Canadian-born Matthew Salsberg made his way to Los Angeles in his youth, chasing better weather to work on his golf game. After taking a screenwriting class at University of California San Diego, he managed to land some gigs in Hollywood. Eventually, he worked his way up to being an executive producer on Weeds, which ran for eight years on Showtime. After his day job at the studios, Salsberg hit the poker rooms around town and became a serious part-time player. He has managed nearly 240 tournament cashes since first hitting the scene in 2004, including winning the 2012 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris for a career-best $478,415 payday. That triumph led to him earning the tour’s Player of the Year honors for that season.

A dozen years later, Salsberg came through with the second-largest victory of his career, taking down the 2024 World Series of Poker Circuit Commerce Casino $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event on his home turf. Salsberg bested a 1,209-entry field to earn his first WSOPC gold ring and the top prize of $286,134. His career tournament earnings now sit at nearly $3.6 million.

“This is very surreal. It’s been kind of a crazy few years for me, so this is wild,” Salsberg told WSOP reporters after closing out the victory. “I have played a lot of circuit events of the years and have never won a ring, so it’s nice to get one.”

The win also bestowed 960 Card Player Player of the Year points on Salsberg. This was his first title and fourth final-table finish of the year. With 2,428 total points, he now sits inside the top 150 in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This event ran from Nov.21-25, with three starting flights and two more days of action. The strong turnout built a prize pool of $1,831,635 that was paid out among the top 161 finishers.

Salsberg was in the middle of the pack when the last nine competitors converged on the final table. He outlasted Phongthep Thiptinnakon (9th – $23,100) and Aram Mkhitaryan (8th – $29,838) before scoring his first knockout of the day. Salsberg cracked the pocket aces of short stack Richard Ham, making a flush with Q4 after all the chips went in ahead of the flop.

Preflop coin flips spelled the end of Samvel Gspoyan’s (6th – $52,185) and Luis Yepez’s (5th – $70,552) runs in this event. It was more of the same for Davis Khobyer, who got all-in with pocket tens racing against A-Q for Anthony Marquez. A queen on the turn gave the overcards the lead, and Khobyer was unable to spike a ten on the end. He earned $96,864 as the fourth-place finisher.

Salsberg earned a double-up early in three-handed action, with pocket nines besting K-Q suited for Marquez. He then won a big one with A-K suited against A-9 for Michael Liang, who was left on fumes after the clash. The bracelet winner was soon sent packing with $134,958 for his podium finish. Liang now has more than $4.2 million in recorded tournament scores to his name.

Salsberg held better than a 3:1 lead over Marquez when heads-up play began. It didn’t take long for him to convert that advantage into the title. In the last hand, Marquez three-bet shoved with KQ from the big blind and Salsberg called with AK. The board came down 86425 and ace high was enough.

Marquez earned $190,774 as the runner-up. The bracelet winner from Ventura now has over $1.5 million in lifetime cashes under his belt.

Check out a replay of the final table below:

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: WSOP / Alicia Skillman.