Mike “The Mouth” Matusow wasn’t the type of guy that was born with a deck of cards in his hands – for him, it was all about the competition. Throughout his childhood and teenage years, he tried a number of sports and activities, including building race cars, or games of pool and bowling (where he was particularly good, often scoring 290 or more, and even a perfect 300 game). In the early 1990s he discovered the game of video poker, to which he became so addicted that he suffered injuries in his shoulders, and even resorted to stealing money from his mother in order to gamble.

               Mike currently has three World Series of Poker bracelets. The first was won in 1999, in a No Limit Hold ‘em tournament. The second came in 2002 in an Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better event, followed by his third and final bracelet so far, in 2008, in a game of No Limit 2-7 Draw.

               Matusow is currently involved in playing online poker at Full Tilt Poker. He is even a member of “Team Full Tilt”, a team composed of some of the finest professional poker players in the world. Apart from Mike Matusow, they are: Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Erick Lindgren, Phil Gordon, John Juanda, Tom Dwan, Patrick Antonius, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Allen Cunningham and Gus Hansen.  On his website you can find one article written by him, as well as 138 other articles written by professional players.

               Away from the poker table, Mike has had a few problems in his personal life, which included weight problems, and – even worse – drug problems, which led to his arrest and 6 month stint in jail , after being caught in possession of cocaine. Having overcome all of these issues, Mike has bounced back and made a full recovery. In 2009 he wrote his autobiography, entitled “Check Raising the Devil”.

               Asked how he considers himself as a poker player, Mike Maslow replied: “I believe that I read better than anybody in the world, and I believe that I have better gears than anybody in the world. My problem is the ability to focus for longer periods of time. That’s why I will never be able to do what I did last year at the World Series again. I literarily played the seven best days of poker of my life, and my focus never slipped. It was amazing, like I was gifted by God. That’s what it all comes down to. I take different things to help me focus, and sometimes my medication reacts differently, and I become a little “ih-ih.” Those are the days that I give away $25,000 in a pot, and make those big blow ups. Great players don’t do that, but that’s the only difference. I can only hope that my medication reacts great for seven days.” Join Mike at Full Tilt Poker, but dont miss out on rakeback. Sign up for Full Tilt Poker Rakeback Here