TELL ME IT AIN’T SO!

The post for today begins on a positive note. We have completed enough of the Las Vegas Poker Tournament Schedule to release a beta version. The tournament database is quite robust and allows the user to locate events by dates, days or months. The tournaments may be regularly scheduled events or one time affairs. A major benefit to poker players will be the opportunity to quickly find events for days you are going to be in Las Vegas. Simply enter the dates of your stay here and you will see a comprehensive listing of poker events coinciding with your schedule. Remember, this new feature is in early beta and we will be filling out the details. Give it a try and if you locate problems please e-mail so we can get them corrected.

I’m writing the following with some degree of trepidation and disappointment. I’m disappointed with many things including the apparent problems that a very well known professional poker player, residing here in Las Vegas, is now involved. Before I go too deeply into this story I have to add the following disclaimer: “It’s only a rumor in the street.” I also need to give you some facts of life here in Las Vegas. Nevada, contrary to popular opinion, has some of the toughest drug laws in the nation. Possession of one marijuana seed is a felony here in the Battle Born state. In other words, if you do anything illegal with any drug (prescription or street) and get caught you are in big trouble and you will damn well do hard time (Another disclaimer: If you are well connected you may be excused).

My hobby is going through the traffic logs for LasVegasVegas.com and reducing the data through trend analysis to something useful. I often get a preview of breaking news events before they are out on the street. A search of our logs during the last few days has revealed an inordinate number of Google searches for arrest, drugs and Matusow. I know that Matusow is not a real common family name but I do know at least four unrelated people with the surname. I have researched the incidence of combining the words in a search and found that someone named Mike Matusow was arrested in 2003 by an undercover narc for selling drugs. This person was charged with seven counts, five of which have been dropped or set aside. I have done more research on the street chasing down rumors and can relay the following information. The clandestine drug in question was a prescription pill sold in small quantities to an undercover cop. Apparently the narc had convinced “this Matusow” that he was in considerable pain and needed it to return to a life without pain. If this is the Matusow I know he may have fallen for the story and provided the drugs if they were available. He would have done this out of compassion and not for profit, he doesn’t need the dollars realized from a drug deal The Mike I know would give you whatever he had if you convinced him you were in need. The Mike I know gave away much of the millions he has won at poker to anyone with a hard luck story, true or not, he’s that kind of human being. I know many people do not care for his table persona. I do agree that he sometimes gets close to the edge of acceptable behavior; but, I guess many of his critics never observed some of the old legends of the game and their table manner. If you think that table personality is the real Mike then you probably believe that the real Toby McGuire can spin webs and swing from buildings like a spider. I will stay very close to this story and report everything. I will get to the bottom of all of this and blog the real story complete with names and details.

On a positive note for Mike Matusow I learned the following. He finished third in the just completed Main Event in Aruba. This will be another WPT final table for Mike and I am sure I will enjoy watching his table antics. He is one of the new breed of characters in championship poker and viewers that like him tune in to see what he will do next and viewers that dislike him tune in to see what he will do next. Mike is good for ratings.