Mati has been playing poker since 2020. At some point, he tried Spin & Go and cash games, but he always preferred MTTs. Last Sunday, he sat down early at his computer, as usual, for a new grind session. His favorite format is 6-Max, and when he saw that the only available game in that format was a 3-step satellite to the WCOOP $5,200 6-Max, he decided to take his chance. After all, the tournament hadn’t yet reached its guarantee, and the possibility of an overlay was high.
The story of Matías Calabró from Argentina could easily be taken from a movie, but it’s real. This Argentine player had a movie-like run earlier this week when he managed to qualify for just $1.50 for the WCOOP $5,200 World Championship of 6-Max NLHE, with a $700K guaranteed prize pool. Not only did he win the three steps to reach the big tournament, but he also played it and finished in 5th place, achieving by far the best result of his poker career.
Mati has been playing poker since 2020. At some point, he tried Spin & Go and cash games, but he always preferred MTTs. Last Sunday, he sat down early at his computer, as usual, for a new grind session. His favorite format is 6-Max, and when he saw that the only available game in that format was a 3-step satellite to the WCOOP $5,200 6-Max, he decided to take his chance. After all, the tournament hadn’t yet reached its guarantee, and the possibility of an overlay was high.
After winning the $1.50 satellite, he moved on to the second step, which had a $22 buy-in. After winning that, he progressed to a third step with a $530 buy-in. Here, Mati started facing high-level opponents. Considering that he usually plays tournaments with buy-ins between $11 and $22, this experience was quite unique for him. He was literally swimming with sharks. However, this didn’t intimidate him, and Matías continued his path with determination. With a good run, he qualified for the main event. At that point, a dream was already fulfilled, but he never imagined what would happen next.
Calabró sat down to play the tournament, knowing it was the biggest of his life. After several hours of play, he made it through to the next day. On Monday, he faced his destiny at the final table of a WCOOP event—a dream for most players, and he was living it.
Nerves took over, but luckily it was online. Calabró played an excellent final table and tournament. Despite facing top-level global opponents, he reached the final positions. In the end, he finished 5th and took home a prize of $68,177, the largest of his career so far. The only hand recorded from his play was the one he lost, but even that hand showcased his skill and bravery.
With only five players left, the Argentine opened with 2BB with A3 from the cutoff. On the button, the player “MissOracle” made a 3-bet of 3x. Mati read it as a bluff and decided to shove his 18.2BB stack. His opponent called with QJ, but a queen on the turn sealed the hand. Thus, Calabró was eliminated but praised by the tournament commentators for his outstanding play.
Mati expressed his happiness with his achievement: “The best thing about poker is that anyone can dream of achieving something great. In this case, it happened to me, but when we sit down to play, we all have a chance, and that’s incredible.”
When asked about his future plans, Calabró gave a clear answer: “I’m going to keep playing the same ABI (average buy-in). I don’t think it’s a good decision to move up just because I have a bigger bankroll. But I will treat myself to playing a live tournament. I will also use part of the money to invest in improving my game—buying courses, software, or paying for coaching.”
WCOOP $5,200 World Championship of 6-Max NLHE
Buy-in: $5,200
Entries: 200
Prize pool: $1,000,000
Final table:
1st Lithuania Mikensonas – $172,982
2nd Hungary kZhh – $138,918
3rd United Kingdom pads1161 – $150,645
4th Australia MissOracle – $88,801
5th Argentina Matías Calabró – $68,177
6th Denmark starwins 🙂 – $52,343
