Matt Bond returned to Day 3 of the World Poker Tour Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open second of 83 players. The Texas native is a few levels away from securing his largest WPT cash to date after cutting his teeth on the mid-stakes circuit for years.
Bond ground out $2.2 million in tournament earnings with his largest cash only representing 10% of his haul. In other words, he did it the hard way.
Texas poker explosion
The Texas poker boon has directly affected Bond’s results and he’s been steadily moving up in stakes. “Poker in Texas has been incredible,” he said. “Before we had to drive to Oklahoma to play and now I’m able to get so much more volume in with having actual events in the area. It’s night and day with how poker is in Texas now.”
Bond’s game improved so much that during the summer of 2022 he took a shot to play in the big sandbox. He entered a $10,000 PokerGO Tour event at the Aria while on an off day after bagging in different Aria event.
“That was the purest I’ve ever ran and I knocked out a bunch of legends,” said Bond. “I had played with some of them a few times, but it was nice to get the better of them.” He won $153,000 at a final table that featured Sergio Aido and Adrian Mateos.
Bond is primed for a deep run with only five big blinds separating him from the leader. “A deep run would be everything; I’ve come so close so many times,” he said. “I have two 12ths in WPTs and another 13th place. I’ve been right on the doorstep a few times but haven’t broken through yet.”
Facing competition head on
Bond returned to the tournament area Monday morning afternoon full of energy and smiling, unphased by the challenge of the day – having Chance Kornuth sitting on his left. “I love playing with Chance. He’s so much fun,” he said.
“We played a bit at the Poker Master together and he was on my left then,” Bond added. “We had so much fun. The way I look at it is, that it’s a fun challenge. If I can sustain and build a stack today with him on my left, then I can do it with anyone. I look forward to it.”
He admittedly wasn’t too original when asked about his plan for the day. “Really, it’s the old cliches in poker – I want to take it one hand at a time,” he said. “Just do the best that I can on every single hand and the results will happen.”
