Martin de Knijff was born on the 2nd of October 1972, named after his Dutch father, in the state of Sweden, Gothenburg. The family moved to Falkenberg when he was 5, but shortly after that, de Knijff's father fell ill and passed away suddenly. The situation became more difficult because of his mother's job on a cruise ship which caused her to be gone half of each month. In1992 Martin de Knijff moved to Stockholm and currently resides in Los Angelos.
It was his grandmother that led Martin de Knijff into poker at the early age of 15. He has been a professional poker player ever since he graduated from high school and a Life Member in Bridge since the age of twenty-one. However, the game of poker was not where he first met success. It was bridge at which Martin de Knijff excelled, becoming a phenomenon when winning five tournaments one after another at the Swedish championships for players under 25.
Martin de Knijf’s interest in Omaha and Hold-Em led him to participation in tournaments out of the country that helped mastering the game, and shortly after learning poker, he was yielding results. In 1995 he entered and won his first poker tournament: the Swedish No-Limit Hold'em event for $35,000 and the next year took 3rd place at London's £500 Hold'em Main Event.
Martin made a major improvement of his game after reading “Super Systems” by Doyle Brunson, an iconic Amercan poker player who has won the World Series of Poker twice. De Knijff also devoted time to going to card clubs and studying the game under strong Swedish players like Chris Bjorn and Jan Lundberg, which contributed to his experience in Five-Card Draw.
The first time Martin de Knijff became known to the poker world was at the World Series of Poker main event at 2002, when he won a total of $60,000, finishing at the 13th place. The following year Martin de Knijff entered the World Poker Tour, finishing at 15th place in the series 1 championship, winning a total of $26,664. In 2004 he managed to cash in $2,728,356 from the same tournament – the largest single prize to have ever been awarded to a poker player. Within less than a month later his success continued as he won the No Limit Hold-Em event at 2nd place. Since then Martin de Knijff has entered countless tournaments and for his wits and skills has earned himself the nickname “The Knife”. His latest big entry was in the Five Star World Classic Poker Classic where he finished 39th and took a prize of $65,955. In 2008 his poker winnings are coming up to $3,300,000.
Lately Martin de Knijff has slowed down the tempo and currently takes part in up to 20 events per year. He prefers to spend his free time enjoying other hobbies such as golfing with his friends and spending time with his son Robin and his girlfriend Ama, also residing in Los Angelos. His motto is "To respect, but never to fear your opponent."
