Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Mike loses 40k in chinese poker Kudos to Exile57

Why oh why does my Brother play that luck box game? I did slap him over the phone!!

Kudos to Exile57 she's a sweety!! stop by her blog at;


http://www.welcome-to-the-mad-house.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Mike will be on NBC'S Poker After Dark all this week!

check local listings for exact times. Usually around 2 am your local time.

Real poker, The Art of The Live Game Read

In contrast to online poker,( half ass poker) which there are a few tells to be read into. ( yes there are some, I will cover than in another post to come)The live game consists of the real tells, and most top pros fully understand this. Mike, when , he is on his game is one for sure!! ( when he is off his game, He just gets on full tilt, no pun intended!!) Most players who play poker, play smaller limit games, and most of them have little clue about how to spot tells, usually only being concerned with their own hands and not their opponents per say, until sometimes they are too pot committed to fold. ( oh he might have a flush, I guess my bottom pair is not good now?)

But how many are watching the other players, how they put their chips in the pot?, do they throw them in, neatly stack it then put them in? You can learn allot about your opponents hands by the way they out their chips in and that is only one tell, but the one I will cover today.

Most lower level players do not bother to pay attention to this stuff, even allot of higher level players.


The next time you are not in a hand, watch who is, and watch them both, watch the hands that end up to the river showdown, and see what they flip over.
Watch every pull and every bet, every check, raise, and/or call. Note it in your mind, watch how the chips were put in.

Who was strong, did both think they were strong? Who was one bluffing? Did they throw the chips in, stack them in, string them in?

If you put together their actions and reactions, you can more easily pick up tells and most players have them.

Always when you are dealt your cards, don't look at them right away, first look around the table at the players looking at theirs, wear shades so they do not pick up you are doing this. ( they wont pick up on what you are doing most of the time anyways, shaded or no shades, but every now and them, you run into a poker player, not simply a plain old gambler and/or some drunk moron)

See any reactions? Frustration, looking too long at the hole cards? Double checking the cards? (this, as a norm usually means they have a strong hand, or have one ace or one king, this is not always the case however, as each player has different makeups obviously as people, so watch that too and hope to see their cards turned up, what they had)

All these things, if you learn to pick up on, will make you a much better poker player.. This is real poker, not just playing your own hand. It is something the Internet so called great players are horrible at, and there is a reason most of them get spanked live.

When you get good at reading your opponents, you will, 80 percent of the time or even better, put them on the right hand or close to the right hand.

Once you have done this, you will able to better talk your opponents into folding when you got nothing, Better able to talk them into calling when you want them to call.

After while, if you notice someone is picking up on a tell you might have, fake the tell and reverse it.

These are things Mike does. You do not hear about this at all on ESPN. When Mike is on, he engages in these things.. Think his 63 all in against Helmuth 2005 TOC was just a guess? It wasn't and I asked Mike on the break why he did it. He picked up a tell Phil had when he was semi weak and raising early. He knew Phil would fold and he wanted to show Phil his piece of crap hand to tilt Phil and it worked.

Shortly afterwards, Phil got tilted between Mike pulling that move, and Hoyt moving over the top of Phil constantly, that Phil cracked Mentally. I saw Mike run a monster bluff on Freddy Boyandi on the 3rd to last day of the 2005 WSOP main event.

Mike again, picked up on a bluff and put a fake one out there that He had a flush, but he had nothing. Freddy folded on the river, Mike shoved all in ( they were about even in chips, if Freddy called, Mike would of been out right there, being severely crippled, they didn't show that hand on ESPN.) and soon after Freddy went from 4th in chips to bust in about 30 minutes. I personally saw Freddy crack, I was there. Sweating, fiddling around, I felt bad for him, I whispered to my mom and my buddy "Freddy is done, he is cracked"

Mike got him off his game, and the table ran over Freddy, and that is not easy to do, Freddy is a top pro and a very good player himself.

Bad move by Mike risking all his chips with nothing there? NONSENSE!! The pot was 1.5 million and when Mike says " I was playing the best poker of my life, BELIEVE HIM, How you think Stuey won as much as he did?
Today;s poker players in my opinion know nothing about Stuey, other than calling him a legend. and are half ass poker players, usually college kids who think they know shit and they usually do not!! Any moron can play 2 cards, and any moron can get really lucky and win big tourneys!! How many times do you see the same moron every win anything again? The same people who say Mike sucks, do they have multiple major event wins?

Allot of times Mike is not blowing up just for the sake of blowing up. There are times because Mike has ADD, that he loses focus and misreads. They are not simply moving in with nothing because he BLOWS UP, it is because of a misread losing concentration.

Using these suggestions and learning to become proficient in them,
you will be able to know when you are beat and the pot is not worth your call, save money and make more of if, using real poker skill.

Try it and see, I guarantee it will make you a better poker player!!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Mike's Aces get cracked by trip 10's on river

Nothing really to say, Mike is out when his all in on turn with aa was cracked by a rivered trip 10's

Saturday, February 24, 2007

LA Poker Classic No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event 30

Mike has about 45k in chips going into day 2, will try to hit mike up on the breaks and get his accurate chip counts.

more to come later.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Mike won 30k yesterday up 15 k today so far

Update, Mike won 30k last night into the early AM, is up 15k right now as of 930 pm PAC time.

More to come later

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

People asking for a picture of me ok here are 2..

Ok some pictures of me, some people asked for it, view at your peril, it might break your monitor!!


Here is one not all that long ago when I was in better shape, But I am riding my bike now 2/5 miles a day. I want to get it up to max 50 miles a day and get back under 190 pounds. I am 230 now so I am bit flabbed, ah too bad, and I know most of you do not care, but here is one picture me at 200 pounds..
Here is one from my days as a hard rock drummer. For those who know some older Hard rock bands, The man of color in the photo is Tony Mcalpine, a great pianist and Guitar player; I am in the middle, we were jamming at a club, er forget either in Vegas or LA, I am growing my hair back out again btw..

Monday, February 19, 2007

Mike finished up about 75k for the session

about 12 am Pac time, Mike just informed me that he has a real good fish he found in a large limit live game and is up 100k.. More to come later..

It's later now, Mike cashed out I heard with 75k profit, He is up about 80k for the trip in cash games. I do not know the exact figures for his online play. I hear he is up there too last time I asked him about that.

Scotty The Moron goes BUSTOLA

Well, I gave a nice post about online poker and did not follow my own advice and got hammered online. Why? Lack of patience, playing too long a session and deciding to move to the NL game where I got 2 outted, BUSTOLA.

Personally, I beleive online cash game poker is becoming nothing more than glorified roulette. But be advised, gambling is gambling!!

Therefore I have decided to only play tournaments and sit and goes online for value.

Sometimes I go on a whine like Phil Helmuth (whom I agree with on most of the points he makes) bitching how bad the players are. SO WHAT? If I know this what does that make me? EVEN WORSE!! lol!!

Any poker advice myself or Mike gives, even other pros like Mike really when it comes to online, is just about out the window.

These so called players are not poker players, they just are gamblers with little clue about the value of hands, will cold call you 3 times with 75 off, flop low ball gutter draw and river it. This is modern day poker online.

We also are seing more of this in live games as well.

Will it do any good to explain position pot odds to them? Nope, no good. Will they eventaully go bust? Most likely, yes!!

The key is staying away from the hot donkey; However, you want to play online cash games? Better right now understand your opponents are mainly morons, and morons can catch cards on you. AGAIN AVOID THE HOT DONKEY!!

think your fishing in a donk? Think again, if the donk is on a stone cold spinner, he will call you all the way with nothing and run on you, YOU GUYS OUT THERE , I KNOW MANY OF YOU HAVE SEEN THIS TIME AFTER TIME, AFTER TIME!!

Again, I'll get more value playing sit and goes for 10 and 20 a pop. I can play for an hour or more. maybe not make the money all the time, but I will get some entertainment and competition for cheap. Better than losing your whole roll on one hand ay? How about larger field tournaments? Yep, good value there, you catch a few cards and avoid some bad beats you can make the money. you dont, oh well, 5, 10, 20 bucks you lost?

It is still fun however to reem that donk once you get your cards, muhahaha!!

Report, Mike is up 5 k so far on his LA Trip

He has been having some swings up allot down allot, but happy to report Mike is up a bit in his live cash games, gg Bro!!

Mike finishes 3rd in a small online HORSE Tournament

Yippie!! and he won a whooping 3k plus!! Next post is?

Friday, February 16, 2007

Just going to sleep in a bit Back from Laker Game

Sat with Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Had interesting conversation with the USC offensive coord, says USC will have the best defense in college Football next year and that they are really excited. Wish I met him before the college national championship game he said "I knew Florida would creem Ohio State, We saw films on Ohio and we saw that they were very slow, Florida was very underated and a very good football team" Let me also say this. for you USC fans, I assure you that Pete Caroll ain't leaving USC anytime soon. He was in box as well. He loves USC and is like a rock star there. He aint leaving for any NFL Job!!

Talked to Denzel Washington for awhile, He is cool guy. Talked about being on the road, life, things like that. He plays poker, dont know if he good though :) really really nice guy.

Jerry Buss was not too happy with the way The Lakers played, said some things but will not post them here private stuff.

I cannot blame him, The Lakers played very bad and the officiating was horrendus.

Thanks to Jerry though for allowing me to sit on your box, your the best!!!

and he aint a bad poker player either :)

gl all Mike

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Why online poker NL games are dangerous and why limit games might be a better choice online

You see it a million times online and note Mike's comment about Gus Hanson on pokerstars season 3.

Mike was correct assessing Gus's play during his interview after Gus knocked him out. So how does this equate to my post here about NL online poker? Very simple, the bad beats occur more often than not online because online poker is full of moronic idiots, who do not consider the pot odds, ev, even the basic concept of the NL Holdem game.


They just do not fold, no matter how much it is for them to call a gutter ball, even and up and down draw or flush draw. They play way too many pots and they seem to win allot. Well let me tell you, they win from time to time per player, but the issue is when you are a skilled player and you are out numbered at any given table by these morons, all it takes is one or 2 of them to get hot and hit their cards and you can get into real trouble. So 6 of them can lose their asses but again, if one or 2 hit their cards, and online because they do not fold, they usually do, the skilled player can become sandwiched my these morons.

Skilled players now are forced to make a choice between 2 ways to play online, ultra tight pre flop and over betting the pot with top pair, or raising themselves on occasion in bad position with garbage starting hands. But when morons are always coming after you, like in Mike's case, any one of the 6 guys at the table can and usually get lucky when they had no biz in the pot at all. THEY JUST WANT TO BRAG HOW THEY OUT PLAYED THE MOUTH!!

Mike gets beat allot online because Mike chooses option one. Because these players want to brag about beating Mike, even when they got gutterballs and the pot odds are all wrong, they call anyways, and will continue to call, and most times they don't hit their draws, but allot of times, they suck out on the river with 2 pair. What happens allot to Mike is that he gets gun shy, and begins to play weak because he gets sick and tired of donk morons out drawing him. I do not think my brother has fully accepted and taken into the fact that he cannot play his game online which is power out play poker. His bluff equity is low because of ESPN showing Mike bluffing allot, so everyone assumes he is always making a play.

Personally I believe players like my brother should play less online and focus more on live cash games against moderately skilled players.

Their you can get a read on those players much better.

My recommendation for players out there with a decent skill level is to stay away from NL Holdem and go towards the Holdem limit games. If you play 1/2 NL online, choose the 3/6 or 2/4 limit game.

in Limit, skilled players can control the pot sizes better and they understand how to raise the flops and turn to get a free card on draws. If they are re raised the pot can still remain under control at this point by simply calling. Basically, they can get their EV out of any hand on hand situation.

It is pointless to cap the pot in limit trying to bluff another player. Limit does not work that way because people will call down allot more with draws. Where the Limit game can help you is once again, pot size control. and more options to limp call pre flop. There is less over play when another player senses you might be weak, You can still stay in the pot without getting bullied out of it by a player once again thinking you are weak.

NL game if you decide to make a play on a draw and raise hard on the flop, you can get into allot of trouble if a strong hand moves all in on you, and the pot their can get out of control. In a Limit game, if you flop trips against a draw, you can raise there and get the draw to just call, you get allot more fold equity and are not forced to push in with your trips your whole roll if DONKEY KONG OVER BETS THE DRAW.

Yes NL game you push there and u win the hand which you are 4 to 1 in most cases to win, you make more money, but if the 1 shot in 4 comes up, your roll can be gone very fast. Getting my point yet out there?


Understand? In limit you do not lose your roll at this point and can receive better pot odds to flat call a raise, even re raise because each pull is capped. The draw at this point will always most likely call the re raise. If he hits and your read is he was on draw, there is your fold equity, or you can check and call for one card to a board pair into a decent size pot. following?

Conclusion, choose the limit game if you are more skilled player online. Remember as well, Better players fold more when they are up against the moron donkey retard.

This is what happens to Mike allot online. Is Mike a top skilled player? You bet he is, Mike can go play with Ivey, Doyle, Harmon and the rest of them and do very well because those players all understand the real game of NL Poker. Because of ESPN and other TV networks popularizing Poker, everyone thinks they can play NL poker and most have no clue at all, TRUST ME!!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

FTOPS Event 6 11292222

Mike will be hosting this event live tonight online at full tilt poker, log on your full tilt account if you want to watch Mike play it. It is an Omaha event. Event starts at 9 pm eastern


No update yet on last night's live cash game play, Last I heard Mike was down about 16k, he is probably sleeping as his cell phone seems off. I'll try again later

More old pics of Mike

MIKE'S KIDDIE GAME DAYS


I'VE GOT A YELLOW/BROWN EARLY 70'S OFFSUIT, WHAT YOU GOT?


MIKE'S HIGH SCHOOL DAYS


High School Grad pic, college bound? NAH!! car mechanic school in Phoenix, AZ!!

Looks like Mike's yearbook picture, for even an older picture of Mike, we present the following;





1983 the above one was taken, 15 years old, Mike video champion, hes da man!! who knew he's be a poker champion one day? NOTE THE TITLE OF THE GAME HE WON, "DONKEY KONG" LOL!!! But Mike aint no donkey at the tables!!!








Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Picture of Mike's very first Tournament win

Ok I thought you Mike Matusow fans out there would really like to see some old pictures of Mike, the first one here is of Mike's very Poker tournament win at Sams Town, 1992; I beleive he won 10,000 in this one; That is my Mom and my Grandma in background. Grandma no longer with us, she passed in 1996;





This picture of Mike is the copyrighted property of The Matusow family trust. It may not be reproduced for any commercial gain, implied or otherwise.

Fair use laws applies, this means you are free to use and reproduce this picture for non profit, non commercial gain; dont be posting it on a site where potentional commerical gain and/or profit is possible off the pictures here. If it comes to our attention a violation of our copyright has occured, I will seek legal recourse. Sorry do not mean to be a dickwad, but people do all sorts of things to take advantage of Mike, just be cool, we be cool, basically you can download it copy it, but cannot use it for any potentional financial gain. the following above applies to all pictures, past present and future where Mike is in the picture :)

More pictures to come!!























Mike won in cash game last night

Just got off phone with Mike, Mike informed me after being down 30k in the live cash game, he walked away 20k ahead.

Mike will also be a guest in Laker's owner Jerry Buss's personal luxury Box this Thurday night, Cavs at Lakers. If you are at The Laker game then, if you see Mike stop by and say you read his blog Scott is posting on now.

Mike is now taking a nap in his hotel room. He will be back in a few hours at the cash game at the commerce tonight, if you want to again, go down and watch Mike and say Hi, that you read our Blog.

Mike has also informed me and I quote " I FORGOT ABOUT REAL POKER, HOW GOOD I AM IN A REAL POKER GAME, THE INTERNET IS A JOKE, IT IS NOT REAL POKER, NO ONE FOLDS, TOO MANY BAD BEATS, I AM OFFICIALLY DONE WITH ONLINE POKER FOR AT LEAST AWHILE AND WILL FOCUS ON LIVE GAMES AGAIN ONLY"


I asked "Mike common bro tell me, you think it is rigged?

he said " well no, the problem again Scott is that no one folds and I cannot play my game against every player who will never fold any hand, they always trying to out play me and they hit runners, 2 outers, sucking me out.

Live games I get real reads and can give off false tells and strong tells as well, I am just going to play real poker. I am a poker player, have been a live cash game player most of my life, it is time I return to the game I made a name in and forget online poker for awhile"

WELL, I hope my brother keeps his word. looks like he might finally of gotten the message thank goodness!!

I think for the player who likes an occasional small game and wants to stay at home and rather play naked, sure online poker is great and all, but one shold not be playing the larger stake games online.

Notice the other pros on Full tilt mainly play lower limit games, except Gus Hanson. Gus can afford to lose, and Gus usaully does get hammered. He is a nice guy I can say that about Gus. Anything else, well, haha, NO COMMENT.

Ivey every now and then plays a large cash game. A few weeks ago, I saw him drop 200 k in an hour to a guy who per usaul, could not fold a hand and was sucking out Ivey rather badly.

I will post some pointers on how to be a consistent winner online. Note, you must play ultra tight and bet into the nuts allot because most players dont fold online.

That is all for now :) Update either later or tommorow, SAME BAT TIME AND SAME BAT CHANNEL!!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Mike slept all day

Just got off phone for the update on my brother I promised, Here is what he had to say;

" Slept all day, lost 200k in last 3 days playing online poker, I'm done with online poker, I am playing a live cash game right now"

I asked Mike how he was doing in the live cash game;

"Just really started, doing better than online that is for sure"

It is a good thing to hear Mike is quitting online poker for awhile. Online poker is not suited for Mike's game. Personally. I think online poker is a total joke, but I do well there because I only play the nuts, and since online donkeys have no concept of the right way to out play someone, they raise and call every pull and THEY NEVER FOLD, never consider the EV or if a pot is worth bluffin into, overbet (easy tells) and often suck out on the river seeing more cards in hands they have no biz in.

BAD PLAYERS CANNOT LAY DOWN HANDS << remember that.. When you got too many bad players at a table, you got to play ultra tight, why? because bad players dont care about your table image, they dont pay attention, morons are morons. You flop a set bet into it, U pre flop raise with ak and dont hit k or a, check, let them stab at it, fold. continuation betting does not work online all that much, but against certain opponents. Trust me when I tell you, most online players are HORRIFIC POKER PLAYERS. The better ones are tight and agressive when they need to be. No reason to check those trips, even without a draw up, they will call almost all the time. Again, against certain opponents you want to check. Remember real poker players read opponents and their tendecies, understand if a pot is worth making a play for, understand pot size management aka "EV"

Moronic ones only concerned with their own hand.



I changed my nick at full tilt now, I do not want anyone to know who I am on there. I was getting a few people making too many plays on me knowing I was Mike's brother.

So it is 10:40 Pac time. Some reading this now, go down to the commerce in LA, Mike is there in a cash game.

Later;

Scott

Dispelling rumors about Mike owing money

I read a post on full tilt from someone claiming this ZIG- something guy, that mike was stiffing him. BULLSHIT.

What happened there was Mike sent the money he owed the guy to the wrong full tilt name and immediately had customer support fix the error. The guy ZIG whatever was freaking out over it, which Mike asked him several times to calm down, But Zig kept going on and on and on and on.

<< THERE YA GO, MIKE DONT STIFF ANYONE, HE ALWAYS PAYS BACK WHAT HE OWES,.

ALSO MIKE IS NOT IN DEBT FOR 3 MILLION BUCKS, thats a flat out lie

Mike still in LA CALI

He dropped 23k in a live cash game the other day. Will find out today he he did last night. He got killed the night before online. Did a little better last night. I was thinking of going to LA to hang out with Mike but I decided to pass. Our cousin Greg is not feeling well who lives in LA, so unless I want to watch Mike play poker for hours ( no thanks) looks like I am staying put in Vegas for now.

His girlfriend who is also a buddy of mine is going there to keep Mike company, she wanted me to keep her company for a bit, but errr, LA, I do not really like it all that much anyways except some of their nice beaches.

If you live in LA, you might catch Mike at The Commerce playing poker and catch him at LA'S hot spot night clubs.

Otherwise, he is at full tilt poker playing online.. WHAT ELSE IS NEW? haha

More to come..