Lets solve this problem by the pidgeon hole principle. Suppose that Matt pulls out 2 socks, if he gets a matching pair then he is done and that's it. But now suppose that he gets one black sock and one white sock, if he then pulls out a third sock it will be either white or black, in either case he would have gotten with a 100% certainty a matching pair, since he already has a black and a white sock. So the minimum number to ensure he gets a matching pair is 3 socks.
