Dream Come True for Martin de Knijff

Martin de Knijff of Stockholm, Sweden, recently captured the World Poker Tour Championship title at Bellagio in Las Vegas, taking home the first-place prize money of $2,728,356. Thank goodness, the Swedish government takes the position that poker is a game of chance, for which one cannot write off poker losses; similarly, one does not have to pay taxes on poker winnings. Therefore, he will likely not have to pay taxes on the biggest win in poker history, rivaling only Chris Moneymaker's $2.5 million win at the World Series of Poker last year.

The top 50 players in the WPT Championship each earned a share of the $8,342,000 prize pool, the most ever for a poker tournament. The buy-in was $25,300, the largest poker tournament entry fee to date. Martin engaged in combat with 342 poker players before becoming the victor.

"This is a dream come true. This is bigger than winning the World Series of Poker, even though it has a rich history and a long-standing tradition. This is the tournament you want to win," explained 32-year-old Martin. "I was very calm during the last few hands. I felt I had a good read on my opponent. When the cards were flipped over during the last hand, I knew I was going to win, and the feeling was overwhelming."

Martin explained that he and his former girlfriend share custody of their sweet 7-year-old boy, Robin. Martin hadn't seen Robin for almost a month, and was aching to see his son. As it turned out, Robin was so lonely for his dad that he asked to come to America to visit Daddy while he was in the tournament. A few days later, Robin took the journey to America all by himself. He arrived during the second day of the tournament and was picked up by Martin's live-in girlfriend, Ama, originally from Ghana, Africa. Martin explained that "Ama" means Saturday, the day on which she was born.

Father and Son were ecstatic to see one another. Martin was inspired, and wanted Robin to watch the final table, but children aren't allowed in Bellagio's beautiful Fontana Bar, a venue chosen specifically for its exquisite and spectacular imagery. The TV taping includes fabulous scenes, such as the Bellagio fountains performing to the WPT TV show's musical theme and seen through the wide-open doors of the Fontana Bar. The show will air on the Travel Channel on June 30.

Martin and Robin devised a secret plan. Because Robin couldn't attend the filming of the final table, he would give his dad luck that would stay with him the Swedish way. Martin turned around and bent over, and young Robin gave him three good swift kicks in his derrière with his small little-boy's leg. I thought there may have been a language barrier during the explanation of this story, even though Martin's English is impeccable. "Martin, in Sweden, one kicks another for luck?" I asked for verification. Martin laughed: "Yes, that's the way it works."

After Martin won the tournament, he rushed to wake up little Robin to tell him that the three good kicks really worked well.

Martin playfully explained from where his gambling desire must have come. His father was from Amsterdam and graduated from restaurant school, but soon tired of Amsterdam. He was trying to figure out where to live, so what did he do to help him decide this life-changing event? He flipped a coin! Heads, he went south; tails, he moved north.

Luckily for Martin, it was tails, and his father moved north. It was the late '60s. There, in Borlange, North Sweden, Martin's father met, fell in love with, and married his mother. After some time, his parents got a job offer to work on a cruise ship; they accepted and moved to Gothenberg, where Martin was born on Oct. 2, 1972.

Gothenburg (Göteborg in Swedish) is equidistant from Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Oslo. More than half a million people live in Sweden's second-biggest city, with its seaside setting, wide avenues, lovely parks, remarkable architecture, and canals meandering through the town. Martin grew up with that beautiful backdrop, having fun and loving life until 1978, when his father took ill and passed away only two weeks later.

Life became more difficult for Martin, as his mother worked on the cruise ship two weeks each month. It was Martin's good fortune that there was a loving neighbor with three children who took Martin in with open arms. The children laughed and played, and Martin was happy.

Martin started playing card games when he was 15 years old. First, he learned five-card draw. It wasn't long before he picked up bridge. Not only did he love the game of bridge, he also had a knack for it. At a young age, he won five Swedish bridge championships in a row. It was a great honor to be asked to represent Sweden in national team competitions for people under 25, which he did on many occasions.

When Martin was 21 years old, he became the youngest Bridge Life Master in Sweden. One achieves that title by winning many big tournaments. Depending upon how important a tournament is, one receives points. After obtaining 300 points, which usually takes about 20 years of play, a person becomes a Life Master. Martin achieved this goal at 21 years of age. He then began to support himself by playing bridge, while he worked as a pizza baker on the weekends.

At 19, Martin moved to Stockholm, where he was introduced to American games and began playing poker. Then, he went to London to play in tournaments at Victoria Casino. He eventually dropped bridge in favor of poker.

Beginning in 1998, he started traveling to and from America to play in a few major events. His major poker accomplishments include the following:

• third in the $500 multiple-rebuy pot-limit hold'em event at the Horseshoe in Tunica, Mississippi, in 2001, for a win of $45,000;

•first in the Swedish no-limit hold'em tournament in 1995 and 2003, paying $35,000 and $40,000, respectively;

•13th at the 2002 WSOP Championship, for $60,000;

•15th at the 2003 WPT Championship, for $27,000;

•sixth in Bellagio's Five-Star World Poker Classic $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event, for $7,500; and, of course,

•first at Bellagio's WPT final event, for a whopping $2,728,356!

When I asked Martin to describe how it felt to win such a large sum of money, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he explained that it wasn't the first time! I was all ears. After all, I had done my research and hadn't heard or read that Martin had already won a million.

He explained that he had been engaged in sports betting, and was doing well for five or six years. Then, two years ago, he played in a big gambling contest in Sweden called the V75, which is a contest put on by the Swedish government. It involves picking the winners of seven different touring races. V75 is the biggest gambling contest available for horse racing in Sweden. To win money on V75 requires a player to be successful in picking at least five out of seven winning horses. The prize pool is about $20 million. If no one gets at least five right, there is a rollover and a jackpot. In January of 2002, Martin hit the jackpot with another eight people, winning $1.3 million.

Because the Swedish government runs the game, it already had taken out taxes, meaning that every penny of the $1.3 million went right into Martin's pocket, at least for a moment. The money didn't stay there for long. A few days later, Martin visited a Swedish bank in order to secure his little boy's future by making a 15-year tax-free investment.

Martin absolutely loves golf. "Everything I do has improved, since I play golf with no cell phone and no stress and no pressure. It is easier to do just about anything after being relaxed by playing golf. My friends and I play for fun. The loser buys the drinks and food, and we all talk about our bad shots."

Martin is a part of a club that every guy would like to join: "In Stockholm, there are about 30 guys who play golf together. There is a club where we play two times a week. There are regularly 16 people who show up each time. It is a social thing. We play 40 times between May and September, and then the finals are in September. We have a five-day tournament, starting with one practice day. Then, we play it like a major professional golf tournament. After two days, half the field makes the cut. The event takes place at the lush Barseback Golf and Country Club, near Malmo, in Sweden, the place chosen for the 2004 Solheim Cup. It is like a big village, where we stay with two or four people, all houses next to one another. At night, we party and play cards. It has been a tradition for 10 years."

In 1982, Martin watched the World Cup of soccer in Spain with delight. It was more fun than anything else he had ever watched. By the time he was 15 years old, he realized that he was pretty good at predicting the outcome of a soccer game.

Martin believes that you can make a living doing just about any job, if you put your mind to it and work hard. He studies soccer and believes he has more of an edge betting soccer than betting other sports.

He explained it like this: "The American sports are very statistical, meaning that the bookmakers know the statistics. Also, the odds are very close to the true odds. On the other hand, soccer cannot rely upon statistics, because it is immeasurable. It is more inexact. It is a low-scoring game, making it harder to predict. That is why those who do their own personal analyzing will have the edge."

Martin has been making his living betting sports for a number of years. When I asked him if he wouldn't mind telling me how much he makes a year betting on soccer, he said that during the last eight years, he has averaged about $300,000 a year. At that moment in the interview, Card Player Publisher Barry Shulman walked in and commented: "I heard that you made that much every month last year," to which Martin shrugged, smiled, and admitted that, indeed, it had been a good year, an extraordinarily good year for him.

Just how good can a year get? Besides having a fabulous, healthy 7-year-old boy and a girlfriend with whom he is in love, Martin finds himself making a ton of money betting sports. He is happy, healthy, and in love.

There is a famous Hebrew expression, "Dayanu," which, roughly translated, means, It would have been enough. When one great thing happens after another, one might say, Dayanu, which is a way to be eternally thankful for being blessed with wonderful events, more than one person might even deserve. Dayanu seems to be the one word to describe Martin's year.

Martin is peaceful, energetic, and laughs easily. He giggles with his son and looks right in your eyes when you speak. Now, he is also a multimillionaire, and has even more about which to giggle.

Going into the final table, Martin described things as follows: "I was very confident, because I knew how the guys played. I was only worried about Hasan, because he is so unpredictable and tough to read. The other guys, I had a pretty good idea of how they would play. When we sat down, I saw that the other guys were very nervous, which made me even more calm, thinking I could take the pressure better than the others. The seat position was the same as when we played 10-handed, so I was familiar with the players and the positions."

Martin described how his early years helped him: "I grew up playing five-card draw, where all of the cards are concealed so you have to rely upon tells. The skill I have developed through the years is to pay attention to the tiny details of what people are doing. I had a very good idea of how the players would react when their hand was strong or weak.

"I try to have the same routine, the same way of acting. I take a little bit of time, and I have the same routine whether I am bluffing or have the goods," Martin explained with a devilish smile.

The players nervously awaited the first hand to be dealt with the chip counts as follows:

1. Martin de Knijff – $4,375,000

2. Matthew Matros – $3,860,000

3. Richard Grijalva – $2,995,000

4. Hasan Habib – $2,605,000

5. Russell Rosenblum – $1,780,000

6. Steve Brecher – $1,460,000

Martin explains that his final-table strategy begins when the tournament starts. "I play a lot of hands when the blinds are small, and people watch me. So, when I finally have a big hand, it's hard to put me on it. If you gamble a little, people cannot read you, which gives you a chance to make a big pot. I play garbage because I can lay down the hand. To be great, you have to make big laydowns."

Martin told me about one good memory: "I had a good run of hands and made a few big moves and was playing very aggressively, bluffing a lot. I got caught once at the final table and had to outdraw Ricky. There were four players left. I was in the big blind for $100,000. Ricky raised it to $275,000 total. I had $7.5 million and he had $2.4 million. I called with the K 2. The flop was A-3-3, with two clubs. I checked, and he bet $400,000. I check-raised him all in, another $1.9 million. Ricky showed A-7. The turn card was a 7. The good-looking river card was the 10. That was just the final-table luck I needed."

After a long, hard-fought battle, only Martin and Hasan were left at the final table; Hasan with $4 million and Martin with $13 million. Martin remembers: "The blinds were $80,000-$160,000. Hasan limped in. I raised $300,000. Hasan came over the top to make it a million. He had been slow-playing big hands, so I thought if he had a big hand, he would only call. Therefore, when he reraised, I felt he wasn't strong, so I moved all in with A-Q and he folded.

"The very next hand, I came in for $450,000 and Hasan said, 'All in.' I did not hesitate to call with pocket tens. He had A-5. Even though the flop was 5-3-2, I felt very calm and wasn't worried. I watched a queen come on the turn and a 7 on the river. I couldn't wait to wake up Robin to tell him that his little kicks worked!"

Martin confided that if he hadn't won, he would have liked the 26-year-old graduate student Matt Matros to win. Matt won a seat by way of a $100 satellite online. Martin describes Matt as " … very laid-back, calm, a supernice guy, friendly. I was sitting at the buffet with him and he was talking about buying a new home."

Hasan couldn't have been too unhappy, coming into the final table in fourth position and leaving with more than $1 million for second place. As a matter of fact, all of the final-table participants have reason to be satisfied. Final-table prize money was as follows:

1. Martin de Knijff – $2,728,356

2. Hasan Habib – $1,372,223

3. Matthew Matros – $1,706,903

4. Richard Grijalva – $1,457,408

5. Russell Rosenblum – $1,332,660

6. Steve Brecher – $1,232,862

I was fortunate enough to meet Martin's young son, Robin, who joined Martin for our interview. It was the first time I had met either of them, and I found Martin to be a kind, unusually warm, and humble man, who laughs easily and is comfortable to be around. Robin sat on Martin's lap as they often smiled, chuckled softly, and whispered in Swedish. There was a tenderness and closeness between Father and Son, who obviously adored one another's company.

When I asked Martin what he would like the world to know about him, he said simply: "That I love my son and I am a devoted father."

Robin doesn't speak much English, but the things he says are pronounced perfectly. Robin was hungry, so I gave him a snack, and when he was done, he threw away the wrapper like a well-mannered, sweet little boy. I said: "Thank you, honey." Well, little Robin was trying to use all the English words he could remember. He smiled, nodded, and responded: "I love you." Martin and I immediately started giggling, and then Martin explained to Robin in Swedish that he had mixed up the phrase "You're welcome" with the phrase "I love you." Even though Robin doesn't know much English, I was exclaiming my glee, clapping for him and giving him the thumbs-up sign, saying that I thought it should be required that when one person says "Thank you," the other should always respond with "I love you." What a great innovation. People would walk around smiling! Little Robin laughed out loud and ran upstairs shrieking, "Thank you. I love you," to which I responded in kind.

Martin has the love of a woman he respects, the kind of intimacy with his son that all fathers want, a talent for picking a winning team, a genuinely warm and vibrant personality, wonderful friends who golf and laugh and love life together, and, on top of all that, millions in the bank. Dayanu.