"I'm not really happy with the results, but I played as well as I could," Matt Giannetti told CultureMap after taking fourth place in the "November Nine" — the nine-person championship finals at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

While falling short of the top-three ranking positions, he still brought home over $3 million in winnings.

Giannetti, who spent much of his early childhood in Kingwood, just north of Houston, represents a new generation of poker players inspired by the monumental upset by amateur player Chris Moneymaker at the 2003 November Nine.

"I was a senior in high school when Moneymaker won the event," he remembered. "I started off playing small games with my buddies and moved to bigger games in dorms and frat houses during my first semester at the University of Texas in Austin."

A computer engineering major, Giannetti found his math background lent itself well to the critical number-crunching needed to succeed at poker.

"By my second semester, it was all online games," he said. "You can play more that one table at a time on the Internet, which meant more chances to practice and improve."

Before long, Giannetti felt he could make more money playing poker than persuing a career in computer engineering, leaving school in 2005 after his second year to devote himself to the game full-time. He relocated to Las Vegas in 2007 for professional reasons.

"I love Austin, easily my favorite city," Giannetti said. "After I left school and began playing tournements around the world, I always kept a apartment in Austin. Even now that I'm in Vegas, I still make it back for at least one home game during UT football season." He sees himself back in Austin in years to come.

"I do plan to finish up my degree, but only at a time that's right for me," he said. "For now, I'm going to keep playing."

Next week, Giannetti will be on the road again for the Poker Premier League, a large international championship in London.

The November Nine event at the 2011 World Series of Poker yielded three top finalists: Ben Lamb ($4 million), Czech player Martin Staszko ($5.4 million), and German Pius Heinz with $8.4 million in winnings.