Mike Matusow

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow is known for voicing his opinion and letting everyone at the poker table know exactly what he thinks of them. His free flowing ideas and lack of concern for the effect his actions have on others defines his style in the game but outside poker, it has got him into a lot of trouble.

Growing up, Matusow’s manners and loud mouth would make him a target for playground bullies and he would often find himself on the wrong end of a beating. Undeterred, he would continue to tell these people exactly what he thought of them even though he knew what was coming.

Whether this was a direct cause for him leaving school or not is unknown but Matusow ignored the college route and instead decided to try for a career as a mechanic; however, he failed the necessary studies and ended up with a job in his family’s furniture store.

At the age of 18, Matusow discovered gambling. He became addicted to video poker in the Maxim Casino, Los Angeles, and would steal money from his mother’s purse to fund his habit. He played so regularly that he began to suffer from repetitive strain injury before he attended Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

He later became a card dealer and through this job he picked up a myriad of tips from the players at his table. He started to play late night games in Las Vegas and when he saw that he could win he decided to make the step up to playing full time.

In 1997 he narrowly missed out on his first World Series of Poker bracelet when he came second to Scotty Nguyen in the $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event. There were no hard feelings, and in the following year Matusow paid one third of Nguyen’s $10,000 entrance fee to a satellite event; when Nguyen went on to win the actual event he promptly paid back £333,333 to Matusow.

His own success came two years later when he bagged his first bracelet in the $3,500 No Limit Hold ‘em. He won his second bracelet in 2002 in the $5,000 Omaha Hi/Lo split and, because of his continued success in this event, he is considered to be one of the world’s best Omaha players.

In September 2003 Matusow got into trouble as he was arrested for “selling and trafficking controlled substances”. He spent six months in Clark County jail and was released in April 2005 and he has been drug free ever since. After his release he vowed to step up his poker game. By the end of 2005 he became the first player to cash out $1,000,000 from two separate events in the same year.

Matusow’s individual and frank approach to the poker table is something that viewers appreciate and his appearance on televised finals always boosts ratings.