Martin Derbyshire is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Toronto, Canada. After almost a decade of working as a crime reporter for newspapers in the Greater Toronto Area, capturing numerous local, national and North American-wide writing awards, Martin made the jump to the freelance world in 2006 and continues to write for numerous trade and consumer magazines, newspapers and Web sites.

Martin grew up around gaming culture, spending a good portion of his high school years hustling pool in billiard halls around the city of Toronto. Saturday nights meant mixed poker games in smoky...

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Martin Derbyshire is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Toronto, Canada. After almost a decade of working as a crime reporter for newspapers in the Greater Toronto Area, capturing numerous local, national and North American-wide writing awards, Martin made the jump to the freelance world in 2006 and continues to write for numerous trade and consumer magazines, newspapers and Web sites.

Martin grew up around gaming culture, spending a good portion of his high school years hustling pool in billiard halls around the city of Toronto. Saturday nights meant mixed poker games in smoky basements with the boys, and a lifelong love of the game ensued.

His interest in the world of high-stakes poker was spurred on by the success of a player Martin went to high school with who played snooker in the same pool halls around the city. That player is none other than Daniel Negreanu.

Martin started playing low-stakes MTTs online and finding a decent level of success as a live tournament player on frequent trips to Las Vegas. He once drove across the United States playing cash games from city to city to cover trip expenses, and was a regular cash game player in Vancouver, British Columbia's River Rock poker room, the largest in Canada.

After poker exploded on an international level with Negreanu as one of the biggest names in the game, Martin joined the ranks of PokerListings.com to cover the 2007 WSOP. He has since continued his work with PL.com on the tournament circuit around the world writing live updates and blogs and conducting player interviews for the site.