Mike "The Mouth" Matusow

Michael "The Mouth" Matusow was born on April 30, 1968 in Los Angeles, California.

Matusow is both loved and disliked by many poker fans for his trash-trash talking, loud-mouth antics at the poker table which got him the nickname "The Mouth". His temper sometimes gets him into trouble and he ruins otherwise good play with what are known as a "Mike Matusow Blow-up" or "Mike Matusow Meltdown". Mike's play style is equally as aggressive as his talk.

Mike Matusow began playing poker seriously in the early 1990s, first while working as a poker dealer, then as a professional player. Matusow noted in a recent edition of his CardPlayer.com live webcast titled "The Mouthpiece" that while dealing at Sam's Town, an older player often staked him in poker games and continued to do so even after he blew his winnings on sports betting and casino gambling. Matusow cited this as a reason why he always is willing to help a fellow player who needs a stake; Matusow would never have been able to continue as a pro without the help of his backer.

Matusow's successes include being a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner. Mike finished in 6th place in the 2001 WSOP $10,000 no limit Hold 'em main event and won $239,765. In the 2005 WSOP, Matusow finished 9th out of 5,619 players in the main event and took home $1 million. Months later, Mike pocketed another $1 million when he won the WSOP Tournament of Champions in a heads-up battle against Hoyt Corkins. The follwoing year he placed third in the Tournament of Champions and won $250,000.

Matusow made his first World Poker Tour (WPT) final table at the UltimateBet Aruba Classic in October 2004 and earned $250,000 for 3rd place. Mike finished runner-up to Tony G in the 2006 WPT Bad Boys of Poker II. Matusow also appeared in Poker Superstars III, where he made it to the Elite Eight. In the winner-take-all championship match, Matusow beat seven other players to win $500,000. He also appeared in the second, third and fourth season of High Stakes Poker.

Matusow finished 3rd and 2nd respectively when he appeared on two episodes of Poker After Dark in early 2007.

Matusow came in second place, in July of 2007, at the World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup III Championship after online pro Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul defeated him.


Fun Facts:

• Was taught Texas hold 'em in 1989 by a rounder named Steve Samaroff.
• At 1998 WSOP, paid one-third of Scotty Nguyen's entrance fee into a satellite event for the $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em main event. Scotty went on to win and gave Mike $333,333.
• Plays online poker under the following aliases: "dill pickle" (UltimateBet); "mrpokejoke" (PokerStars); and "Mike Matusow" (Full Tilt Poker, where he is also a member of "Team Full Tilt").