Matusow Redux

Back in December, I made a post about sitting briefly with Mike Matusow in a 25/50 6-Max NLHE game. It was one of the first times I played that high, and it ended with Mike stacking me when he flopped trips against my KK in a re-raised pot.

Now that my bankroll is a bit bigger and my skills are somewhat improved, I’ve been sitting in big games with him more often. Matusow’s presence at the table contributes to a good game in three ways:

1. He loses. This is the biggest one, of course. He claims to have lost $3 million playing online. That sounds like an exaggeration to me, based on the stakes he plays and his tendency for hyperbole. But he’s surely lost a lot. He isn’t bad when he’s at his best, but he does tilt easily and do some spewy things.

2. He attracts weak players. His name is in red and they’ve seen him on TV, so they want to sit at his table. That makes the game even better, though these players do tend to buy in short, which is annoying.

3. He encourages other mid-stakes regulars to take shots for the same reasons I do. I think I’m at least a bit better than most of them, and while I avoid them as best I can at 5/10, I’ll take any edge I can get at 25/50.

Anyhow, I sat at a 25/50 again over the weekend, and made one bad fold to Mike and one call that, though it lost, I think may have been good:

Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG: $5,000
UTG+1: $11,305
MP: $5,422
CO: $9,594
BTN: $2,591
SB: $7,968
Hero (BB): $5,000

Pre-Flop: T T dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, MP raises to $150, CO calls $150, BTN folds, SB calls $125, Hero raises to $750, MP folds, CO raises to $2,150, 2 folds

Results: $1,800 Pot ($1,800 Rake)
CO showed J 6 (Jack Six high)

I really overthought this one. It’s such an obvious spot for me to make a squeeze play, and so unlikely for him to have a better pair, plus there’s a lot of dead money in the pot. I just got into my head that it was so transparent that it had to be for real. I’m posting this as a kind of public shaming, it’s really very bad.

Here’s the call that I think would generally be good, because again his line doesn’t make much sense, except that I think since he’d recently shown me a bluff he may just not be bluffing here no matter how unlikely a K is for him:

Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $1,010
UTG+2: $6,294
MP1: $11,501
MP2: $4,442
CO: $7,677
BTN: $4,254
SB: $8,134
Hero (BB): $6,091
UTG: $825

Pre-Flop: A Q dealt to Hero (BB)
5 folds, CO raises to $175, 2 folds, Hero raises to $591, CO calls $416

Flop: ($1,207) T 3 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($1,207) 9 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $850, Hero calls $850

River: ($2,907) K (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $1,700, Hero calls $1,700

Results: $6,307 Pot ($3 Rake)
CO showed K A (two pair, Kings and Threes) and WON $6,304 (+$3,163 NET)
Hero mucked A Q (a pair of Threes) and LOST (-$3,141 NET)

Although it didn’t feel like a good time for him to bluff me, I also didn’t think he bet less than a pair of K’s on the river, and that’s such a small part of his range for getting to the river, that I felt obliged to call. I’m kind of surprised that the didn’t 4-bet this pre-flop, but otherwise I think he played it very well.

So I’m still down to Matusow, but I’ve done quite well in the 25/50 game otherwise, so I’m still glad to have screwed up the courage to sit in it.