mike matusow

[PimpRock 0]

For pure entertainment value you gots to lvoe this dude... does he have a blog or an internet site?

[happyjuggler0 0]

For pure entertainment value you gots to lvoe this dude... does he have a blog or an internet site?

I don't think he is organized enough to have his own site, and what would be the point anyway? Who is he gonna advertise for? Corporate America is not excatly banging down the doors to get a convicted criminal to advertise for them.I'm not sure I love to watch him for pure entertainment value, but I do love to hate him. People like him and Phil Helmuth who treat others like pieces of &^%$ are a disgrace and should not be heroes in anyone's book, in my opinion.

[PimpRock 0]

Hero is a big word... I dont idolise him or rteat him as a role model. I think that he and Phil bring something to the game which provides an extra dimension of entertainment... there are players who go a lot further than either of them two (Tony G springs to mind) and they border on offensive. Ferguson and Bloch use mathematics, Ivey andNegreanu raw aggression, Hellmuth and Matusow use their personalities to give them the edge. Just my 2 cents.

[wizzle 0]

never had a problem with Mike, hope he does well - if Dutch "The Cat Killa" Boyd can get organized enough to have a blog, i'm sure Matusow could..... and to the above poster, i'm not sure that any poker player should be anyone's hero IMO, not just these guys

[Golden 2]

It may be well known, but for those of us who don't - can someone elaborate on the convicted criminal thing?

[happyjuggler0 0]

It may be well known, but for those of us who don't - can someone elaborate on the convicted criminal thing?

Convicted criminal sounds harsh I admit, although he did spend something like 6 months in prison. My recollection is that he pleaded guilty to some sort of cocaine posession charge. My drug of choice is alcohol, his happens to be illegal in this country. This does not make him a bad person, or me a good person. It is the abusing of players at the table I take issue with.Google for Mike Matasow Cocaine conviction...or something like it and you should be able to get an artcile written by someone less biased than myself....

[alf13 0]

Before anybody says that Matusow was wrongly convicted and didn't deserve his sentence....please read the particulars of the case.He deserved what he got.

[VicRattlehead 0]

Matusow was wrongly convicted and didn't deserve his sentence.He did not deserve what he got.He was set up - plain and simple!

[happyjuggler0 0]

Before anybody says that Matusow was wrongly convicted and didn't deserve his sentence....please read the particulars of the case.He deserved what he got.

I guess that depends on how you define "deserve". I don't know or care whether his conviction was deserved in a legal sense. But convicting someone for a crime against themself is a wrongful conviction in my opinion.Personally I have an awful hard time understanding the logic of putting some in prison for allegedly hurting himself, i. e. druge use. "You are a menace to yourself, therefore you need to be punished with something far worse for you than your 'crime' ". I just don't get it. If we are going to meddle in other's entertainment choices and say that "well, there is no such thing as drug use, only drug abuse" and that these people can't help themselves, then surely locking them up in a drug rehab facility is a more logical response. Not to mention that it is incredibly easy to get drugs in prison.Breaking the law is wrong. Therefore using a drug that is illegal is wrong. But if the only reason that using it is wrong is that it is illegal, then our legislators and their defenders need to attend a logic 101 course.Once again for the record my own personal drug of choice is alcohol, which just happens to be legal.

[jack24bauer24 0]

Matusow was wrongly convicted and didn't deserve his sentence.He did not deserve what he got.He was set up - plain and simple!

Someone put the cocaine in his hands while he was sleeping? How does one get set up?

[Pupsta 0]

Matusow was wrongly convicted and didn't deserve his sentence.He did not deserve what he got.He was set up - plain and simple!

Someone put the cocaine in his hands while he was sleeping? How does one get set up?

"occifer, i know don't how that coca *sneezes white powder*"

[AceyDeucy 0]

1. Police officer, on tip from busted junkie goes undercover to befriend you as you have now cleaned up.2. Your new friends, that you do not know is a police officer start badgering you to get him some cocaine.3. You oblige your friend.4. You friend produces a badge, arrests you.5. DA hits you with every charge even remotely relevant so you will give up your source.6. Being death-averse, you keep your mouth shut.7. To make a point, the DA pleads you down to six months.

[Pupsta 0]

i'll do a lot of things for my friends, but drug trafficking isn't one of them.

[elkang 0]

I'm a fan.He was convicted of drug dealing charges but I reserve judgement on everything else. I nevr met him, but I like him and he's a very good poker player. If you neg him because of his conviction than it is your own loss and I imagine you are a moral puritan of sorts. Anyway, Matusow has made mistakes... we see enough on TV! But, enough about this.How can you not like a guy who says this stuff (Cardplayer video)?That's the Mike we SHOULD be talking about.

[elkang 0]

i'll do a lot of things for my friends, but drug trafficking isn't one of them.

I've "sold" drugs to friends (zero profit). Usually it is given. I know plenty of upstanding people who do this regularly - you probably do too. But, I find the line between prescription drugs and illegal unregulated ones like cocaine or marijuana as unequitable and even silly. Both can be abused seriously but I would rather have the police spend their resources on other problems of society or approach the drug war more quitabl or at least be smart!Maybe this is a mistake, and def Mike did make a serious one.

[elkang 0]

1. Police officer, on tip from busted junkie goes undercover to befriend you as you have now cleaned up.2. Your new friends, that you do not know is a police officer start badgering you to get him some cocaine.3. You oblige your friend.4. You friend produces a badge, arrests you.5. DA hits you with every charge even remotely relevant so you will give up your source.6. Being death-averse, you keep your mouth shut.7. To make a point, the DA pleads you down to six months.

That sums it up. You can fault Mike for making dumb mistakes, but he's a good guy in my book and not a total idiot.

[711Buddha 0]

My drug of choice is alcohol, his happens to be illegal in this country. This does not make him a bad person, or me a good person. It is the abusing of players at the table I take issue with.

It makes him a criminal and you a law abiding citizen. Being a criminal is bad. Not being a criminal is good. No one covered this material with you before?

[711Buddha 0]

I guess that depends on how you define "deserve". I don't know or care whether his conviction was deserved in a legal sense. But convicting someone for a crime against themself is a wrongful conviction in my opinion.Personally I have an awful hard time understanding the logic of putting some in prison for allegedly hurting himself, i. e. druge use. "You are a menace to yourself, therefore you need to be punished with something far worse for you than your 'crime' ". I just don't get it.

So, how about the guy who is forced to grow the cocoa leaves? The guy who has to process them in a jungle lab (don't they blow up occasionally?) How about the organized crime figures who profit from the trade, the kids killed in drive-by shootings, how about children of adicts? Know any crack heads? Wake up! This stuff is poison, it kills people and ruins lives. People who traffic in it are scum. Calling it harmless or saying it only affects the user is just plain ignorant. Matasow got off easy.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I guess that depends on how you define "deserve". I don't know or care whether his conviction was deserved in a legal sense. But convicting someone for a crime against themself is a wrongful conviction in my opinion.Personally I have an awful hard time understanding the logic of putting some in prison for allegedly hurting himself, i. e. druge use. "You are a menace to yourself, therefore you need to be punished with something far worse for you than your 'crime' ". I just don't get it.

So, how about the guy who is forced to grow the cocoa leaves? The guy who has to process them in a jungle lab (don't they blow up occasionally?) How about the organized crime figures who profit from the trade, the kids killed in drive-by shootings, how about children of adicts? Know any crack heads? Wake up! This stuff is poison, it kills people and ruins lives. People who traffic in it are scum. Calling it harmless or saying it only affects the user is just plain ignorant. Matasow got off easy.

You ever drink coffee? Eat a banana? Ever bought a pair of Nike's? People work around the word in sweat shops and hellish conditions to provide us the crap we wear. 95 percent of the violence associated with Drug trafficing would be done away with if drugs were legalized. The violence exsists only because it is a black market, and the drug trade so proffitable. When emense proffits are involed, people get killed. Think I'm wrong? Ihoope you don't drive a car then, buddy, 'cause people are dying right now for oil profits. Drugs like Cocaine, and drug addiction is a curse, but sending people to jail isn't the way to solve the problem.. you have to address the demand side, treat junkies and what not, because you CANNOT stop the supply side, because the proffits are just too high. If the supply side were regulated and taxed, taht would be another story. But then, who would boeing have to sell Helicopers to if not Columbia? what would happen to all the jobs in our government deicated to fighting the drug trade. The war on drugs is a billion dollar business. And people die all around you so that business can continue.

[murmar 0]

That sucks. Solution?

[happyjuggler0 0]

I guess that depends on how you define "deserve". I don't know or care whether his conviction was deserved in a legal sense. But convicting someone for a crime against themself is a wrongful conviction in my opinion.Personally I have an awful hard time understanding the logic of putting some in prison for allegedly hurting himself, i. e. druge use. "You are a menace to yourself, therefore you need to be punished with something far worse for you than your 'crime' ". I just don't get it.

So, how about the guy who is forced to grow the cocoa leaves? The guy who has to process them in a jungle lab (don't they blow up occasionally?) How about the organized crime figures who profit from the trade, the kids killed in drive-by shootings, how about children of adicts? Know any crack heads? Wake up! This stuff is poison, it kills people and ruins lives. People who traffic in it are scum. Calling it harmless or saying it only affects the user is just plain ignorant. Matasow got off easy.

Ok, I figured there would be someone who would use the party line.1)"So, how about the guy who is forced to grow the cocoa [sp] leaves?" Forced? In actuality in the 3 countries that are responsible for virtually all of the coca leaf growth, the governments regularly try to stop the gorwth, but the farmers make 5-10 times as much from growing coca than they can make growing anything else, so they CHOOSE to keep growing it. The governments, with US aid, regualrly spray areas of coca growth, and destroy regular agricultural crop in the process, without compensation for the destruction.2)"The guy who has to process them in a jungle lab (don't they blow up occasionally?) ". Purely a function of drug prohibition. Make it legal and regulated and it will be safe.3)"How about the organized crime figures who profit from the trade". Purely a function of drug prohibition. Make it legal and regulated and they organized crime figures (and terror groups) lose this as an income source.4)"the kids killed in drive-by shootings". Purely a function of drug prohibition. Make it legal and regulated and no one dies in turf wars, any more than anyone dies in the "battle" between Miller Brewing vs Anheuser Busch.5)"The children of addicts". They are better off with their parents in jail instead of treatment?6)"Know any crack heads?" No, unless you count the employess at the local fast food chains that I sometimes visit.7)"This stuff is poison, it kills people and ruins lives". And filling up our prisons with users stops this how? Not all illegal drugs are created equal either. Marijuana is not poison,it has never killed anyone (unlike alcohol), and ruins no fewer lives than alcohol. Make it legal and regulated and it will ruin even fewer lives than are currently ruined by incarceration.8)"People who traffic in it are scum." I'll admit that due to the fact that we have drug prohinition there are those who engage in all kinds of scum type behavior as a result. make it legal and regulated and such behavior stops.9)"Calling it harmless or saying it only affects the user is just plain ignorant. " Did you take that out of the antigambling lobby's handbook?Thanks to drug prohibition our cities are war zones. Every time the cops bust a drug dealer there is an interruption of supply. Other dealers try to move in on that turf, and murders result from that. Thus every time the cops crack down on drugs the murder rate goes up in that city. Thanks to drug prohibition, Columbia is a total war zone, and it won't end til the US owns up to the fact that our drug prohibition is the cause of the destruction of this country (Columbia).Several European countries have legalized all kinds of drugs in the past few years, without mayhem. We should do the same, but until people realize that what they think of as "the ills of drugs" is largely really "the ills of drug prohibition", that won't happen. In the meantime jerks like Matusow get scammed into breaking the law and go to prison so a cop can make his quota. This type of thing happens all the time. The only way to bust someone for commiting a crime against himself is to invade his privacy unless he does it in public. The only way to bust a mutually agreed upon transaction like a drug buy that does not go down in public is to scam someone into breaking the law.Finally, the drug laws treat a relatively small amount of drug posession as an automatic "intent to distribute". In reality smart drug buyers buy as infrequently as possible to avoid possible busts, and therefore buy in large quantity. A huge amount of those in prison for selling drugs did no such thing.

[Nutcracker 0]

My drug of choice is alcohol, his happens to be illegal in this country. This does not make him a bad person, or me a good person. It is the abusing of players at the table I take issue with.

It makes him a criminal and you a law abiding citizen. Being a criminal is bad. Not being a criminal is good. No one covered this material with you before?

Did you never progress past 3rd grade level thought? Morally speaking, I don't see a difference between alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, etc.. They can all destroy lives if abused. The only reason alcohol is legal is because it caused too many problems during prohibition.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I could give a damn what poker players do out side of the poker room. I think Mike is Hilariously funny, he's always been real polite and friend on full tilt ( I haven't had a chance to ask him about x22 yet, but I'm sure he'll answer..) , he cracks me up every time he's on TV or interviewed. I don't look for poker stars for my hero's.. I look for them 1) entertainment value and 2) maybe picking something out about the way they play to pick up improve my game. Mattosow could kidnap strippers and eat them, for all I care, just keep calling Greenstein a overrated Donkey, and I'll keep loving him

[GTKID 0]

"Lenny Bruce said it best--we are a nation that likes to get high. We are also a nation in which alcohol is legal and pot is not, even though there are millions who smoke the stuff in this country from all walks of life. And regimenting the means of escape that people use, as any ******* should know at this point, is a complete waste of time."Who decided what was moral and illmoral, who decided that alcohol and cigarrettes are legal but pot and cocaine are not. You know why cocaine and marijuana are illegal, because they best stuff doesn't come from the United States.If the best argument for why its illegal is, it's bad and illegal and the law told me not too, then you are seriously lacking an argument.

[planoace 0]

"Lenny Bruce said it best--we are a nation that likes to get high.  We are also a nation in which alcohol is legal and pot is not, even though there are millions who smoke the stuff in this country from all walks of life.  And regimenting the means of escape that people use, as any censored should know at this point, is a complete waste of time."Who decided what was moral and illmoral, who decided that alcohol and cigarrettes are legal but pot and cocaine are not.  You know why cocaine and marijuana are illegal, because they best stuff doesn't come from the United States.If the best argument for why its illegal is, it's bad and illegal and the law told me not too, then you are seriously lacking an argument.

If Lenny Bruce is your moral compass, than you are seriously lacking judgment. If you don't like the law, work to get it changed - it worked with Prohibition - until then, you do the crime, do the time and don't expect any sympathy.