Mike Matusow Hates Me, Again!

I had an interesting day today, which usually can mean bad, but in this case, alls well that ends well. For day two of the WPT Merit Classic in Cyprus I had a slow start. I never picked up a hand, or a good situation for the first few hours. I had one very interesting hand against Mike Matusow that not only put him on tilt, but had him ranting like only Mike can. To this point I have played very few hands, but managed to almost maintain my chip stack. I got out of the way with top top against a set that cost me 20% of my stack but hung in pretty well. In a multi-way limp pot I have 22 on the button and limp, the small blind folds and Matusow checks from the big blind. The flop comes kq4 and mike opens for 2/3 pot and it is folded around to me, and being last to act, and deciding to take the opportunity to float and try and outplay him on the turn, depending on what comes, I call. Well I get a miracle 2 on the turn and mike again bets 2/3 pot which I slow call. Then a 2 comes on the river and he checks. I make a small value bet and he starts mumbling and eventually folds. I show him one deuce and he starts to get a little crazy, or is it crazier? Now I really like Mike and respect the heck out of his game, but he is fun to rile up. I am not sure he is over me busting him off the final table at Borgata. He starts telling everyone how he flopped bottom two, and how could I call the flop, which to some degree is true; I’ll give him that. Look I realize now that if I don’t hit the first 2, and that if the board doesn’t counterfeit him he’s calling my bluff, but hey that’s poker. At the next break I was talking with Chris Ferguson and I mentioned that I had put Matusow on tilt, he said, “oh that was you, he’s telling that story to anyone that will listen and some that won’t.” I’m sure he’s over it by now, but I don’t think he’ll be buying me dinner tonight. All kidding aside, he is a really great guy who I enjoy interacting with and is truly good hearted.

I did have a good hand with about ten minutes left to play. I had about 100k in chips which is right where I started and I opened a pot from the button with A9 of hearts and the big blind was my only caller. He had played solid all day, but we hadn’t played hardly any pots up to this point. The flop came A89 all clubs. This is a good news bad news situation, but heads up it’s hard to put him on the flush and either way I’m betting this flop 100% of the time after he checks to me. I bet almost the full pot, which he slowly smooth called. He actually looked like he was trying to feign weakness, which led me to believe that he had a pair and a club.

As the dealer took off the burn card I swear I was thinking nine of diamonds and shazam it appeared on the turn. He checks and I try to look like I’ve lost interest in the pot and check behind. I can’t even remember what the river was, other than it was a non pairing, non-club. He bets 30,000, which is almost pot sized and I tank for as long as I possibly can. With my best-looking bluff I then move all-in for 50k on top of the 30k, and he calls. He tabled the nut flush and I climb to 200k with the average being 140k and the day ends. That puts me in 11th place with 55 of the 191 starters remaining, still a long way to go with a ton of good players left. Ahead of me in chips are Layne Flack, Ralph Porter, Nenad Medic, and Huck Seed to name a few and at my heels are Chris Ferguson, Sarel Mizzi, Allen Cunningham, Dan Harrington, as well as plenty of other strong players.