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Savage Staking: Twitter Followers Back WPT Tour Director at bestbet

Oct 11, 2019

Matt Savage
By Sean Chaffin

The bestbet Bounty Scramble is the only WPT event Matt Savage plays all year. Once again a bounty this year in Jacksonville, the executive tour director jumped into the Day 1A action. He’s not only playing for himself but sold 2 percent of his action for $100 to some of his Twitter followers.

“I’m not a professional poker player, so I like to have people get involved,” he said. “I also like to have people root for me. I also feel like it makes me play better. I have other people’s money on the line so I feel like I’m more focused. I want to win for those people and give something back.”

The response was more than he expected. He ended up with 30 followers staking him and he’s playing for just 40 percent of his own action. Savage is among 30 bounties in the field and players can earn $2,500 if they can eliminate one of those.

The bestbet event offers Savage his only chance each year to earn a WPT cash and he’s still hoping to make that happen It’s been rough the last few years. In 2017, he flopped a full house, but lost to a bigger full house. A year later, his pocket Kings lost to pocket Aces.

Savage has $125,000 in live tournament winnings with a few wins in smaller buy-in events. In 2009, he finished fifth in a Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event at the World Series of Poker for $32,396.

This year, Savage was hoping to avoid those kinds of coolers and was at about a starting stack at the first break in the action.

“I’m off to a decent start,” he said. “I‘ve had a few big hands won and lost.”

Alas, Savage was foiled by bad luck once again when his pocket aces were cracked in a three-way all-in. There’s always next year, though.

Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.

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