The Lava Bot

Mike ‘the Mouth’ Matusow has quickly become one of the most talked about players in all of professional poker, primarily due to his own talking about himself, which often turns to rubble. Mike has become known for his extremely erratic play in which he will go from playing very solid, aggressive and smart poker, to suddenly making donkey moves that get him stuck for all his chips.

One of the most popular terms in relation to Matusow’s style is the Mike Matusow Blow Up, in which the above mentioned donkey moves launch him from first to worst and send him on a temper tantrum that often can make Phil Hellmuth look calm.

When he is on, Mike is capable of playing extremely impressive poker, as evidenced by his deep runs in many of the last few years’ WSOP Main Events. It is true, too, that even when Mike has busted out in these spots, he’s almost always gone in as a favorite and gotten his tournament life stamped out by a turn of bad luck.

On the same coin, for just as many good plays as you’ll see, the lesson to be learned is that it only takes one moment of ruin to destroy hours and hours of solid play. Don’t blow up.