PokerGo and the Matusow Blow Up

[Dive_Bar_Dave]

So Mike Matusow was chipping down all day today in the Main Event (from like 642k down to 400k or so). Late in the day, he decides to bluff all in with A7 off-suit on a paired, 3 club board against an opponent with a 9 high flush. This was a compelling moment. While we are waiting to see if the other guy is going to call, PokerGo cuts away to the feature table for a pre flop all in AQ vs KQ hand. Damian Salas wins the hand. Then they hold the camera on Salas hugging and kissing a male friend/relative. They finally cut back to the Matusow hand, and Matusow's opponent calls and it's all over for Mike. It was rough.

Then Mike has an interview with Kara Scott, and while he is in the middle of answering, the PokerGo genius Producer/Director tells Kara in her earbud to wrap it up, and they cut away from Mike before he has finished answering her question.

I think the Pokergo producers are idiots who don't know poker.

[Dan Druff]

I saw Mike after Day 1. He had a very nice stack to finish the day. I did not have a very nice stack, having run into a flopped straight flush in the final hour.

He told me that he wasn't playing well earlier in the day, but played really well after some tough pros got moved to his table. He was very excited and told me that this is going to be the year that he runs deep again. He also tried to give me some encouragement about my less-than-starting-stack return to Day 2.

I'm sure he's going to kick himself for a long time over that move. In general, I think it's better to let others hang themselves in the Main, rather than trying to build chips via moves. And if you are doing it via moves, at least do it without putting major chips (or your entire tournament life) at risk.

Anyway, no idea why PokerGo switched away from that. Whatever you want to say about Mike, he has always made for interesting TV, and that's still the case today.

[ftpjesus]

I believe Mikes less explosive nature is due to the fact hes gotten major control over the pain that had been wracking him for a decade with his back. Honestly I totally get it my pain issues get so bad they honestly cause me ot have a short fuse and even life tilt sometimes and I hope I can finally get this resolved with my own pain issues soon. He got a Spinal Cord Stimulator implanted a few yrs ago and its made huge differences for him.. Its basically like a tens unit and similar to a pacemaker for the heart in how in works it interferes with the pain signals being transmitted up to the brain from the back.

[JeffDime]

The WSOP continues to do big numbers DESPITE being largely relegated to paltry viewing numbers behind PokerGo’s paywall or hidden on channel 1,458 or whatever CBSSN is on months down the road with the produced product. I would love to know the actual paid viewership numbers from PokerGo, but we’ll never see them. If you see their engagement on Twitter it’s not a great sign.

The WSOP can thank other free content for keeping the buzz. Poker livestreams, vlogs, podcasts & other free media is going to get the word out to exponentially more recreational players than PokerGo or CBSSN could come close to doing.

As for cutting off Mike’s interview, that’s just them being lazy and not wanting to worry about editing the interviews during the production process for CBS. Obviously a producer was telling Kara Scott to wrap or she wouldn’t of cut him off like that. Just a dumb and lazy decision.

I think that PokerGo has terrific on air talent. But production & management continue to shit the bed on a regular basis.

As for the paywall, all I can say is I think they should take a big look at the disaster that was CNN +. Tear the paywall down. Get some good sales guys who can go out and get you advertisers. We all have to choose between the shit ton of streaming services. Most aren’t going to prioritize poker content with all we have to choose from.

[FRANKRIZZO]

Mike is genuinely a nice guy. Did a couple of interviews one that Todd played where he took some randos call while he was on the air.

[BetCheckBet]

Matusow is the answer to what Brad Booth would look like if he was an asshole.

[sonatine]

mikes currency during pokers absolute peak was his faculty for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and then having a 44 caliber autist meltdown over it.

and from the minute he started positing on his 'world views' on social media, you can chart his value deflating to where it is now; a cantankerous mentally ill has been who is less interesting than a dude hugging his boyfriend.

[NaturalBornHustler]

Anyone think he makes this move without the bright lights and spotlight of the PokerGo coverage?

Typically his blow ups are much deeper in tourney. (I think)

[Dan Druff]

Anyone think he makes this move without the bright lights and spotlight of the PokerGo coverage?

Typically his blow ups are much deeper in tourney. (I think)

The 3-bet on the river was the problem in this hand. It's amazing to see all of the pros coming out defending that. It was just a bad play.

To recap for those who don't know, the flop came Q55 with two clubs. Matusow had Ax7c, and his opponent had 9c8c. Blank hit turn, Kc on river. Matusow, who was out of position, fired out a 70k bet. His opponent, who rivered the flush, made a conservative raise of another 105k, for a total of 175k. His opponent had like 950k still behind, whereas Matusow only had 320k behind. However, recall that he was already raised by 105k, so the most he could reraise (all in) was 205k.

Even if his opponent called and lost, he would still have about 750k left, which was plenty at that point. So Matusow decided to 3-bet all-in with the ace high bluff. His opponent tanked and called, and Matusow was out. Matusow had long ago made the money, but only cashed $21k, when the mincash was $15k, so not a big score.

The problem here was that Matusow lacked the stack to force his opponent off. He reasoned that he had been playing "so tight" that his opponent wouldn't put him on a worse hand than the 9-high flush, but that's not how most players in that spot think. Instead, they think, "I have a 9-high, two card flush. Yeah it's far from the nuts, but I'm not folding it to my much shorter opponent, who can't even raise me that much in comparison to the existing pot. Besides, if I lose, I still have plenty of chips!"

So the guy thought for a bit and called, which is exactly what I would have done.

Some pros reasoned that Matusow "almost got the bluff through" because the guy tanked, but that's not true. This was semi-deep (670 left) in the Main, so obviously you need to stop and think for any non-obvious decision for a lot of chips. There have been many times where I stop and think, even if I'm 85-90% sure I'm deciding one way. I had two tank spots on opponent river raises in my 2022 Main Event, even though I only made it to early-mid Day 2. In both cases, I thought I was probably calling, but had to think it through. In both cases, I called and was right. I had two similar spots in the subsequent Mixed Omaha event, one of which I folded (and was correct) and one of which I called (and was also correct). But in none of these did I do differently than my initial instinct.

Matusow cashed both of the last two years, and consistently makes it deep in events, and is obviously still a very good player. However, this particular move was not good.

[Daly]

At some point the numbers trump the reads and the reads trump the numbers.


Sure it was a awful spot for a call (the read) but at some point you are calling off getting 2-1 (the numbers).