PokerWorks

Biography

Hailing from Sweden, Martin de Knijff is a professional poker player born in 1972. He began playing poker in his younger teenage years. Since then, he’s had great success in the game and boasts over $3.3 million in career tournament earnings.

A few smaller tournament cashes occurred for De Knijff leading up until the 2002 WSOP Main Event where he placed thirteenth for $60,000. That finish helped to make him a more known face in the poker world, but it really didn’t produce a huge breakout effect.

In 2003, Martin cashed twice at the Five-Star World Poker Classic. One of those cashes was in the WPT World Championship. The following year, De Knijff returned to the same WPT World Championship and won, besting a final table consisting of Steve Brecher, Matt Matros, and Hasan Habib. For the win, Martin took home more than $2.7 million, easily his largest tournament cash to date. The first-place prize was also a record-breaking number at the time.

At the summer that same year, Martin cashed twice. His best finish that year came in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event where he placed second behind Thomas Keller for $210,100. This was the closest he’s ever come to winning a bracelet.

Outside of poker, Martin is an avid sports bettor and bridge player. At the young age of 21, he was the youngest player to receive the status of Bridge Life Master in his home country of Sweden.