Last January, I traveled down to Tunica, Mississippi, to play in both a
World Poker Tour event at the Gold Strike Casino Resort and a
World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit event at the Grand Casino. I was unfortunate enough to finish five and eight places out of the money, respectively, in those events. On the bright side, I was fortunate enough to witness the following two hands, both featuring Mike "Loud Mouth" Matusow; the first was against John "Tex" Barch, and the second against Phil Ivey.
It was right before the dinner break on day two of the Gold Strike's final event that the first hand took place. Loud Mouth raises from early position with J-4 (nice hand, Mike) and Tex calls from late position. The flop comes A
J
4
. Loud Mouth bets about the size of the pot and Tex calls. Fourth street brings an unsuited rag, Mike overbets the pot by about 50 percent, and Tex goes into a long stall.
After about a minute, Tex takes the stack of chips protecting his holecards off them and picks up his cards, obviously about to fold. Then, he puts his cards back down and almost kind of shrugs before putting all of his money into the pot, a fair-size raise. I quickly put my hands over my face to hide my smile. I know Loud Mouth's going to go berserk, and sure enough, he doesn't disappoint me. He goes on a verbal rampage like Godzilla through Tokyo.
As the tirade begins, Mike announces that he has flopped two pair, so I assume that he will call after blowing off some steam and getting some much needed attention. Mike then begins to analyze the hand out loud, and he had seen what I saw - that Tex almost folded, then moved all in. "I mean, what could this idiot have?" questions The Mouth (aloud, of course). I then wonder (to myself), what's Mike waiting for?
To my amazement, Mike then shows his hand to his neighbors and throws it away, making a comment about how smart he is and that no one else at the table could possibly pass this hand. Tex, who is never one to pass up the chance to turn the screws (in other words, my kind of guy), quickly turns over A-Q, one pair.
I don't try to hide my smile this time, and burst out in laughter, as did the whole table, then the whole room, shortly thereafter. Mike got uncharacteristically quiet and took his medicine like a man (I guess he didn't have much choice).
Obviously, Mike played this hand horribly, but why? He did the analysis right and made the proper read, but it's one thing to know the right answer and another to pull the trigger. My book will look at this problem in depth, but I have space limitations here, so you'll have to wait awhile. In the next hand, Loud Mouth redeems himself. He makes a great read and follows through with an unbelievable call.
Let's fast-forward about a week to the following event down the street at the Grand Casino. Again, we're about three-fourths of the way through the tourney when this unusual hand comes down. Once again, Loud Mouth raises from up front with a big hand - this time, 9-7 offsuit. Everyone passes to Phil Ivey, who makes a big reraise out of the big blind. Mike doesn't even blink, and quickly calls.
The flop comes K
7
2
. Phil pushes his chips out while simultaneously saying "All in."
Mike blurts out, "Call," literally before Phil can get the word "in" out of his mouth.
Most of us at the table expect to see Loud Mouth with a set or A-K, and Phil with A-K or a big pair. Well, we know that Loud Mouth surprised the table with his 9-7 offsuit, but Phil raised the bar by turning over the 8
3
, giving him a flush draw with one overcard to Mike's pair.
What the heck happened here? Well, to begin with, Phil made a great read that Mike had raised from up front without a quality hand, hence the reraise. He may have moved in regardless of the flop, but there was definitely no getting away from the flop once he flopped the four-flush.
How about Mikey? He may have read something in Phil's reraise, or he may have even realized that he had somehow given his own hand away. So, he knew that Phil might not have a great hand, either. If he didn't have a huge read preflop, he did once the flop hit. Not only did he have only second pair, but that pair was a lowly pair of sevens with a 9 kicker. Most pocket pairs with which Phil would reraise would have his sevens dominated. Well-played, Matusow!
So, as I'm often asked, is Mike Matusow really a good player? I've given you two examples of his play, and I think they sum up his game pretty well. When he's on, he's right on, and when he's off …
kaboom! I'm also asked what I think of his behavior at the poker table. Obnoxious? Not really. Out of line? Once in a while. Annoying? Sometimes. Funny? Usually. Entertaining?
Always!
A side note about Loud Mouth: He is a much faster runner than I would have guessed. While in Tunica, the final shuttle of the night was taking us from the Grand back to the Gold Strike/Horseshoe, where many of us were still staying (there are no taxis in the area). Loud Mouth got off the shuttle after we were all ready to go, and told the driver to wait for him while he went to talk to some girls.
We all had to get up the next morning and play, so after about 10 minutes, the whole bus was screaming at both Mike to come on and the driver to just leave him. Seeing the humor in this situation, I quickly gave the driver $300 to leave Mike to find his own way home. To our surprise (and my disappointment), Loud Mouth was able to run the bus down before we could get to the highway. I let the driver keep the $300, because he drove fast, but Mike's legs were almost as fast as his mouth.
