Unofficial site about Mike Matusow

• Mike Matusow was born in Los Angeles California on April 30th 1968.
• Matusow is 6 feet tall.
• He is not married, but in a relationship.
• He is Jewish and a Taurus.

The world of high stakes poker is full of unique personalities, but Mike Matusow’s notorious emotional outbursts and love of taunting his competitors has earned him a reputation as the John McEnroe of the poker circuit. After being bullied in school as a child he developed his habit of refusing to back down. His mouth was his best defence but worst enemy and it would often send him home bloodied, battered (and grinning) after taking on some of the most intimidating (and often oldest) kids in his neighbourhood.

Matusow became “hopelessly addicted” to video poker and has admitted to stealing from his mother’s purse to pay for his habit. It was one of a life-long series of addictions that Matusow has fought although the silver lining of this early one was that it brought him to the world in which he has made his name.

After finishing high school, Matusow decided against going to college. After failing to study adequately for his chosen career as a mechanic, he worked instead in his family’s store. This didn’t last too long and he eventually found himself working as a dealer in Las Vegas. He was taught to play poker in 1989 by Steve Samaroff, a rounder who would routinely stake Matusow while he played cash games. Matusow proved a worthy student and with the help of an incredibly lucky streak won almost quarter of a million dollars. Matusow famously paid a third of Scotty Nguyen’s buy-in for the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event and when Nguyen placed first, a third of his one million dollar win went to Matusow.

Unfortunately the money didn’t last long. Matusow’s addiction to video poker had been replaced by an addiction to sports betting. This addiction is estimated to have cost him millions and even when he plays poker online his friends have been known to go to his house and take his computer away from him so he can’t lose any more money for the day.

Almost everything he earned on poker was immediately lost on sports gambling and this would continue to be a theme throughout Matusow's career. He has attended Gamblers Anonymous on more than one occasion but says he finds it pretty difficult to maintain when he is making his living through one form of gambling and fighting an addiction to another. A little like asking Dracula to be good when he’s guarding the Blood Bank. He has also fought a drug addiction, that indirectly had him jailed for six months but this is a demon he has fought well and he has been clean for a few years.

Luckily he is a savvy businessman and was one of the players involved in the development of Full Tilt poker. Not only does he earn a considerable sum through the site but he also has an equity stake in the company, meaning that he won’t need to rely on poker purely to support himself. This is pretty fortunate as he was heard grumbling after a million dollar win in the 2005 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold ‘Em event that none of the win was his – it was all going to pay off debts he had incurred (debts, that all his friends say, he never fails to pay back eventually).

As well as Texas Hold ‘Em, Matusow developed an affinity for Omaha Hi/Lo 8/b and is considered to be the best Omaha player in the world.

Before his arrest and imprisonment in 2004, Matusow cashed three times (in 2003) and placed third in another event. No matter how much he has lost, he is one of the highest-earning poker players on the circuit, with his poker winnings alone around the six million dollar mark.

When Matusow is playing with a level head, it is hard to find a better cards man. This doesn’t happen too often though and he is more likely to suffer one of his famous ‘Matusow Meltdowns’ (when he appears to be in control of a game and amasses a good stack then completely blows it with a moment of weakness). He is especially weak when he tilts and his game can swing as wildly as his moods. In 2006 for example, he entered two No Limit Hold ‘Em events during the World Series of Poker and placed 7th and 95th respectively. These wild variations are pure Matusow.

Mike Matusow in a FullTiltPoker.com tv commercial

There is no denying however that he is one of the greatest players around. When he is on a streak, he is unstoppable and has no less that 21 World Series of Poker cashes to his name.

His emotional outbursts are often the reason that ratings for games involving Matusow are so high. He cried in 2004 when he busted out and his non-stop chatter (he apparently even talks in his sleep) has driven more than one competitor to the brink of insanity during a game. Perhaps his best known outburst was when he dropped the f-bomb at the table, incurring a 10 minute penalty. Unimpressed, he responded with ‘Fuck that’ and was slapped with another ten minutes. “Fucking great” earned him a grand total of half an hour away from the table and the final F-word he threw in as he was walking away earned him ten additional minutes. The audience still applauded him. Love him or hate him, Mike Matusow is hard to overlook.

• He was jailed on a drug charge in 2004 when he refused to cooperate with police, giving no details about who else was involved.
• In 2006 and 2007 he hosted the Card Player’s online video segment. The name of the segment? What else but ‘The Mouthpiece’.
• Although he was suffering depression after being released from jail, he asked friends to stake him and raked in over two million dollars within a year.
• Mike Matusow is the only player to have ever cashed for over a million dollars in two major tournaments in the same year.