Poker From The Rail» Mike Matusow

2009 World Series of Poker – Day 2a Pictures

AlCantHang — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Sometimes things just go way over the top when you’re dealing with the biggest poker tournament in the world. You’ll see some crazy things along the rails, loud player disagreements, whack jobs dressed in all types of getups looking for camera attention. Then you have the times when a table pulls the attention of every player and media outlet in the room.

Actor/comedian Brad Garrett drew a table that was far away from the rail and virtually in the center of the blue section. 5 time bracelet and 1984 Main Event winner Berry Johnston was also at the table. Garrett was laughing it up with the players at the table and anyone who would listen. To the point where his table was completely surrounded by every media outlet with a badge to get there. Witness the picture above and below.

Before long players at the other tables were begging the floor staff to deal with the situation. It will certainly make good TV for ESPN when it airs, but neither Garrett or Johnston would move on to Day 3.

Images from the rest of Day 2a after the jump:

96 year old Jack Ury continues to extend his record as the oldest player in the Main Event.
He would unfortunately exit early in Day 2a.

Greg “FBT” Mueller continues his WSOP hot streak.
He finished Day 2a with 287,300 in chips, good for 12th of 607.

One of the more entertaining tables of the day with Billy “The Croc” Argryos and Gavin Smith, neither player would survive to see Day 3.

Full Tilt stalwarts Chris Ferguson and Mike Matusow has different runs during Day 2a of the Main Event. Matusow is signing copies of his new book after busting out while Ferguson will enter Day 3 with 76,000 in chips.

Beth Shak entered Day 2a with a respectable 25,000 in chips but was another victim of the day.

Both Fabrice Soulier and Roland de Wolfe were able to dodge the minefields of Day 2a.
Soulier will start Day 3 with 145,800 and de Wolfe with just 21,000.

Poker From the Rail favorite Amanda “Mandy B” Baker entered the day with over 56,000 in chips but was unable to make Day 3. No more photo ops til the next time.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Day 2a Pictures

2009 World Series of Poker – Ante Up for Africa Pictures

AlCantHang — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:41:22 +0000

Each year before the World Series of Poker Main Event, the poker elite, pro athletes, celebrities, movies stars, and recording artists descend upon the Amazon Room to play poker in the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament. They were here to raise both money and awareness for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The tournament was hosted by poker legend Annie Duke and Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle.

Some of the celebrities making an appearance were Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Alexander, Brad Garrett, Sarah Silverman, Jennifer Tilly, and rapper Nelly. Athletes Marlon Shirley, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Mike Tyson were also battling it out. Of course all the top poker pros donated their time and money to the cause.

I’ve posted a few pictures from the day for your entertainment.

Mike Matusow and Chau Giang kid around during the tournament

Good Will Hunting co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck hang with Marco Traniello before the tournament began

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack meets with Don Cheadle

More photos after the jump:

This tournament was a little more laid back than most. Jennifer Harman and Phil Gordon enjoy their time at the tables.

Don Cheadle, Jennifer Harman, and rapper Nelly before the tournament

Actor Joe Reitman plays in the tournament. In the background you can see part of the huge rail full of fans who came out to see their favorite stars and pros.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Paralympic gold medalist Marlon Shirley

David Singer and Sarah Silverman

Charles Barkley joins poker power couple Marco Traniello and Jenn Harman

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Ante Up for Africa Pictures

2009 World Series of Poker – Main Event Day 1b Pictures

AlCantHang — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:21:12 +0000

There were plenty of opportunities for more pictures yesterday during the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event Day 1b and some great stories. 655 players of the starting 873 survived the day with even more Tilters moving onto Day 2.

Full Tilt sponsored two players in the Main Event with stories worthy of your interest. Marlon Shirley (pictured right) is a two time Paralympic gold medalist, the first amputee to run the 100 meters in under 11 seconds, and an avid poker player. He came to Las Vegas to play in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event and the Ante Up for Africa Charity event. I could tell you the rest of the story but it be better to let a proper writer do that duty. Fellow blogger Michael Craig has a great writeup with Shirley’s story here. Unfortunately he was not able to “outrun” his poker opponents to reach Day 2a and will not win WSOP gold.

Also wearing Full Tilt red and white was Jack Ury, at 96 he’s simply the oldest to ever play in the WSOP Main Event. Ury has been adding to his record each year since his first Main Event in 2007 at the chipper age of 94. He was enjoying himself and the ESPN cameras were a constant audience. Ury will have to get his rest over the next few days before he comes in Day 2a with just over 23,000 in chips.

You can see the rest of the Day 1b pictures after the jump:

Mike Matusow spent his Day 1b on display at the ESPN feature table.
He’ll start Day 2a with 37,875 chips.

Fabrice Soulier already has seven cashes in the 2009 World Series of Poker, he now he will be one of the top chips stacks heading into Day 2a with 97,725.

Five cashes during the 2009 World Series of Poker, 8 career World Series of Poker bracelets, over $4,000,000 in WSOP cash but zero Main Events bracelets thanks to Johnny (censored) Chan. He tries to fix that this year going into Day 2a with 18,550 chips.

David Pham was one of the victims of the day, he will gear for the WSOP-E events.

A contrast in Day 1b’s between Barny Boatman and Bill Edler. The Hendon Mobster was unable to add to his 2009 WSOP final table and will not be around for Day 2a but can look forward to the WSOP-E events in his native London. Bill Edler however is still alive in the Main Event but will need to do some work with less than 14,000 chips to start.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Main Event Day 1b Pictures

2009 World Series of Poker Day 30 – HORSE on the way

AlCantHang — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:09:19 +0000

I should be taking every advantage of this lovely Thursday afternoon/evening because it might be the last slow day I have until I hop that jet airplane back east after the “November Nine” is set. Just one little $1,500 PLO8 tournament kicking off today but tomorrow is the granddaddy of big buyin skill games. The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. is next up on the agenda. We can expect a crush of players, railbirds, and poker media with unreal expectations.

There are three tournaments restarting including two more bracelet winners in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship and $2,500 Limit Omaha/8 tournament. The Mix Hold’em event begins it’s Day 2 and amazingly only 7 players from the money already. There are some big names coming back with Barry Greenstein leading the field and Eli Elezra ahead of all other Full Tilt pros.

Mike Matusow will be my player to watch today in the Omaha/8 tournament where he sits 18 out of 23 remaining. Matusow won his second WSOP bracelet in 2002 playing this game and knows how to pull up from the shortstack.

The last sane day of the WSOP, I intend to enjoy it.

My blogging brethren over at Wicked Chops Poker spend their days entertaining millions, perhaps billions and trillions of readers each day. They’ve been sitting in media row each day to bring the hard hitting stories from the depths of the Amazon Room. Today they are paying back some of their loyal readers with a freeroll on Full Tilt Poker.

The WSOP has introduced an event during the Main Event called Dream Team Poker. It’s a concept recently developed and getting great reviews. Three players team up and play a tournament against other teams. Prize pool payouts are based on individual AND team performance. The configuration prevents teammates from finding themselves at the same table unless they get really deep.

Wicked Chops Poker is giving you the opportunity to play in this event on their dime, as their second team. The top 3 finishers will win the prize, if one of those players is unable to attend it moves to the next player(s). Kind of like Miss America scandals.

I’m signed up and will be playing from the great big Amazonian Amazon Room.

Tourney Name: WCP Dream Team WSOP Freeroll
Tourney ID: 95494430
Date/Time: June 25, 20:00 ET (8pm ET)
Password: VikkiBlows

Chip counts for the restarts after the jump:

Mike Matusow shoots for bracelet #4 today in Omaha/8 Event #46

Event #45 Pot Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $10,000
Number of Entries: 275
Net Prize Pool: $2,585,000
First Place Prize: $633,335
Total Spots Paid Out: 27
Players Remaining: 14

1	Kabbaj, John	2,226,000
2	Alvarado, J.C.	924,000
3	Kopp, Billy	772,000
4	Baldwin, Eric	713,000
5	Haxton, Isaac	660,000
6	Kitai, Davidi	581,000
7	Gerasimov, Kirill	550,000
8	Lennaard, Ken	467,000
9	Fish, Darryll	368,000
10	Todd, Eugene	351,000
11	Kamran, Michael	261,000
12	Lester, Jason	240,000
13	Charania, Mohsin	224,000
14	Pettersson, Thomas	121,000

Event #46 Omaha/8
Buyin: $2,500
Number of Entries: 424
Net Prize Pool: $975,200
First Place Prize: $229,192
Total Spots Paid Out: 45
Players Remaining: 23

1	Tenner Mark	285,000
2	Patrice Boudet	258,000
3	John Monnette	237,000
4	Fabio Coppola	229,000
5	Hua Can	225,000
6	Keiner Michael	214,000
7	Josh Schlein	201,000
8	Frankie Odell	194,000
9	Derek Raymond	177,000
10	Sirous Jamshidi	128,000
11	Meng La	124,000
12	Victor Deltoro	119,000
13	Dempsey James	116,000
14	Mark Gregorich	108,000
15	Jeff Tunkel	106,000
16	Poels Pat	89,000
17	Seewald Jonah	75,000
18	Matusow Mike	63,000
19	Bohlman Scott	58,000
20	J.W.Southside Smith	35,000
21	David Danheiser	25,000
22	Danny Smith	4,400
23	Jim Banafato	DNR

Event #47 Mixed Hold’em (Limit and No Limit)
Buyin: $2,500
Number of Entries: 527
Net Prize Pool: $1,212,100
First Place Prize: $278,804
Total Spots Paid Out: 54
Players Remaining: 67

1	Greenstein, Barry	177,200
2	Habib, Hasan	165,000
3	Demes, Brandon	125,000
4	Ahmadi, Bahador	122,100
5	Jung, Alexander	120,200
6	Elezra, Eliahu	108,800
7	Billard, Francois	105,000
8	Sinopoli, Frank	104,200
9	Negreanu, Daniel	101,000
10	Abede, Omar	100,900
11	Filippi, Amnon	98,000
12	Haddox, Randy	92,000
13	Woodward, Matt	90,500
14	Bloch, Andy	88,800
15	Couden, Joey	86,900
16	Ngai, Samuel	85,300
17	Minnullin, Albert	83,000
18	Baker, David	82,000
19	Naalden, Marc	80,400
20	Bickel, Michael	77,800
21	McGuiness, John	76,900
22	Lopez, Karlo	76,500
23	Bolton, Alex	72,200
24	Goldberg, Michael	71,500
25	Williams, Jeff	70,100
26	Vlastaris, Lee	68,200
27	Zartman, Kyle	66,600
28	Tran, Thithi “Mimi”	65,300
29	Schwartz, Ylon	63,900
30	Mccarrel, Casey	59,100
31	Milisits, Ryan	58,600
32	Bach, Klein	56,600
33	Hang, Tommy	56,000
34	Bleiker, Felix	54,800
35	Kuether, Joe	52,700
36	Froehlich, Eric	51,800
37	Stoykov, Mihail	49,500
38	Shan, Yeping	48,900
39	Serbine, Oleg	48,200
40	Hougaard, Jesper	47,400
41	Griffin, Gavin	46,600
42	Fuhs, Danny	45,300
43	Parizon, Michael	42,600
44	Deeb, Shaun	41,300
45	Sands, David	40,200
46	Devonshire, Bryan	38,900
47	Zajdner, Mark	38,400
48	Matros, Matt	36,600
49	Madsen, Jeff	36,500
50	Cunningham, Allen	35,700
51	Kahan, Howie “Howitzer”	35,600
52	Pechie, Justin	30,000
53	Tompkins, Jason	28,200
54	Humphrey, Zachary	27,800
55	Teplitz, Charles	26,800
56	Whitacre, William	26,600
57	Podlewski, Chris	24,200
58	Bellande, Jean-Robert	21,300
59	Black, David	20,800
60	Rabtsov, Kirill	20,200
61	Terrell, Kenneth	20,100
62	Rutter, Stuart	18,600
63	Martin, Jesse	18,200
64	Tran, Theo	11,900
65	Hamagami, Clark	11,700
66	Bazin, Stephane	7,700
67	Pollanen, Petri	7,200

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker Day 30 – HORSE on the way

2009 World Series of Poker Day 12 – It’s Ladies Night

AlCantHang — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:32:47 +0000

Mike Matusow signing copies of Check Raising The Devil outside the Amazon Room

It’s Ladies day here at the 2009 World Series of Poker as the $1,000 Ladies Only event kicks off at noon. There will be some top pros scattered throughout the Amazon Room including actress Jennifer Tilly who’s picture is plastered all over the Rio advertising this event. We’ll be on the look out for some idiot men who will no doubt try to play the event in disguise.

The big event today, no offense to the ladies, is the $10,000 Limit Omaha/8 Championship which will bring a different kind of exclusive group of players. It takes a special kind of person to master LO8 and these players will be trying to collect some hardware. Mike Matusow took yesterday off from playing just to make sure he was ready to hit this event with everything in his arsenal. If he’s got everything dialed in he has to be one of the favorites in the field to take it down.

We will have two more bracelets won at some point in the day. The $2,500 No Limit Hold’em and $2,500 Limit Hold’em both finished up before hitting their final table but will play down to a winner today. Phil Ivey is still in the NLHE field but severly shortstacked when he walks in the door. I suspect we’ll see an early push from the legend looking for his second bracelet of the year.

On a personal note, I’ll be trying to win my way into the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event today when we throw down in the Battle of the Blogger Tournament of Champions at 20:00ET (17:00 Amazon Room time). I’ll be going up some of your favorite bloggers and some of the best players in the group. My odds are very long and chances slim but I’ll be doing my damnedest to take a day off and play the big game.

Chip counts for the restarts after the jump:

Event #13 No Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $2,500
Number of Entries: 1,088
Net Prize Pool: $2,502,400
First Place Prize: $506,786
Total Spots Paid Out: 117
Players Remaining: 20

1	Gregg Merkow	932,000
2	Angel Guillen	860,000
3	Bahador Ahmadi	800,000
4	Keven Stammen	739,000
5	Jeffrey Tunkel	694,000
6	Philip R. Sousa	470,000
7	Brett Switzer	456,000
8	Shawn Glines	453,000
9	Roland De Wolfe	400,000
10	Kirill Gerasimov	390,000
11	Garrett Beckman	376,000
12	Torrey Reily	343,000
13	Romeo Piro	238,000
14	Antoine Berube	235,000
15	Matt Lynn	212,000
16	Qinghai Pan	180,000
17	Alan Keating	137,000
18	Oktay Altinbas	129,000
19	Jochen Dickinger	63,000
20	Phil Ivey	31,000

Event #14 Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $2,500
Number of Entries: 367
Net Prize Pool: $844,100
First Place Prize: $223,697
Total Spots Paid Out: 36
Players Remaining: 11

1	Daniel Negreanu	470,000*
2	Tommie Horkko	509,000
3	Barry Shulman	351,000
4	Brock Parker	335,000
5	Kevin Hong	286,000
6	Nikolay Losev	216,000
7	Kyle Ray	192,000
8	Robert Como, Jr.	136,000
9	Shawn Buchanan	118,000
10	Thong Tran	74,000
11	Jim Buckley	69,000

Event #15 No Limit Hold’em
Buyin: $5,000
Number of Entries: 655
Net Prize Pool $3,078,500
First Place Prize: $692,690
Total Spots Paid Out: 63
Players Remaining: 164

Top 50 chipstacks:

1	Clemenceau, Calixto	186,300
2	Turyansky, Alexander	179,900
3	Jaka, Faraz	172,200
4	Somerville, Jason	159,000
5	Ingles, Jared	154,000
6	Quoss, Fabian	148,500
7	Lemke, Brian	136,400
8	Verrett, Steve	133,600
9	Foltyn, Paul	131,900
10	Lacay, Ludovic	124,000
11	Staudenmaier, Luke	123,600
12	Gavatin, Mats	122,600
13	Seiver, Scott	118,600
14	Grippo, Nicholas	115,800
15	Kornuth, Chance	113,900
16	Pham, David	113,700
17	Sowers, Mike	112,300
18	Fricke, Jimmy	112,200
19	Bonding, Lars	109,500
20	Burnett, Chester	105,800
21	Busquet, Olivier	105,000
22	Masaaki, Kagawa	104,800
23	Kitsos, Paul	101,500
24	Baron, Isaac	101,300
25	Fair, Ryan	99,000
26	Boyd, Terry	96,800
27	Rose, Shane	93,800
28	Roberts, Brent	90,600
29	Smith, John	88,500
30	Minaya, Manny	88,200
31	Lovinger, Aaron	85,500
32	Benefield, David	85,200
33	Harth, David	84,900
34	Rios, Jesse	83,400
35	Blanton, Ken	83,000
36	Tollerene, Ben	80,700
37	Atkins, Jerry	79,400
38	Welch, Ryan	79,300
39	Stothmann, Malte	78,400
40	Janssen, Tommie	78,300
41	Stewart, Neil	77,900
42	Leppo, Robert	75,900
43	Kostritsyn, Alexander	72,900
44	Medic, Nenad	72,100
45	Hollink, Rob	71,500
46	Beebe, Glynn	71,300
47	Makhija, Amit	71,100
48	Sisley, Todd	70,700
49	Pinteric, Domen	70,000
50	Goosen, Steven	69,800

Event #16 Seven Card Stud
Buyin: $1,500
Number of Entries: 359
Net Prize Pool: $490,035
First Place Prize: $124,975
Total Spots Paid Out: 40
Players Remaining: 97

Top 50 Chipstacks:

1	Levi, David	49,600
2	Boyd, Dutch	47,700
3	Afriat, Eric	44,400
4	Lisandro, Jeff	40,700
5	Porter, Rep	37,600
6	Burum, Chad	37,300
7	Mercier, Jason	35,000
8	Hansen, Thor	33,300
9	Bach, David	31,800
10	Elezra, Eli	31,100
11	Grizzle, Sam	31,000
12	Juanda, John	30,400
13	Friedman, Eric	28,000
14	Frangos, Nikolaos	27,800
15	Pardey, Eric	26,600
16	Mignot, Edouard	26,000
17	Soulier, Fabrice	26,000
18	Debus, Frank	25,700
19	Studer, Daniel	24,500
20	Talebi, Rodeen	24,500
21	Goldfarb, Robert	24,400
22	Reslock, Chris	23,800
23	Townsend, Charlie	22,300
24	Stencil, Steven	22,300
25	Bibby, Brent	22,000
26	Paluszek, Jim	21,900
27	Wright, Larry	21,900
28	Smith, Mallory	21,600
29	Buckley, William	21,300
30	Finne, Timothy	21,000
31	Troy, Max	20,900
32	Clark, Robert	20,800
33	Pardey, Rodney	20,400
34	Mikhail, Tulchinskiy	20,300
35	Mckain, Brian	20,100
36	Howard, Andrew	20,000
37	Akiva, Ben	19,900
38	Lowenhar, Jeffrey	19,400
39	Pinella, Bob	18,000
40	Enright, Barbara	17,900
41	Rose, Robert	17,500
42	Lupi, Massimiliano	17,000
43	Mchugh, Chris	16,900
44	Degreef, Jeremiah	16,400
45	Boston, Alan	15,300
46	Walser, Severin	15,200
47	Schock, Mitch	15,000
48	Hoeppner, James	14,500
49	Mizrachi, Michael “The Grinder”	14,500
50	Sarkeshik, Seyed	14,400

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker Day 12 – It’s Ladies Night

2009 World Series of Poker – Day 3 From the Rail

AlCantHang — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:35:31 +0000

Day 3’s interesting story began with Mike Matusow and ended with players making the cash in the $40k and huge field for a non-NLHE game. There were players spread across the Amazon and Brasilia rooms throughout the day so the mileage on my legs quickly escalated.

Mike Matusow entered the day by entering the $1,500 Event #4 Limit Omaha/8 tournament which kicked off prompted at noon. Matusow was also set to start Day 2 of the $40k tournament but was in desperate straights as one of the shortstacks. He would have two hours in the LO8 game to build a stack before he would switch games and try to hit a few double ups to get back in the game.

His first piece of luck came with his Event #4 seat draw. There were 918 players in the tournament taking up most of the Amazon Room and half of the Brasilia room, yet he drew a table which was just a few feet from his $40k seat. He made some noise early with some scoops and 3/4 pots, he was looking comfortable and dialed in when he switched seats and prepared to battle away.

Early on he caught aces and found someone willing to double him up. A little breathing room grew to a big stack when again hit big with set over set. Dr. Tim Lavalli, who worked with Matusow on his biography, told us in media row that “The Mouth” was dialed in. Only bad luck would do him in today.

Unfortunately bad luck is the one bullet no one can dodge when it’s ready for you. Matusow caught some hits to his stack then lost out in a battle of the blinds when Keith Lehr insta-pushed with Ace-crude and his 7’s went down in glorious flames with the spiked ace. He shook the beat off long enough to get his shortstack in the middle in the LO8 only to lose as a favorite again.

Bad luck catches up even to the best when they are in the zone.

The punctuation on the story comes in the experience of first time WSOP player Chris King, Full Tilt qualifier into the $1k Stimulus tournament. He has a story to tell his friends before he even takes his seat in Day 1a. We were sitting in the suite doing a profile interview, taking down some information and chatting with fellow FTP blogger Michael Craig. A casual conversation in the quiet room where Matusow’s name even came up.

We were wrapping up and Matusow, turned up to 11, came through the door full of sound and fury. Chris King’s first experience at the world series of poker was getting first hand details from the man himself on the bad turn of events over a short time span. An experience and lesson on bad luck that he can take into his tournament on Saturday.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Day 3 From the Rail

Mike Matusow: Check-Raising the Devil (Autobiography)

AlCantHang — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:08:39 +0000

Everyone in the poker world is familiar with Mike Matusow and his famous “meltdowns” from the coverage on TV and stories all over the internet. He had the famous flip out on WSOP Champion Greg Raymer, the time spent in prison shortly afterward, then his victory in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. These stories are well known and well publicized.

The mistake most make is judging Matusow completely on the stories and his reputation. As with most, his life is much more than his reputation. It’s been several years in the works but you will finally have the chance to read Mike Matusow’s story straight from the man himself.

Mike Matusow: Check-Raising the Devil, his new autobiography, is due out on May 12th and will give the reader more background into the man you only see on television or the internet. Short review after the jump.

“Daniel Negreanu says the players today are harder to read because they play so many hands. Maybe they’re better now. Or maybe they’re just tougher to read because they’re a bunch of idiots who don’t know what they are doing. Nobody folds now. They think every raise is a bluff.”

“I couldn’t get a new read on him because it never occurred to me that someone who could play solid poker would bring his bankroll to a tough poker game while he was doing drugs.”

It may seem like the easy way out to compare the life of Mike Matusow with the sad ending of Stu Ungar. They both battled their problems with drugs and gambling and over-indulgence. They both succeeded under less than stellar circumstances and found themselves too deep into the dark side of Las Vegas. However, any book written about Ungar is done posthumously while Matusow seems to have his demons under control and there is still a future to be written.

Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli worked with Matusow to bring his story to the public. It was a long process that seemed forever to get off the ground, but the final product was worth the effort and wait. You will get a look behind some of the stories you’ve heard before in more depth and from the man himself. You’ll read about his different WSoP wins when he was tweaking out on meth, going through withdraw, and stone cold sober. His remarkable streak of WSoP final tables beginning with his very first year. The years where he went from avoiding the most basic medication to experimenting with any street drug he could get his hands on. His battles to get sober then a betrayal and subsequent arrest.

The book flows perfectly from his times playing small stakes at Sam’s Town to the card barns in Los Angeles up to the biggest games and tournaments on the Las Vegas strip. You’ll hear in his own words about his rise in poker and decline into the world of drugs. Victories and defeats, sex and drugs, pornstars and poker chips.

I was unable to stop reading and I believe this book will be the talk of the 2009 World Series of Poker and beyond. It’s sure to be hailed in the poker world as one of the best autobiographies in existence. The book is released on Tuesday, May 12th and gets my highest recommendations.

Update: Both Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli have released what was considered for the first chapter but eventually removed. There is talk of using this chapter at the beginning of a the Mike Matusow yet un-named movie.

Tim Lavalli – Matusow Chapter One
Amy Calistri – The Matusow Book: The Crossroads

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Mike Matusow: Check-Raising the Devil (Autobiography)

Mike Matusow and Andy Bloch video interviews

AlCantHang — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:00:03 +0000

The last chance for a Full Tilt red letter pro to final table the WPT World Championship rested on the shoulders of Jennifer Harman. Unfortunately she busted before they halted play for the day in 11th place. Ross Boatman also ran deep for the Hendon Mod, Jeff Madsen made the final two tables but David Grey busted early in they day.

Poker legend Scotty Nguyen goes into the day with a chip lead. He is looking for his 7th WPT television table and second WPT victory.

While no big name Full Tilt pros will be sitting at the final table, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a few video interviews / snippets left for your enjoyment. After the jump you can see Mike Matusow all fired up and Andy Bloch going through nailing a straight flush.

After the jump.

Videos courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Mike Matusow and Andy Bloch video interviews

2008 Five Diamond Poker Classic Day 4

AlCantHang — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:12:33 +0000

Nick Schulman led most of Day 4 at the 2008 Five Diamond Poker Classic
Photo credit: WorldPokerTour.com

The 2008 Five Diamond Poker Classic is down to the final two tables and three Tilters are representing. Nick Schulman spent a large part of the day with the chip lead but took some hits as the day went along. Robert Mizrachi is sitting 9th in chips and Mike Matusow is looking to add to his Foxwoods WPT final table from earlier in the year.

Allen Cunningham, David Oppenhein, and Andy Bloch all came up short on Day 4 but added to the list of Full Tilt pros cashing in the $15,000 Main Event. Day 4 played down from 55 to 18, Day 5 will kick off at noon Vegas time and they will play down to the final 6 for the TV table.

Chip counts and payouts after the jump

Mike Matusow – 1,435,000
Robert Mizrachi – 1,266,000
Nick Schulman – 480,000

27th – Andy Bloch – $43,235
30th – David Oppenheim – $43,235
48th – Allen Cunningham – $28,825

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2008 Five Diamond Poker Classic Day 4

2008 Five Diamond Poker Classic Day 3

AlCantHang — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:54:43 +0000

Mike Matusow playing in the 2008 Five Diamond Poker Classic

Nick Schulman leads the long list of Team Full Tilt members heading into Day 4 of the Five Diamond Poker Classic at the Bellagio. He is joined by Allen Cunningham, David Oppenheim, Andy Bloch and Mike Matusow. Several Tilters were knocked out near the bubble and four made into the money but not onto Day 4.

Several World Series of Poker Main Event champions were also eliminated on Day 4. Poker legends Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan joined the tournament host Doyle Brunson on the rail after the bubble burst. 55 players start out the day still holding onto a chance to win the $1.5 million first place prize.

After the jump you will find chip counts for the Tilters going into Day 4.

Nick Schulman – 720,000
Robert Mizrachi – 584,00
David Oppenheim – 412,000
Allen Cunningham – 363,000
Andy Bloch – 204,000
Mike Matusow – 176,000

70th – Kristy Gazes – $22,520
73rd – Jon “Pearljammed” Turner – $21,620
77th – Roy Winston – $21,620
97th – Marco Traniello – $21,620

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2008 Five Diamond Poker Classic Day 3