Matthew Hilger is an American professional poker player and author from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He also operates his own poker-related

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

Early years

Prior to poker, Hilger graduated from

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

with a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

Finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

(1989) and a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is al ...

in Finance in(1991). He received a second Master's in

International business International business refers to the trade of goods and service goods, services, technology, capital and/or knowledge across national borders and at a global or transnational scale. It includes all commercial activities that promote the transfer o ...

from Thunderbird School of Global Management (1996), then worked for

Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...

(then Andersen Consulting) in numerous positions.

Poker career

Hilger became an

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

professional during 2001 and made over $100,000 playing online in his first year, playing limit poker from $1/$2 to $30/$60. At the time he wrote his first book, he had played over 7,000 hours of

. His writings include: * ''Internet Texas Hold 'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro'' () * ''Texas Hold 'em Odds and Probabilities: Limit, No-limit and Tournament Strategies'' () * ''The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success'' (with Ian Taylor) () * ''

Card Player Magazine Card players are those participating in a card game. Various names are given to card players based on their role or position. Position Games of Anglo-American origin In games of Anglo-American origin played in English-speaking countries, ...

'' (numerous articles) * ''

The Hendon Mob The Hendon Mob are a group of four professional poker players from London, England: Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman, and Ram Vaswani. The name of the group was first publicised by the ''Evening Standard'' newspaper in September 2000 ...

website'' (numerous articles) Hilger won the 2002

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Poker Championship and went on to finish

in the money ''In the Money'' is a 1958 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on February 16, 1958, by Monogram Pictures, Allied Artists Pictures and is the 48th and final film in the series. It ...

in the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...

(WSOP) $10,000 no limit

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is the most popular variant of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, community cards ...

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

(33rd,)

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

(332nd) and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

(221st.) On Sunday, May 4, 2008, he won the Full Tilt Poker 750k guaranteed for $132,788 beating a 3,600+ player field. As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $270,000. Hilger has recently stopped being a professional poker and now works an office job at

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market, and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for Windows, macOS, Androi ...

on the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

Personal life

Outside of poker, Hilger enjoys composing music on the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. He is also a big supporter of the Colombian children's charity COLOMBIANITOS, having served on the board of directors until 2009.

References

External links

Internet Texas HoldemCard Player articlesHendon Mob profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hilger, Matthew American poker players Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American gambling writers American male non-fiction writers University of Georgia alumni Georgia State University alumni Thunderbird School of Global Management alumni