Not many gamers skilled the ups and downs of the televised poker growth greater than Mike Matusow. From remaining desk appearances on the World Series of Poker predominant occasion and profitable on-line poker offers to even ending up in a jail cell, Matusow has seen a little bit of every part. Likewise, poker followers have seen a little bit of every part from “The Mouth” as properly.
But maybe there’s extra to Matusow than what the general public already is aware of. Big F Pictures is hoping to current a unique aspect to the participant that grew to become a family title to poker followers everywhere in the world.
Director Frank Zarrillo has spent the final two years following Matusow to casinos, physician’s appointments, outings with household and buddies, and extra. The documentary, aptly named Matusow, is now in post-production and producers are hoping for a launch in early 2024.
“The documentary means a lot to me because Frank and I put a lot of time into it,” Matusow says. “It means a lot to me because whenever I show up at the WSOP, everybody always says, ‘Mike, how do you feel and how’s your back?’ Nobody really understands what I go through every day. I also want people to understand the grind of the series.”
Matusow just lately spoke with Card Player to debate the upcoming movie and his life, together with particulars on poker, his spinal damage, and why he believes he deserves to be within the Poker Hall of Fame.
Pulling Back The Curtain
When it involves revealing moments, not many poker gamers are as clear as Matusow. An emotional participant who’s not afraid to disclose his interior ideas and emotions, the 55-year-old poker professional was TV gold through the top of the poker growth. His penchant for trash speak and bravado on the tables intoxicated viewers as many tuned in to take a look at the sport’s intricacies and personalities for the primary time. Matusow grew to become one of many sport’s first poker celebrities and the poker followers ate up the motion.
Beyond the drama and banter, Matusow additionally introduced some main chops to the desk as properly. Along with 4 WSOP bracelets, Matusow completed sixth within the 2001 predominant occasion and returned 4 years later, and with the Moneymaker Effect working full throttle, he once more made the ultimate desk – ending ninth for $1 million. That identical yr additionally introduced a win within the WSOP Tournament of Champions for one more $1 million.
He narrowly missed out on a World Poker Tour title in 2007, ending second within the Bellagio Cup for $670,000. Then in 2013, he took down the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship for $750,000.
Earlier this yr he scored a win on PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel, defeating Shaun Deeb in a heads-up match. This summer time was strong for Matusow as properly, with eight cashes on the collection, together with a runner-up end within the $1,500 stud eight-or-better occasion and a fifth-place exhibiting within the $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship. The 55-year-old now has $10 million in profession match cashes.
Zarrillo grew up watching a lot of these Matusow moments and. Originally from Toms River, New Jersey, and now residing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Zarrillo has directed a number of documentaries already, together with an award-winning doc about wrestler Q. T. Marshall.
The filmmaker believed Matusow could be equally good for his subsequent challenge – an enormous persona with loads to say. The Big F crew adopted Matusow’s play on the WSOP over the previous few years together with the ultimate yr it was held on the Rio. Beyond poker, Matusow gives some perception on the ache he’s endured for the final a number of years.
“It was really fun,” Matusow says of the movie. “I enjoyed it because it really just gives people a feeling of what I’ve been dealing with since my injury. Every day I live life in debilitating pain, and it just really sucks.”
Obviously coping with a spinal damage isn’t preferrred for poker. Having to spend hours and hours in a chair will be excruciating. Many poker gamers might have seen Matusow rolling round tournaments on a scooter in recent times as he offers together with his situation, which impacts the higher and center a part of the again.
His first surgical procedure got here in 2008, however in 2014 his chair collapsed whereas enjoying a match. Matusow remembers screaming in agony for a bit, however the ache quickly handed, and he was again within the match with out lacking an excessive amount of of the motion.
“Once the pain went away, we were all kind of laughing about it,” he says. “The next thing you know is that fall ended up almost paralyzing me.”
The damage and the ache bought progressively worse. Doctors even requested if he’d been in a automobile accident. And to make issues worse, it was affecting his play. About a month earlier than the 2014 WSOP, Matusow misplaced $200,000 in a money sport, one of many largest losses of his profession. He then went 0 for 14 in a single stretch on the WSOP whereas limping round and struggling to stroll.
“I never ever had a losing WSOP,” he says. “I kept telling everybody, ‘There’s something neurologically wrong with me.’ They thought I was crazy. I said, ‘Hands I’m supposed to raise, I’m folding. Hands I’m supposed to call, I’m raising.’ My brain wasn’t working right.”
Two weeks after the collection, Matusow started seeing docs for a collection of exams. His girlfriend on the time finally urged docs carry out an MRI to test for a thoracic spinal contusion, a uncommon damage often present in sufferers who expertise extreme trauma. Matusow may barely stroll on the time and skilled numbness in his toes. A high spinal surgeon in Las Vegas mentioned his case was the worst he’d ever seen and beneficial an knowledgeable. Matusow was then bounced from physician to physician earlier than a surgeon lastly agreed to do the surgical procedure.
“If you don’t have this surgery within the next two weeks, you’re going to be 100% paralyzed,” he remembers the surgeon telling him on the preliminary go to. The surgical procedure came about in October 2014 and his probabilities of paralysis had been nonetheless about 20%.
Matusow ended up within the ICU for every week and extra setbacks adopted, however he at the least didn’t lose the lack of his limbs. He went by means of in depth rehab, however nonetheless had nerve injury on the correct aspect of the physique. Despite the process, extreme ache persevered. It was a troublesome time throughout and he went broke in 2016, dropping his residence within the course of. Daniel Negreanu stepped in to lend him some money, and he misplaced that too.
“I paid him back now, everything’s going well,” he says. “But for five years I felt pretty sorry for myself. I blamed everybody. I lost faith in God, lost faith in everybody – but I’ve got all that back now.”
Fighting Through The Pain
Matusow had yet one more surgical procedure to restore one other disc in his again. Along with the again points, ache progressed to his hip and knee. Recently, he’s been going by means of bodily remedy in hopes of discovering some enchancment. Some days he nonetheless can’t get away from bed, however he tries to soldier on and convey his greatest to the desk, attempting to do sufficient to warrant his induction into the Poker Hall of Fame.
“What really bothers me is I’ve made like $3.5 million playing poker the last three years and I sit there and am still able to compete against the best in the world,” he says. “And I’m playing in debilitating pain every day. The fact that they haven’t put me in the Hall of Fame really bothers me because I should have been in 10 years ago.”
When it involves the “fame” a part of the establishment, not many gamers have as a lot as Matusow. At tournaments, followers recurrently hunt down autographs and pictures with the person generally known as ‘The Mouth.’ Looking at his personal historical past, Matusow believes his résumé stacks up towards any latest inductee and is hoping the documentary may function a car to remind poker followers and gamers what he’s dropped at the sport. He has been a finalist for the corridor in 9 out of the final 11 years, however continues to fall quick.
“They put people in the hall of fame in front of me that are an absolute embarrassment, people who could never beat me in any game ever.”
Most within the poker world are unaware of simply how dangerous his damage is, Matusow says. He’s mentioned the problem with Phil Hellmuth, however believes the doc will shed some mild on what he offers with enjoying on the desk and in his every day life. The aim is to additionally supply some perception on how troublesome it may be to earn a residing enjoying match poker at a excessive degree.
“When you want something bad enough, you can do it,” he says. “You’re able to focus.”
For the 2023 WSOP, Matusow booked a room for the collection and acquired a therapeutic massage each day. He additionally underwent IV injections to assist together with his stamina and vitamin consumption. The routine labored and several other deep runs fell his approach, however Matusow remains to be coping with ache and battling is a every day wrestle. More surgical procedures are attainable sooner or later, however poker stays a driving drive to maintain him transferring ahead.
“My life’s a nightmare,” he says. “It sucks, but it is what it is.”
Looking Back And Looking Ahead
Beyond his rehab, Matusow works in as a lot poker as attainable. He performs a nightly on-line residence sport and appears for occasions near residence in Las Vegas. His podcast, The Mouthpiece, additionally retains him busy.
Much of Matusow’s life has revolved round poker to a point. He started as a supplier in 1993 and spent three years within the field earlier than switching sides. Matusow was grinding earlier than televised occasions grew to become the norm, earlier than on-line poker, earlier than celeb video games, earlier than streaming, and earlier than vlogging.
Looking again, a few wins stand out in Matusow’s thoughts. At the 2002 WSOP he confronted Daniel Negreanu heads-up for the bracelet within the $5,000 Omaha eight-or-better occasion. Matusow has been open about battling drug points at instances and even spent six months in jail in 2004-05 for offering medicine to an undercover police officer. That yr, he’d been detoxing from crystal meth and says, “all I wanted to do was kill myself for hours.” Despite these ideas, he was capable of ship the bracelet together with $148,520.
Another memorable win got here in 2013, when Matusow received the NBC National Heads-Up Championship. He’d initially planning on skipping the match, however had a dream that he’d take down the title. Matusow went on to defeat Phil Hellmuth within the remaining match for the highest prize of $750,000.
“I played so out of my mind for six matches,” he says. “It was incredible. It was probably the best I’ve ever played in my life.”
The win got here at a essential time for Matusow. He was struggling financially after the shutdown of Full Tilt Poker. The firm paid him a hefty month-to-month payment to advertise the model and far of that went out the door through massive sports activities bets. He additionally had $400,000 on the positioning that he says he by no means bought again, together with threats from the general public who had been upset in regards to the web site’s failure. Matusow had to return to the tables – and the heads up win actually helped.
“People told me to put this money away that Full Tilt gives you because you never know what can happen,” he says. “Of course, I had a big ego and my whole outlook was, ‘What the fuck is going to happen? Full Tilt is making $2.5 million a day, it’s not going out of business.’ I went from being set for life and hoping to have $100 million by 2015, to dead broke and almost paralyzed in a year and a half. It’s been a long road back.”
Many might argue that poker and the methods behind the sport have seen some dramatic modifications over the past 20 years – from GTO to the usage of solvers and blockers and quite a few different new phrases and theories. Matusow prefers to say that poker remains to be the identical sport and he brings a lot the identical strategy to enjoying playing cards as he did 20 years in the past. He believes these old-school approaches are timeless and factors to the success of gamers like Hellmuth for example.
“You have instincts,” he says. “All the solver people are like, ‘Nobody’s clairvoyant. Nobody knows what people have.’ Phil Hellmuth supposedly ‘doesn’t play with any fucking skills,’ but yet he fucking knows what everybody has. And he still wins. And all they do is make fun of him and tell him how bad he is at poker.”
“I just don’t think the game has changed that much,” he added. “Before it was easy to pick up the dead money. Now you have to fight for the dead money. That’s all. Poker’s not hard. It’s like everybody thinks you’re a fucking nit and then you just rob them.”
Matusow has little interest in solvers and utilizing expertise to investigate fingers or enjoying kinds. That takes among the appeal and leisure out of really enjoying the sport so far as he’s involved. He additionally thinks that figuring out he’s up towards these kinds of gamers permits him to use them.
“Even with Doug Polk videos, he’s going through the whole solver – ‘This hand does this, and this hand does this.’ Who gives a fuck? Do you really want to play poker like that? Poker is supposed to be fun. Poker’s supposed to be a game. I’d quit poker before I started studying charts. My brain tells me what works.”
For data on the upcoming Matusow documentary, go to BigFPictures.com.
*Photos by Card Player, PokerGO, and Big F Pictures