By jackbobby on February 28th, 2007 (more posts by author)

Interesting hand from Poker After Dark. Matusow is always putting down opponents and criticizing them for not knowing how to play poker and trumping himself as such a great no limit hold'em player. In this hand we're down to three players -- Matusow, Negreanu and David Grey. I'm not sure of the chip stacks, but none of them appear to be too short-stacked. In the hand Grey is on the button and folds, Negreanu has K9o and completes his small blind, and Matusow makes a standard bet with K7s. Negreanu calls and checks in the dark.

The flop comes T87 with two hearts (neither player has a heart). Matusow checks his bottom pair. The turn brings an offsuit K giving Mike two pair and Daniel one pair. Daniel checks his top pair and open-ended straight draw, Matusow bets about half the pot, Daniel goes all in and Matusow instantly calls. The river brings a 6 and the straight for Daniel and Matusow is out.

Matusow doesn't lose his cool and is polite, but first complains that he was a 4-1 favorite, this always happens to him and he perfectly trapped Daniel and now this happens. It always happens to him, yada, yada, yada. He later tells Shana that he was a 3.5 to 1 favorite.

Well a few things about the hand. First, he wasn't a 4-1 favorite or even a 3.5 to 1 favorite. He was just slightly better than 2-1. Daniel wins with any 6 or J for the straight, a 9 for a better two pair, a T for a better two pair and an 8 splits the pot.

Also, what kind of trap did Mike set? He raised preflop with nothing special which is fine, but certainly not a trap. He checks button pair on the flop which actually seemed a bit weak and on the turn he bets about half the pot which seemed like a good value bet to get a call. It certainly wasn't some advanced poker trap. Of course he was smarting from the hand, but to say he was a 4-1 favorite and that he set a trap just seems plain dumb.

Thoughts?