Hang on tight as Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, poker player extraordinaire, takes you with him on a breathtaking, true-life roller coaster ride from his humble beginnings in a trailer park to a rock and roll lifestyle full of hot women, sex, wild drug-filled parties and million-dollar wins and losses. Yet behind the glamour and glory of his high-stakes poker career lurked the flip side: a person torn between two debilitating mental illnesses?—?bipolar disorder and ADHD. To dig himself out of depression and suicidal despair, Matusow turned to dangerous street drugs to self-medicate a problem he didn’t understand, and spiraled deeper into the darker world of addiction, police narcotic stings, and jail time.
In this revealing and tumultuous autobiography, the combustible Matusow holds nothing back. You’ll get a mouthful of the man behind the infamous Matusow Meltdowns seen on national TV.
Riveting, exhilarating, sexy, sometimes shocking and always fascinating, this voyeur’s look into the world of high-stakes poker, mental illness, and ultimately, Matusow’s inspiring redemption, will keep you glued to your seat until the very last page!
The 'Mouth' Tells All ^ Check-Raising The Devil, copyright 2009 by Mike Matusow, published by Cardoza Publishing, 269 pp, written by Matusow with help from Amy Calistri and Dr. Tim Lavalli.
This book is the story of Mike Matusow's poker adventures, beginning with his hopelessly losing sessions at video poker while working at his parent's furniture store and culminating with Matusow's triumphant return to the poker world after a 6-month stint in jail on a trumped up drug charge.
Even in those first few sessions, "The Mouth" could readily see the game had far more to do with playing the other players than in playing your cards. In his own words, Matusow was a "natural" and began winning big in cash games from the start.
Matusow's rise in poker began a full decade before ESPN would televise Chris Moneymaker's incredible run in the 2003 WSOP Main catapaulting poker onto the national stage and giving players like Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Johnny Chan, Amarillo Slim and Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson celebrity status. But even then Matusow knew his life would be devoted to playing poker.
The book includes tells of his hard-scrabble existence surviving on junk food and living alone in a trailer, the trials and challenges he faced on the way to stardom and how street drugs almost led to him sharing the fate of the late, great poker champion Stu Unger.
Poker players and poker fans will really enjoy sharing the roller-coaster life of this great player.
Surprisingly Interesting Book ^ When I bought this book I knew little about Mike Matusow outside of the WSOP telecasts where he is portrayed as a mean, obnoxious bully at the poker tables who cries when he loses. After reading the book I have drastically changed my view of him. He comes across from the book as a gentle man who has battled a number of mental illnesses and has been able to control them enough and still be one of the top poker players in the world. I previously never realized how accomplished Mike has been in the poker world having won 3 WSOP bracelets as well as a WPT title. This book is a quick, easy read and was hard to put down. His run-in with the law and subsequent jail time opened my eyes to the unethical and corrupt reality of the law enforcement and legal system in some areas of the country (i.e., Clark County Las Vegas). I think after reading the book you too will have a greater appreciation of Matusow and what he has been able to accomplish in his life.
Slightly interesting ^ If Mike didn't repeat himself over and over again, this book would be 3 pages. The book in summery; "I play poker, I did drugs, I did a few strippers, I did more drugs, I did time, I play poker."
Interesting Bio ^ I was very engaged in reading about Mike's life. The guy sure has experienced a lot. The book was well-written.
A Gripping Autobiography of a Poker Great ^ Mike Matusow's autobiography was gripping from the beginning until the end and even educational on many levels, not just on playing effective poker, but what to expect if you ever get arrested.
Easily the most interesting part of his biography related to his experience getting arrested for drug trafficking and the time he spent in jail after the judge gave him a "6 months straight" prison sentence.
This autobiography takes us inside the mind of Mike Matusow who shares how he became a great poker player after living a more or less deadbeat adolescence to his years working as a dealer to his discovery of his ability to play one of the hardest card games in the world to master.
He then takes the reader quite effectively thru his years of winning millions to his years of spending and losing millions at the whim of a drug habit combined with his bipolar mood swings.
He also takes us through some of his memorable poker stories. The most capitivating was his poker of champions victory and the rivalry he had with "the fossil" during the 2004 WSOP ME.
He's quite frank about his opinions and open about his life. He also uses wonderful poker metaphors and applies them to real life experiences. All and all, I enjoyed the read but had issues with him revealing information on a police officer citing exact names and what not. That's not a good thing to do given that police risk their lives undercover. Although Matusow explains why he named a police officer in question, and although he had a point, I still find that part of his openness overly self righteous. If the police officer gave Matusow consent to use his name, then I guess that was ok, but I don't believe he did get consent. Now a police officer, however crooked he may seem, is out on the streets trying to arrest people that could be legitimately evil people who have info on him and could lead to something deadly that isn't fair.
Still an enjoyable read.
Despite everything, this book makes us realize that the Mike Matusow we've loved to hate really does have a heart.
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