Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow won the World Series Of Poker 2-7 event, find out how in his own words
I knew I was up against six great players, but I also knew two of them were going to implode because of their recklessness. I said straight out that I felt the best players were Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine and myself, but that if David came in too fast and reckless he’d get knocked out and it would be me, Barry Greenstein and Jeff Lisandro.
Someone asked, ‘What about Erick Lindgren? He’s got a two-to-one chip lead,’ and I said, ‘Erick doesn’t know how to slow up and he doesn’t know this game too well.’ It was like a prophecy as that’s exactly what happened.
Erick came in raising every pot, right on my blind, with Barry, Tony G, David and Jeff behind him. Did he really think he could run that table over? Then after he zipped through half his chips, David Benyamine ran out of patience. He was one of the first people out and it didn’t surprise me.
Then Erick slowed up and Barry decided he was going to see what he could take and started playing fast against my blind. I was wondering how long it was going to take for Tony G or Jeff Lisandro to come over the top and, next thing you know, Lisandro comes over the top on Barry twice in a row. I gave Barry a lot of respect there, because he shut it down – bam! – right away.
After Tony G got knocked out it was down to Erick, Tom Schneider, Barry, Jeff and myself. I was down to 10 big blinds at one point but never panicked. In one of the key hands of the tournament, Jeff raised when I’d been dealt a 2-3-5-9 and he’d been raising a lot, so I thought this was a good spot to call.
But then Tom moved in behind, which I didn’t like because I knew he’d got at least a pat Ten. It came back to Jeff who called 125,000 more and I had to call. I looked down and I’d made 2-3-4-5-9, the best hand I was drawing to. When Jeff checked, it was an auto-bet for me. As soon as I bet, Tom stood up – he knew he was beat. That got me up to about 1.3m in chips and we were down to four.
Once again, Erick and Jeff took turns trying to get aggressive. I gave them the illusion they could – I just kept folding and folding, making them believe, until finally Erick’s fast play whittled him down. He got an amazing double-up against Barry to become chip leader, but he didn’t let up raising my blinds. I was going to make a play against him but I didn’t have t – you just can’t play that fast in 2-7.
Jeff raised on the button, I got dealt 4-7- 8-9-10, and re-raised it to 200k. Erick didn’t have a chip in the pot but he made it 350k all-in. Everyone folded and I had to put 150k in and didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t believe that he would possibly put his whole stack in and be drawing. I was sure he had a pat hand, but what did he have – a pat Ten? I couldn’t beat any Ten, so I elected to draw two. The next thing I know Erick’s drawing one and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I drew 2-5, which is pretty incredible, and knocked Erick out.
Comfort break
Before the break I was tired and hadn’t taken my medication in three hours. I took some at the break and had something to eat which woke me up and got me a little more focused. Barry Greenstein said, ‘You’re one of the very best players, but it seems the longer you go, the more tired you get and you make mistakes. I wasn’t happy the break came – nothing personal Mike, but you were done.’ He was right, but after the break I was feeling good about myself.
I had 400k and knew I was short, but I wasn’t thinking it was over. I got a pat Jack, which is pretty good three-handed, so I shipped it in and won 90k. I won a couple more pots and got up to 750k, and Jeff started making mistakes against me, which took me up to 1.2m four hands after dinner. Once I got there, that’s the first time I thought I was going to win.
We went back and forth and round and round forever until Jeff and I got heads-up and he wanted to try and outplay me every hand. When he had 2m and I had 1.6m he finally slowed down, but it was too late. He should have been thinking that when he had me down to 650k NOT when he’d doubled me up. When I got him down to about 600k, I kept the pots as small as I could, and kept him right in that zone where if he doubled he couldn’t hurt me.
The last hand was pretty exciting because when I moved in and he called and drew – wow, what a tough decision. It seemed like I took forever to decide whether to stay on the Queen or draw when I got dealt 3-4-6-8-Q. [In the end Matusow stayed pat and Lisandro squeezed a Queen for 3-5-6-9-Q.]
Winning felt really good, because I never gave up. I even got the crowd going at 3.30am! We’re playing Deuce to friggin’ Seven, there was probably not even one person in the crowd has a clue how the game’s even played, and I get the entire place going crazy! People love me because I wear my heart on my sleeve.
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