Canadian high stakes poker player Matthew Bergart was murdered in a targeted heist, and police say he was just at the “wrong place at the wrong time.” He was just 30 years old.
The online poker pro was shot dead inside a Toronto townhome early Thursday morning. Police were called to the scene at around 2:25 a.m. following a reported shooting.
Wrong Place Wrong Time
According to the investigating officers, three armed suspects entered the townhome demanding cash and/or valuable items. But they weren’t targeting Bergart, police reports indicate. He was simply an innocent bystander who happened to be visiting the home at the time of the incident. The owner of the property is said to have been the target.
Following a struggle between the suspects and the victim, Bergart was shot multiple times. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to the gunshot wounds.
At the time of publishing, the suspects, said to have been wearing dark clothing and fled the scene in a “white or light-colored sedan,” have not been apprehended. A search for those responsible for the murder is underway.
Bergart was a skilled poker pro who mostly played online. He was known as the “Mysterious Canadian” and battled against some of the top players in the world on GGPoker. His only live tournament cash came in 2019, a 825th-place finish in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $18,535.
In his early poker days, he self-banned himself from Americas Cardroom, an unlicensed US-facing poker site, and PokerStars.
“I banned myself on Stars when I was 18, because of my parents. I was banned from ACR because I played under the account Isidro Pereira and they also suspected me of using a solver. GG acted meanly because in 2019 I won a lot,” Bergart said in a previous interview.
There are a number of YouTube videos of Bergart playing online poker, including the following $20,000 pot he won with top pair on GGPoker posted just three weeks ago.