Mike Matusow places second in most recent World Poker Tour "Bad Boys of Poker"

The most recent World Poker Tour episode was taped just this past Saturday night at the Commerce Casino is Los Angeles. This was not your ordinary WPT poker game though, for this they brought out the bad boys. Namely Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Jean Bobby Belande, and the infamous Tony G. You may recall that Tony G was the very caustic personality at the table at the WPT Paris a few years ago. He was constantly giving Surinder Sunar the trash talk treatment and it made for great TV, although his actions were borderline bad sportsmanship.

To kick things off, Tony G shows up to the table wearing a traditional Kimono purchased on a recent trip to Japan. It looks to me like he was trying too hard to get some extra TV time but he claimed it was "out of respect". After his entry the pros at the table got down to business with the blinds starting out at 3,000/6,000 and each player with 250,000 starting chips. Other players at the table were Gus Hansen and Men The Master.

They were playing for bragging rights and a free entry into the $25,000 WPT Championship later this year. They were also playing for face time on TV and of course, several of them started the trash talk early-

For the first two hours Phil Hellmuth was the target of the verbal abuse. He took it well but you could tell he was getting a little drained after awhile. In fact, after two hours of constant chatter, Mike looked up at Tony G and said "Man, you talk more than me, and that's pretty hard to do!".

I'll save the best of the exchanges for after the show airs but suffice it to say, there were some classic lines born out of this match. The hand that ended it all? Well, Mike was heads up with Tony G for the win but Tony had a 3-1 chip lead. With that kind of lead you can expect Tony to play ALOT of hands and really press his opponent. He did just that by bullying Mike for several hands. That is until Mike looked down to find two Kings and put Tony all in. Tony remarked that he was holding his "magic hand" and called with 10 8 of diamonds! The flop brought a 10 and an 8, Mikes hand didn't improve and that was that. Mike sat and stared at the cards for about 5 minutes while Tony ran around high fiving people in the crowd.

Did a Matusow Meltdown follow? You'll have to watch it later this year to find out ;)

You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Mike plays there weekly along with pros like Phil Ivey, Jesus Ferguson, and Jennifer Harman.

Classic case of what happens when you take a bad beat playing online poker

I can only imagine that this kid was playing some sort of online game (we'll pretend it's poker).


As seen on Break.com


Get your entry today to the Paradise Poker Million Dollar Freeroll. That'll buy alot of keyboards!

Can Mike take home an extra 10 million at this years WSOP?

Perhaps you'll be the lucky one to win the 2006 World Series of Poker, maybe it will be Mike. Either way, if you win your seat to the championship event at this years WSOP from Full Tilt Poker you'll pocket an extra 10 million bucks. That's right, 10 MILLION DOLLARS. As Mike would say, "the kiddie poker is down the street"!

With an expected 8,000 players this years World Series will be the largest field for a poker event in history. The winner will take home an estimated 12 million dollars for first place. Add the bounty from Full Tilt and you're pocketing $22,000,000.00, that's TWENTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS!

They are offering three different ways to do it:

First up is their $1 Million WSOP Main Event Seat Giveaway. Starting in March, Full Tilt will be offering five freeroll tournaments, with one to be conducted each month until just before the start of the World Series Championship Event. Each tournament will have as the prizes twenty $10,000 seats into the Championship Event. In total, Full Tilt will be doling out to 100 players a completely free seat to compete at the World Series. There are several ways to qualify for these freeroll events, thus ensuring that the competition will be intense as players attempt to get their seat gratis.

Coming in next is the WSOP Main Event 100 Seat Guarantee. Last year, Full Tilt sent thirty players to the World Series through a promotion similar to this and this year they have decided to up the stakes! With a minimum prize pool of $1.2 Million (100 WSOP prize packages that include a $10,000 seat and $2,000 in spending money), this is the largest single WSOP seat guarantee announced so far by an online site. The tournament, to be conducted on July 16th, has a buy-in of $500+$35 but there are a multitude of ways that you can satellite into the event, including one that costs under $5. Such an event as this should draw one of the larger tournament fields, possibly even expanding the prize pool beyond the minimum of $1.2 million.

Finally, for everyone who qualifies for the WSOP Championship Event through Full Tilt, the Tilters have brought back the $10 Million Main Event Mania. If a player qualifies for the Championship Event of the World Series through Full Tilt and makes the Final Table, Full Tilt will add on an additional $50,000 to the player's winnings from the event. If a Full Tilt qualifier is able to work their way to the final three players at the Final Table, that goes up to $100K. In the event that the Full Tilt qualifier captures the World Championship, the player will pocket an astounding $10 million to go along with the bounty from the Championship Event.

Expect to see other Full Tilt Poker pros playing these events as well. People such as Jennifer Harman, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, and Howard Lederer. With an extra 10 million dollars at stake for the winner, I'll be playing there too.

Take your shot at winning a WSOP seat with Full Tilt Poker. No site on the earth is giving away more free seats to the WSOP this year. Good Luck!

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You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Mike plays there weekly along with pros like Phil Ivey, Jesus Ferguson, and Jennifer Harman.

Mike Matusow wins "The Most Entertaining Player" award at CardPlayer's Player of the Year awards

I'm finally back from the CardPlayer.com Player of the Year awards and I have to admit, it was a fantastic event. The red carpet was rolled out, the drinks flowed freely, and the atmosphere was electric. Poker royalty from around the world was present for this as Richard Belsky summed it up "It looked a little like a United Nations gathering" referring to the fact that most nationalities sat together.

As I mentioned earlier in my blog, Mike Matusow was up for the "Most Entertaining Player" award along with Phil Hellmuth. Who do you think won it? Of course Mike took down the title! Congrats Mike.

The event was capped off with Men Nguyen taking down the coveted "Player of the Year" title, this being his fourth POY title. You have to respect a man's game when he's won this title FOUR times. Congratulations Men.

Phil Ivey also had a great showing taking down three awards including "Most Feared Player" and "Best No Limt Player". A recap of the awards presented during the evening can be seen below:

Player of the Year – Men Nguyen

Best Cash Game Player - Chip Reese

Poker Ambassador - Mike Sexton

Best No-Limit Player - Phil Ivey

Most-Entertaining Player - Mike Matusow

Lifetime Achievement Award – Doyle Brunson

Best Heads-Up Player - Phil Ivey

Best Mixed-Game Player - Chip Reese

Breakthrough Player - Michael Gracz

Most-Feared Player - Phil Ivey

Most-Underrated Player - Allen Cunningham

Best Female Player - Jennifer Harmon

People’s Choice Award for Favorite Player – Daniel Negreanu

People’s Choice Award for Favorite Celebrity Player – Jennifer Tilley

You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Look for any table highlighted in red inside of the Full Tilt Lobby, that means a pro is seated there and it may be Mike!

Famous Mike Matusow quotes

They don't call him "The Mouth" for nothing, he's got plenty to say at the poker table. He's also got plenty to say anywhere else you may find him, an ESPN interview, sitting at the bar at Bellagio....

So here are some of the famous "Matusowisms" from years past:

"There's over 2000 donkeys in this tournament and I had to be at the table with none of them."

"There's no skill in poker. Poker is a joke. Tournament poker is a joke. Whoever gets most lucky is the next superstar."

"I think I'm probably the most well-liked person on the tour, I think most people love me, I mean I have a lot of fun with people. I needle them, but I needle them in a nice way."

"Right now there is probably not a human being in the world with less regard for money than me. I make bets for thousands of dollars that I know I can't win. I was at the poker table once and made a $5,000 bet with Howard Lederer that Shawshank Redemption won best picture. Doyle Brunson told me not to make that bet because he made it once and lost. Of course, I didn't listen, and had to give Howard $5,000."

"Vindication baby! One time!"

"Kiddie poker is down the street."

"I thought this was my year, I felt I was the best player at the table. I'm pissed that I didn't get a chance to play when it got down to five or six handed." (ESPN Interview, after getting busted from the 2005 final table)

"I believe in my heart I'm one of the top five No Limit Holdem players in the World. It's the only thing I do good. I'm an idiot when it comes to anything else."

"No one is as unlucky as me, why does this keep happening to ME?"

"I'm playing the best poker of my life"

There are so many Matusowisms that I'll save the rest for a later entry.

BTW, Mike has been hitting the tables quite a bit lately at Full Tilt Poker. You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Look for any table highlighted in red inside of the Full Tilt Lobby, that means a pro is seated there and it may be Mike!

Full Tilt Poker gives Mike Matusow his own commercial

You may or may not know that Mike Matusow is a member of Team Full Tilt. The team is made of poker pro's such as Jennifer Harman, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Howard Lederer, and Phil Ivey. Mike started out as an "unofficial" member last year and now is a full time member of Full Tilt.

You know you've made it to the poker big time when you have your own commercial and now Mike can lay claim to that! You can view the commercial by visiting the Full Tilt Poker website and clicking on "Our Team", at the bottom you'll see a link for "Commercials", click on that and you'll see the option to view the Mike Matusow/Erick Lindgren commercial called "Late Night".

Congrats Mike!

You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Mike plays there weekly along with pros like Phil Ivey, Jesus Ferguson, and Jennifer Harman.

Mike Matusow makes another "most hated" list

So it looks like Rob Hurtt from the Sporting News.com doesn't like Mike Matusow either. I just stumbled across one of his articles titled "Punks who deserve the hate they get". I'm not sure if that's proper english or not but I do find it interesting that he singles out Mike in article otherwise filled with sports superstars such as Terrell Owens and Barry Bonds.

Come on Rob, is it really that easy to hate Matusow? Is he really that bad?

Rob goes on about several sports figures that he felt should have made the list and even tosses a few more names in the mix as he concludes:

Although I would have loved to bend the rules to get Steve Spurrier on this list, he's a coach and not an athlete. I despise Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, but unlike ESPN, I don't consider poker a sport. Sorry, Mike. You're no athlete. That goes for you, too, Phil Hellmuth. The full article can be found here

Clearly the author of the article has seen Mike only a few times on TV and formed an opinion based loosely on the select outbursts that ESPN and the like replay 10 times a week. He even takes a jab at Phil Hellmuth which, in my opinion certainly deserves the negative attention. If you really want a hated player of the year candidate, Phil already has the crown.

You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Look for any table highlighted in red inside of the Full Tilt Lobby, that means a pro is seated there and it may be Mike!

Mike Matusow nominated for Card Player "Most Entertaining Player" award

On February 15th, 2006 the red carpet will be rolled out for pokers finest. Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, and so many more will attend the 2005 Card Player Player of the Year award at the illustrious Henry Fonda Music Box Theater. What may be the biggest show in poker this year isn't taking place in Vegas but rather, Hollywood. It's a natural spot for such an awards show considering that poker has gone mainstream. In fact, it's more than mainstream, it's a national pastime. It's great to see one of pokers most outspoken players being recognized too!

There are so many categories this year it's hard to recognize all of the players that truly deserve it. Among the difficult choices is the “Best Cash Game Player” award, where Barry Greenstein, Chip Reese and Phil Ivey are nominated for this honor that goes to the best live-game player. Ivey is also in the running for the “Best No-Limit Player” award – along with Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu, who picked up the 2004 “Card Player of the Year” award, is nominated for “Poker Ambassador” (with Mike Sexton and Brunson) – as well as “Most Entertaining Player” (with Mike Matusow and Hellmuth).

I'll be attending the event so look for a detailed report next week!

You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Look for any table highlighted in red inside of the Full Tilt Lobby, that means a pro is seated there and it may be Mike!