Mike Matusow takes second place in the FullTiltPoker.Net Pro Showdown at Red Rock Casino
In pro sports there is always pre-season camp to prepare for the start of the season. In poker this year there was the FullTiltPoker.net Pro Showdown, held at the Red Rock Casino. You see, the real "poker season" starts this week with the World Series of Poker kicking off tomorrow at Rio in Las Vegas. For 7 members of Team Full Tilt this game was their pre-season warm up and Mikes second place finish is hopefully a sign of things to come. Finishing off the world class field in this event was Erick "E-Dog" Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, and Clonie Gowen.
This single table matchup was a high stakes 120K buy in game, with the winner taking home 600 thousand dollars (Erick Lingren took top honors). The game was pretty quiet with Mike following suit throughout the live TV event. As millions watched live, Mike and the rest of the pros played tight and didn't chat very much as the cards hit the felt. The first fireworks came when Matusow picked up pocket 6's in the small blind. The blinds were 4K-8K and it was folded to Matusow. He went all in against the big blind Phil Ivey who looked down at KJ of clubs. Being short stacked Phil did make the call thinking Matusow may have been trying to bully him. With both all in preflop, the board came 4 5 8 6 J. With the Jack on the river simply taunting Phil with what could have been.
With Phil Ivey now eliminated and holding the chip lead, Mike proceeded to make great laydowns and a few great calls. When he ultimately found himself heads up with E-Dog it didn't take long to end the game. On the very first hand of heads up Mike looked down to see AJ and pushed all in. Unfortunately for Mike, E-Dog looked down to see the sweet familiar Big Slick (AK) and immediately called. Mike didn't improve and Erick won the match along with 600K. Mike took down 280K for second place and beleive it or not, there was no Matusow Meltdown afterwards!
I think the most important thing to recognize here is that Matusow played with focus and made great decisions through the whole game. He obviously took this opportunity to use the game as a primer for the WSOP and if his second place finish among the top pros in the world is any indication, watch out for The Mouth!
You can still win your way to the main event at this years WSOP! Paradise Poker is giving away ONE MILLION dollars in WSOP prize packages.
This single table matchup was a high stakes 120K buy in game, with the winner taking home 600 thousand dollars (Erick Lingren took top honors). The game was pretty quiet with Mike following suit throughout the live TV event. As millions watched live, Mike and the rest of the pros played tight and didn't chat very much as the cards hit the felt. The first fireworks came when Matusow picked up pocket 6's in the small blind. The blinds were 4K-8K and it was folded to Matusow. He went all in against the big blind Phil Ivey who looked down at KJ of clubs. Being short stacked Phil did make the call thinking Matusow may have been trying to bully him. With both all in preflop, the board came 4 5 8 6 J. With the Jack on the river simply taunting Phil with what could have been.
With Phil Ivey now eliminated and holding the chip lead, Mike proceeded to make great laydowns and a few great calls. When he ultimately found himself heads up with E-Dog it didn't take long to end the game. On the very first hand of heads up Mike looked down to see AJ and pushed all in. Unfortunately for Mike, E-Dog looked down to see the sweet familiar Big Slick (AK) and immediately called. Mike didn't improve and Erick won the match along with 600K. Mike took down 280K for second place and beleive it or not, there was no Matusow Meltdown afterwards!
I think the most important thing to recognize here is that Matusow played with focus and made great decisions through the whole game. He obviously took this opportunity to use the game as a primer for the WSOP and if his second place finish among the top pros in the world is any indication, watch out for The Mouth!
You can still win your way to the main event at this years WSOP! Paradise Poker is giving away ONE MILLION dollars in WSOP prize packages.
posted by All About The Mouth at 11:15 AM
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