matias took down the first European Poker Tour event here in Vilamoura for €404,793 and his first recorded live cash. Today, Matias, ranked 6th on the all-time Portuguese money list, is back in the same casino that saw him clinch that title and he is playing in the WPTDeepStacks Main Event.
He’s already taken down some small pots, and he still has a beaming smile underneath his well-groomed moustache. That smile only broadened when we reminded him of what he achieved way back then.
“I have some very good memories here in Vilamoura,” he said.
“I have a small holiday house here, so I’m actually here on vacation.
“But I knew for a while, since about two months ago, that this tournament will be here in Vilamoura, so it’s been on my agenda to play.”
It’s been more than two years since poker sites such as PKR, PokerStars and Full Tilt withdrew from the Portuguese market due to new taxation plan, and Matias admitted that that had influenced how active he was on the poker scene.
“I don’t play much live at all since poker sites had this crazy idea to leave Portugal.
“Access to big national tournaments like these are limited. But I still enjoy poker – I love it in fact!”
Despite the restrictions within Portugal, there are some big Portuguese names on the live international poker scene, such as Joao Barbosa, Jonathan Aguiar, Joao Vieira and Pedro Oliviera, and Matias has noticed.
“Some of us players are getting on! And there are these new young players that are getting good!”