#435 - WSOP Notebook #8 - The Lighter Side of Mike Matusow

Mike Matusow looks terrific, and he has Ted Forrest to thank. Rather than send a nice card or gift, Matusow instead relieved Forrest of $100,000.

Last summer, Ted bet Mike that he couldn’t get down to 180 pounds in a year. At the time, Matusow weighed somewhere between 230 and 240, or so I’ve been told.

Naturally, Mike waited until January to get started, but he went all-out. He hired a trainer, completely changed his eating habits, and started running six miles a day. He’s become addicted to running but he was still about eight pounds short with four days to go.

So he went on what he told me was “the lemonade diet.” He ate nothing and drank a limited amount of a mixture of lemonade, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. His only regret was that he didn’t discover this miracle fasting formula earlier. After his body recovers from the “endgame,” he is going to continue and intensify his fitness regime. He wants to get in even better condition and he is in - hard as this may seem to belief - in a state I would describe as “blissful.”

Late on Day 1 of the $5,000 Mixed Hold ‘Em, Ted came by the table to talk with Erick Lindgren, who was two seats to my right (and who went from almost broke with 90 players left to winning the event!) about Mike’s initial claim to weigh 180. “I may have to go by his house,” Ted said, “maybe just because I’d like to get on a scale where I weigh about 155.”

Lindgren expressed his surprise that Matusow was able to drop so much weight, especially at his height.

Ted: How tall do you think he is?

Erick: I think he told me he was six feet.

Ted: (frowning) No, I think he’s about five-ten.

This started a friendly argument that almost turned into a height bet. But Ted has apparently been satisfied with Mike’s weight because everyone’s acting like the result is final and in Mike’s favor.

The funny thing - one of them, anyway - is how Mike needed this bet to make a drastic change in his lifestyle. It probably wouldn’t be that hard to explain to him how weighing 180 vs. 230 is worth much more than $100,000 to him. His health was not good last summer and the ways in which that could cost him were many: doctor and hospital bills, missing time and tournaments, decreased quality of play from fatigue or poor health, etc.

Thank goodness, for the sake of Mike Matusow’s health, that Ted Forrest and his proposition bets exist.