Trials of a Poker Apprentice: Busted Mouth

So admit it, we all enjoyed watching Mike the Mouth take it on the chin in the closing moments of this week's High Stakes Poker, didn't we?

Personally, I've gone back and forth on Matusow. I started off not liking the guy, considering him an asshole first, and then a baby when I saw him crying after busting out of the 2004 World Series. Then, watching him in last year's WSOP, I gained some respect for him because I was starting to see the method to his madness. Plus, his jibes at the table didn't seem quite as mean-spirited. Then, reading and hearing some interviews with him, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy who uses his mouth as just another weapon in his arsenal.

But Monday night, while I was getting a laugh from his remarks, he did step over the line on occasion, particularly by opening his mouth during the Antonio Esfandiari-Daniel Alaei-Sam Farha all-in hand. So it seemed like a little bit of justice being meted out on the final hand when he lost a goodly sum.

Still, anyone who can piss off Antonio the Magician can't be all bad.

But how about Daniel Alaei? Were those some wicked laydowns or what? I mean, there just aren't that many players out there who are going to lay down JJ or AK preflop. There are times when I know it's probably the right move, but I still can't do it.

All this just goes to show why High Stakes Poker continues to be the best poker show on television.

Speaking of poker on TV, the damned World Poker Tour has reworked their website so that now you cannot see who the players are on upcoming episodes. I went there today to check out tonight's episode, and the tournament page comes up blank. There is a video preview on the main page, but it went too fast for me to figure out who is on tonight's episode other than Barry Greenstein. To me, it looked like tonight will be Barry and a bunch of goobers, but I am almost certainly wrong.