best player at the final table?

[Coldp1ayer 0]

Matusow was by far the best player.

[WorkYou 0]

all mike should have done is use all his imformation he has picked up durng the course of the tournament and just go with his gut feeling. take his time and make the play he wants to make. there is nothing wrong with going all in wtih KK in that situation. NOTHING. there is however something wrong with folding kings. u have to atleast see a flop. calling isnt a very good play either when he can pick up all those blinds. so he thought about it and made the desicion he thought was best. and it was a good decision. it only didnt pay off this one time out of probably the next 10 times he does it. 1/10 odds is good. meybe he didnt get the right read. but it is stil the correct money play.

[arerad 0]

crybaby arrogant rude dumbazz posters.........The thread was about who played the best at the final table, not who was the best overall player.All of you Matesow fans STFU. He lost because he screwed up, no if's and's or buts about it. He played great to get to the final table, then he got excited early and blew it. No one ever said lay down Kings.......but he never should have gone allin pre flop after a raise then reraise ahead of him. If the second reraise was AA(which it was) then he was asking for trouble. Chances are if he called the 2nd raise he still would have been all in after the set he hit, but that is not what was in question. You can always go back and over analyze anything but it is sad that there are so many unqualified players posting on here thinking that they know everything. On hand 2 of a final table, I stand strong on being conservative when you know you have more talent than the other players. Mike even said on his video interview after that he didn't want to get into any situations like he put himself in. That he knew he could dominate the table, yet he didn't have the patience..How many people on here have ever sat at a table with 23 million on the line and tried to make intelligent decisions.So there is no argument to the answer to the question on this post.Joseph Hachem played the best at the final table. He sat down at the final table 6th in chips and went home with 7.5million.....Congrats.....everyone else flame your whiney butts off while you play .50/1.00 online........

[WorkYou 0]

i dont play .50.1 i play 1/2NL its alittle higher.. and i play 9 tables at once. so i think i am a sorta good judge to say wheater mike ****ed upbut i have no imformation. i do noot know how many chips each player had. did mike get knocked out on this hand. he had 7.5m? and the other guy had more then him. well if thats the caseMIKE TOTALLY ****ED UP. im not saying totally he play was totally awful but it is a very bad play to lose ur whole stack when u are 75x the BB and u are getting reraised by a biggar stack then u and u have no chips in the pot already. that actually could be a fold. i dunno tho its very close to call. but one thing is forsure. he should not be lossing his whole stack when it is75x the BB and u are faced with a raise and a reraise. i would be very upset with my self if i lost at the final table of the wsop like that.that said it still doesnt mean anything we should not be deciding wheater mike should have played the hand or not. only mike knows. only mike was the one who was playing at this table and had a feel for it sorta from days earlier. mike should have knows his players. and he could have made the play for any number of reason we dont even know about. like meybe he picked something up on the player and decided to go and he made a bad read. u dont know that. anything could have happend.both all in and not lossing ur money in some way by folding or calling. just not lossing ur money is the best play. i dont know how he would have done that it would have been very hard. but lossing at the fianl table 2 hands in with kk when ur stack is 1/75th is not a very good play.THE CORRECT PLAY. would have been to call the reraise. hope to hit ur king then go all in. and he still would have lost. soo... but it would depend how big the rerise was for him to call or not. if it was over a mill he is not getting good odds with his 7.5 stack. so meybe he shouldn't have called.there are alot of correct plays here actually.but the most correct play is.NOT LOSSING ALL UR MONEY 2 hands in WITH KK at the FINAL TABLE OF THE WSOP 2005 when ur stack is 75x the bb

[brian67 0]

This thread is ridiculous. First off, getting your money in with the best hand is +EV. The only possible way Mike was in trouble was if a guy flips over AA. Say the same thing happened and both guys were pushing an Ax, great play. He simply ran into AA (happens approx. 1 in 22 times at a full table). He really had no way of getting away from that hand, and if you say differently then try playing poker instead of watching tv where they show you the cards. To me it just sounds like we have a few of those "dude, I can totally tell he has aces" guys when you can see his cards.

[AC BillP 0]

What I'm hearing about Mike's bad play is he should either fold the second best hand in Hm or call and then go broke when he flops a set---the best hand out of 200+ played except a straight and a flush at final table.Even though I've done it (folded KK preflop)-basically what you're saying is Mike should fold his hands without looking for the first 100+ hands. That gets him into 5th or 6th place with a medium stack of 5 million or so.Trying this to pick up another $750,000 to 1 million does make sense, but in terms of winning the tournament folding KK preflop makes zero sense. Poker play vs. overall strategy are 2 different things in this case.

[alf13 0]

And you were wrong last time you said it too ! You obviously don't even know the players..the hand...or much else.

I was not wrong.You were not only wrong...but basically advertised your stupidity to this forum.Scott Lazar was the idiot that blew his whole stack in two hands.....He disqualified himself as a good poker player after having a nervous breakdown at the freakin final table in the WSOP Main Event.Hey Dragon...just go away...and keep folding kings against Donks.

[WorkYou 0]

What would any of u do in Mikes situation. The final table has just started and there is 29 million on the table(something like that). There was 6000 players.Now it is down to 9 lucky players and ur one of them on the final table of the biggest poker tournament ever. This is propable the biggest final table you will ever play in again. A poker players dream. You start with 7.5 Million Chips. blinds are $50k/$100kThen two hands in you look down and see KK. u get all excited. The player UTG raises the pot. Shows a sign of strength. especially early in a final table two hands in. even more so if the players have had hours of thinking over there strategies for the final table. then it's another players turn to act and he re-raise the pot to over 1 million. Your shocked. You can't believe it. Now ur faced with a decision to make. 1. To smooth call his reraise with ur kk and then let the origonal raiser call aswell who may suckout. 2. All In. hope ur opponent simple just does not have AA. 3. Fold. If it were me. I would fold.

[Don Giovanni 0]

anyone who says that matusow should have folded kings is an idiot

it looks like im gonna have to repeat myself. if you geniuses think that he should have or could have folded kings then how come phil hellmuth and all the other pros there said that he could not. ill trust them. and ill trust common sense.

[WorkYou 0]

OK u have 75x the BB. ur stack is HUGE. there is a raise UTG ( shows a huge sign uf strength. u should give him credit for a good hand if he raises utg. then another player re-raises the player who already showed he had a good hand. This player has a even stronger hand. he must have a really good hand to reriase someone with still alot of players to act behind him. Imagion T.J. Coutier the most experienced and successful tournament player ever in this situation or even phil ivey. Cloutier would have folded this after a few moments of thinking.He would have thought.i am facing a raise utg and another re-raise.....i have 7.5 million in chips....it is the very start of the final table....i have zero in the pot....i have a huge stack compared to the blind...who are these idiots....arnt they all online qualifiers....could one of them have possible actually picked up a hand for once..its possible it is only the very start of the final table. theres still alot of players left...kk vs aa does happen...do i really want to risk it at the final table of the biggest tournament ever....i can't rebuy in this tournament...the correct play if u cant rebuy in this situation is to fold...ok i fold...thats waht a good player does. ok sorry not good solid player. a SOLID player folds that. every situation is different in poker. mike should have thought about everything before making his decision so fast. he could have meybe picked up a read from his opponent. talk to him alittle. ask him questions.. pick up some kind of read.... i know when i am not sure about a hand i do that. say if i think a guy is bluffing. i have noticed. he will say how big his bet is. not often. but some people do that. then u know there bluffing. who would remind u how big there bet was unless they didnt want u to call them. people do things like that without relizing sometimes and mike could have picked up on somethin glike that.THIS IS THE BEST TIME IN THE WORLD U WOULD EVER WANT TO GET KK vs AA AT THE FINAL TABLE. this is exactly the sitionation you would want to be in if it was to actually happen.if u could rebuy at the final table of the wsop poker sure its a all in.

[pokerboyvn 0]

And you were wrong last time you said it too ! You obviously don't even know the players..the hand...or much else.

I was not wrong.You were not only wrong...but basically advertised your stupidity to this forum.Scott Lazar was the idiot that blew his whole stack in two hands.....He disqualified himself as a good poker player after having a nervous breakdown at the freakin final table in the WSOP Main Event.Hey Dragon...just go away...and keep folding kings against Donks.

I don't know Mike's play was good or not. Maybe he was unlucky.But the way it ticked me is ur tone. Why are you keep calling people donks?Who the hell r u anyway? From all I know, you have not proved youra decent player at all. did u make any final table?I guess not. So you are just a newbie like most of us. So keep ur voice donw, DONK.

[alf13 0]

And you were wrong last time you said it too ! You obviously don't even know the players..the hand...or much else.

I was not wrong.You were not only wrong...but basically advertised your stupidity to this forum.Scott Lazar was the idiot that blew his whole stack in two hands.....He disqualified himself as a good poker player after having a nervous breakdown at the freakin final table in the WSOP Main Event.Hey Dragon...just go away...and keep folding kings against Donks.

I don't know Mike's play was good or not. Maybe he was unlucky.But the way it ticked me is ur tone. Why are you keep calling people donks?Who the hell r u anyway? From all I know, you have not proved youra decent player at all. did u make any final table?I guess not. So you are just a newbie like most of us. So keep ur voice donw, DONK.

I'll call a DONK a DONK if they are a DONK, and whenever I see a DONK make a DONK play....I will be sure to point out to any DONK that may disagree that it was a DONK play and if you disagree then you must be a DONK also....okay, DONK?

[pokerboyvn 0]

And you were wrong last time you said it too ! You obviously don't even know the players..the hand...or much else.

I was not wrong.You were not only wrong...but basically advertised your stupidity to this forum.Scott Lazar was the idiot that blew his whole stack in two hands.....He disqualified himself as a good poker player after having a nervous breakdown at the freakin final table in the WSOP Main Event.Hey Dragon...just go away...and keep folding kings against Donks.

I don't know Mike's play was good or not. Maybe he was unlucky.But the way it ticked me is ur tone. Why are you keep calling people donks?Who the hell r u anyway? From all I know, you have not proved youra decent player at all. did u make any final table?I guess not. So you are just a newbie like most of us. So keep ur voice donw, DONK.

I'll call a DONK a DONK if they are a DONK, and whenever I see a DONK make a DONK play....I will be sure to point out to any DONK that may disagree that it was a DONK play and if you disagree then you must be a DONK also....okay, DONK?

what r u saying, DONK? i don't think u r better than them. but your mouth definitely louder.So that makes u a DUMBER THAN AVERAGE DONK?? right DONK?

[alf13 0]

what r u saying, DONK? i don't think u r better than them. but your mouth definitely louder.So that makes u a DUMBER THAN AVERAGE DONK?? right DONK?

Not funny, DONK. Pretty weak actually.

[Don Giovanni 0]

i am facing a raise utg and another re-raise.....i have 7.5 million in chips....it is the very start of the final table....i have zero in the pot....i have a huge stack compared to the blind...who are these idiots....arnt they all online qualifiers....could one of them have possible actually picked up a hand for once..its possible it is only the very start of the final table. theres still alot of players left...kk vs aa does happen...do i really want to risk it at the final table of the biggest tournament ever....i can't rebuy in this tournament...the correct play if u cant rebuy in this situation is to fold...ok i fold...

wow man. you dont know anything. "i cant rebuy in this tournament" ??? hahahah im sure thats what a good player would have to remind himself about. hmm lets see im at the final table, i better watch out because i cant rebuy. hahahaha i almost forgot that i couldnt rebuy. oh man, you see how rediculous you sound? what if the guy had AK instead of aces. or pocket queens. what happens then. he could just as easily had pocket queens. then matusow would have been laughed off the face of the earth for folding. sure it seems like it wouldve been a good fold now, you know, when you know how it ends.

[Acesgotcracked 0]

Anyone who wold throw away Kings in that spot is a total joke. If you muck that hand you have the guts of the earthworm and your heart must be pumping kool-aid. Disgusting how some people who claim to be poker players have so little gamble in them. Get some gamble, get some guts.

[arerad 0]

when did this thread become about throwing away Kingsarrogant rude posters take a thread and run rampant looking like total morons while claiming to be all knowingsad very sad

[Don Giovanni 0]

when did this thread become about throwing away Kingsarrogant rude posters take a thread and run rampant looking like total morons while claiming to be all knowingsad very sad

i dont know, some guy lost his mind and started making a case for folding kings. so the educated people started to correct him.

[Puddleglum5555 0]

pocket kings on the button and u arent playing it the same way against 2 raises?

You are at the final table...you have the lead...its the second hand....you are facing a table full of online qualifiers who overvalue ANY ace...there is a raise and a reraise to your button...you have pocket kings...you just berated Phil Ivey publically for playing coin flip hands against the jackwads...you know big pairs only play well heads up....So FOLD !!!!!!PS...I say this as the man who got knocked out of a SNG, the $500 NL event, and the nightly $225 Super all in one day at the "Pot Of Gold" at the Reno Hilton with pocket Kings. Ran into Aces twice...and the dreaded J8 os. :roll: So I am not saying I could do it...but I don't say half the stuff Mike The Mouth Says...but if anyone is saying he played that well they are mistaken.

im wondering how KK is a coinflip vs ANY hand?is it a coin flip vs AQ---ummmmm they have 3 outsalmost every other hand in the deck you have in horrible shape.the only hand AA has you destroyed.you can NEVER fold that hand in that spotwow, your silly

[Puddleglum5555 0]

Are you saying you only go all-in at a final table at the WSOP with AA? Are you kidding? That's not patience, that's stupidity.

When I feel I am the best player at the table...yes.Pre flop on the second hand.....yesAm I kidding.....no.

and I am guessing you will NEVER win a big time tournament(not really guessing) 100000000000000000000% sure

[Puddleglum5555 0]

I guess I will be and say whatever I want. Your opinions are merely opinons And I could give a crap what you think.You are right...he played the best one hand of a final table ever. His people reading skills were outstanding, he showed poise and patience, he took command from the start and rode his 4th place chip stack to a 9th place finish ! He may be the best in the world, not just at that table.Happy now?

Could you please take a moment to fathom, with your superior intellect and logic, that Matusow was indeed the best player at the table. He was the only "real" pro (although Andrew Black certainly could qualify) and had been to a WSOP: ME final table before.Could it possibly be that the best player got extremely unlucky? I mean, could you even IMAGINE that? ONE hand beats his KK, and he happens to run into it. Then, he hits the K on the flop. Runner-runner flush later, he's crippled.He then COMPLETELY outplays the table. The bluff with the 8-5 was the supreme example of this. He layed down hands to re-raises time and time again, setting up the hand when he had 10-10 on a 5-3-2 board. A donk went all in on a draw, and Matusow knew he had his man. When a 4 hit on the turn, it was all she wrote.He completely outplayed the other guys at the table when he was there. He set them up and he executed his plan perfectly. He got unlucky on two huge hands to bust. I think he did show poise and patience. I do not think that going all-in on the second hand with KK shows that he didn't have those things. EVERY other pro who did commentary that night said they would have done the same exact thing.He was the best player, but this time the best player lost. Ladies and gentlemen, that's poker.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: well said

[arerad 0]

my most memorable of the tournament-- not for any big wins, but for two huge laydowns that kept me alive. The first hand was against Kevin. I was in early position and I picked up KK again! I raised about 35K. Now, it is important to note that Kevin had watched me play solid hands all afternoon and knew I would not raise in early position with nothing. He raised me, but, as my instinct told me, raised an unusual amount, just 60K more. Why only 60K? If he wanted me gone, a larger bet such as an all-in bet was a lot more threatening than 60K. He seemed very calm -- almost too calm. The rest of the players folded to me. I kept thinking, "What a weird bet. He seems so calm and relaxed." He really wants me to call. He must have a really good hand, maybe even a great hand! Does he have Aces? I thought about it for another minute and looked down at my KK. Could I really lay this down pre-flop? Maybe I'm over thinking this? If I double up here, I will have close to a million in chips and be in a great position. But, I kept thinking, what a weird bet amount. I looked down one more time, let out a deep sigh, and decided to follow my gut feeling and do the unthinkable -- lay down my KK! I showed Kevin my hand and told him, "I know you have Aces, so I'm going to lay this down." His protruding eyes told me I was right! As he picked up his jaw off the table, he flipped over his Aces.

Note: One of the greatest PokerStars stories to come from the World Series of Poker was that of Bernard "Dogger9" Lee, a Frequent Player Point qualifier who caught everybody's eye as the real deal. Lee has agreed to chronicle his journey for the Official PokerStars Blog.Matusow could have won if he was focused