Matusow to play in the upcoming Poker Superstars Invitational 3

The popular Fox Sports show Poker Superstars Invitational recently taped 24 of the worlds best poker pros battling for a 400K payday. The taping was at The Golden Nugget in Vegas and is now airing on your local Fox Sports channel. For those who aren't familiar with the format it's a short-handed battle of 6 man single table tourneys culminating in a heads up battle for 400K.

The series runs for 24 weeks and concludes with a two hour finale. It's a nice departure from traditional WPT or WSOP televised events and makes for great TV. In years past, some of pokers best players sat out this event but now the best have come out in force!

Besides Mike, you will see players such as Johnny Chan, Todd Brunson, Phil Ivey, and Chris Moneymaker. Mike's events haven't been televised yet and the play was done on a closed set so no one knows who the ultimate winner will be. What you can expect is plenty of ribbing and trash talk from Mike!

Sign up for a free account today at Titan Poker. One of the fastest growing poker rooms on the Internet, Titan offers an exclusive $500.00 sign up bonus and hold multiple freerolls daily.

Phil Hellmuth talks about a hand played against Mike Matusow

You may have already read my earlier post about Mike playing in the recent World Poker Tour Bad Boys of Poker. In that article I talked about Mike's play and a few key hands with other players. Today I'll share some insight from another article published by Phil Hellmuth that talked about the hand that knocked Phil out of the game. Of course it was Mike that knocked him out but you'll have to stay tuned to hear about any fireworks.

In an article published today in the Lawrence Journal-World, Phil wrote about the hand that set up his early departure and ultimately the hand that knocked him out. After losing the majority of his stack while slow playing pocket Kings against Men "The Master" Nguyen, Phil tangled with Mike in the following hand (from Phil's article in the LJ World):

One hour later, with three players left — The Mouth, Tony G and me — the blinds were raised to $10,000-$20,000, with a $5,000 a man ante. During the 10-minute break before the blinds were raised, I decided I was going to make a few moves. In fact, I made up my mind that I was going to move all-in on the first hand, while I was on the button, no matter what hand I had. When I looked down at Qs-5s, I felt more comfortable with that tactic and went ahead and moved all-in for my last $180,000. Tony G folded in the small blind, but The Mouth studied for a moment in the big blind, and said, “What the heck, I call.” He then flipped up the now-familiar Qc-10c, and I knew that I was roughly a 2.5-to-1 underdog.

The flop was 7d-4s-3c, and the turn card was the Ks, at which point I needed a five for a pair, a six for a straight, or any spade for a flush. Alas, the final card was the 9d, and I finished in third place. I will not tell you who won, but I will tell you that the whole event made for great television, and that one of the players took a big-time bad beat on the last hand.

So Phil took the worst of it on this hand but eludes to the fact that Mike lost in the end to a bad beat. I'm sure Phil slept much better that night knowing that Mike didn't go on to win the match.

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!

Random thoughts not pertaining to Mike Matusow

Any Mac users out there? If you own a Mac and you're reading this, you're probably just as frustrated as I am at the total lack of support out there for Mac owners wanting to play online poker. Now I'm not sure whether Mike is really a Mac kinda guy but my guess is NO.

Anyway, if you're a Mac owner looking for the best resources when it comes to poker I've found a few I'll list below:

Poker Mac is a very clean and easy to navigate site that offers FAQ's and links to the various poker rooms out there that support Mac.

Poker for Macs is a monthly newsletter that I subscribe to that gives some REALLY good, relevant content for Mac Poker players. They have a forum as well that could prove useful as it grows.

Last but not least is a Mac Poker Blog that looks to be another good resource once they get some content behind it. Keep an eye on this one.

In the meantime, look for more things Matusow later this week.

Mike Matusow to play in the North American Poker Tour (NAPT)

It was announced today that Mike Matusow will join fellow pro poker players Annie Duke, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Laak, Layne Flack and actress/poker champ Jennifer Tilly, among dozens of other top players on this new tour ala the PGA for golfers. With poker fields today numbering in the thousands an argument could be made that televised poker is losing it's glitter. Let's face it, would you rather watch a table full of internet qualifiers play for a million bucks (think about the horrible Ultimate Bet show on Fox Sports) or a table with recognized pros? The NAPT addresses that issue by only allowing the top 200 ranked poker players to play on their tour.

Frank Weber, President of Hansen Gray said, "This is truly an exciting time for NAPP Tour as it continues to expand its array of world renowned poker players who will generate greater interest and excitement in the world of competitive poker. We are delighted that an industry leading publication likeBluff Magazine has featured NAPP Tour in its current issue."

The Bluff Magazine article focuses on how NAPP Tour will be changing the face of televised poker by limiting participation in the $10,000 main events to the top professional poker players in the world. To qualify for a NAPP Tourevent, players must be in the top 200 as ranked by Bluff Magazine and CardPlayer Magazine or they can earn their seat through a qualifying tournament.The NAPP Tour will continue its effort to change the perspective of poker from a game to a sport. By modeling the tour after the PGA, focusing on the player's skills, high-lighting player personalities and bringing in corporate sponsors, NAPP Tour is on its way to achieving its goal.

With its high-stakes competition, national reach, and the commitment of over 50 of the world's best players, the North American Poker Tour will launch in May 2006, offering a concept tantamount to a royal flush. Distinguished as the first professional, standardized poker tour, with a limited number of qualified competitors in each of its main events building up toward a multi-million dollar championship, the Tour is currently finalizing its agreements with sponsors and a broadcast partner, fulfilling its intention to televise each event.

Tournament events include $200 No Limit, $300 No Limit, $500 No Limit,$1000 No Limit, $5000 Chinese Poker, $5000 Mixed Game and $10,000 No LimitHold'em. The playing format developed by Matt Savage will allow the professionals to showcase their abilities in a fun-filled competitive environment.


Sign up for a free account today at Titan Poker. They offer an exclusive $500.00 sign up bonus and hold multiple freerolls daily.

Mike Matusow eliminated in the first round of the NBC National Heads Up Poker Chamionship

The second annual NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship kicked off yesterday (March 4th) at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas. This event proved to be a ratings winner for NBC last year so this year you could cleary see that they had a much larger production crew for this years event. The tournament is a heads up style single elimination match with 64 players starting out. The brackets are the same as the NCAA Basketball Chamionship culminating in a sweet 16 that gets the most TV time until a winner is ultimately declared from the final heads up match.

Mike was one of the invited guests to play in this years match and much to the dismay of many of his fans, was elimated on day one by Eli Elezra. There wasn't much to the match with it ending relatively early with Mike and Eli getting all of their chips in pre flop. Matusow had Ah-3s but Elezra flipped up the As-Jd. The board came 9s-8h-6h-4d-7d and Mike Matusow was sent packing. I'm thinking he was anxious to get back to the real action which was taking place next door at the Bellagio.

All told, the best poker players in the world showed up for this event with the names we all know. Todd and Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Howard Lederer, Jesus Ferguson, Chip Reese, Sam Farha, and so many more. We will post a complete bracket once the the event is over for your review.

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 eliminated from the Bay 101 Shooting Star NL Championship

Just days after placing second in the World Poker Tour Bad Boys of Poker match, Mike has been eliminated from the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament. This tournament is unique in that it puts bounties on many of the pro players participating. If you knock out a pro player in the event you are paid a $5,000.00 bounty and win a commemorative t-shirt. Whether this truly changes the way people play the pros is debatable but what isn't debatable is that Mike was knocked out on a semi-bluff.

With the board reading Jh-5s-8h-7s, Mike pushed all in against his lone opponent. Matusow flipped over Qs-9s for a gutshot straight draw and a flush draw. His opponent showed 10s-8s for a pair of eights with a lower spade flush draw. The river was the Kc and Mike was sent packing. Meanwhile, his opponent smiled as he collected a cool 5,000 in cash and a goofy looking t-shirt with Mike's mug on it and a silly caption.

After the elimination, he was chased down by a reporter from Card Player Magazine. Literally. Mike ignored the reporter as he chased Mike from the read and when he was finally cornered, didn't say a word. After being asked several questions with no reply, no facial movement, nothing at all, the reporter summed it up. "That was Mike 'The Mime' Matusow, folks."

Maybe you missed the shot to take down a Shooting Star but you can go battle the giants at Titan Poker. They have a 100% deposit bonus and hold multiple freerolls daily.