Yesterday I received my copy of Mike Matusow’s biography, “Check Raising the Devil”. I got through the first 6 chapters relatively quickly and look forward to finishing it this week.
I’ve always admired Mike as a tournament player. He’s well known for his tournament blow ups but he’s had a lot of success as a live MTT player which can be overshadowed by his brash personality at the tables. He’s been busto several times, struggled with drugs and health issues but that hasn’t stopped him from getting deep in the biggest tournament on the planet. Last year, he finished 30th of 6,844 runners in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Mike has also final tabled the 2001 and 2005 WSOP Main Event and has three WSOP Bracelets. Matusow has cashed $7m in tournament winnings.
Many players will appreciate Mike’s love for poker after he first gets introduced to NLHE and his passion for tournaments.
“It’s one thing to walk away from a cash game with more chips than you started with, but it’s a whole different monster high to be the only one left standing at the end of a tournament.”
This is something many of us can relate to. I’ve done the cash game grind and on a good night, you walk away with 3-4 buy-ins which in no way can compare to a tournament win where a win can get you 100 buy-ins. And there’s no better feeling IMO than starting a tournament with the same stack as the rest of the field and finishing with all the chips in play.
Tina has seen me win live / online MTT’s and could never understand why I’d be visibly upset after finishing 2nd or 3rd. Although the payouts at any of the top 3 spots are something to be happy about, there’s nothing better than a tournament win. Working your way through a big field and coming up short by 1-2 spots after several hours of play can be extremely disappointing.
Mike also discusses his move up in limit cash games stakes from 2/4 to 40/80 which was big at the time and his first experience playing live cash games with WSOP Main Event Champion, Huck Seed.
Looking back on my 1st live cash game experience at Bally’s poker room in Las Vegas, I was extremely nervous the entire time. Somehow I still walked away with a small profit that night. I also cashed in my first live MTT which is probably why I spent so much time in my early poker education, playing live poker.
After several hours behind the live felt, I’m just too comfortable playing online.
I’ve had the unfortunate luck of playing with this guy twice at the WSOP. For such an “unlucky” guy he rolled over AA more than any human I have ever seen…
One word best describes him though, L-O-S-E-R! His attitude, his demeanor, basically everything about the guy screams loser to me. He will be dead of an OD or suicide inside 10 years, that is my prediction. The fact that people actually like/respect this guy boggles my mind!