 World
Series of Poker
Champ Mike “The
Mouth” Matusow is
Jailbird
A 2008 World Series
of Poker champ spent
six months in prison
for drug
trafficking,
reports Tom Somach
of PokerHelper.com.
Professional poker
player
Mike “The Mouth”
Matusow, known
as much for his
poker skills as for
his non-stop jabber
at the poker tables,
earlier this month
won 2008 WSOP Event
#18, a $5,000
buy-in, no-limit 2-7
lowball draw tourney
with rebuys.
The event drew 85
participants, paid
the Top 14 finishers
and had a total
prize pool of about
$1.7 million.
Matusow collected
$537,857 for the
win.
But it hasn’t all
been smooth sailing
for the 39-year-old
Las Vegas resident,
according to Somach.
Matusow was arrested
in 2003 at his Las
Vegas home for
selling drugs to an
undercover law
enforcement officer.
Specificially,
Matusow sold the
undercover agent
cocaine, Percocet
pills (a painkiller)
and Ecstasy pills (a
hallucinogen), the
media reports said.
In 2004, in court
and facing 10 years
in prison on the
charges, Matusow
copped a plea,
admitted to drug
trafficking and was
sentenced to six
months imprisonment
in the Clark County
Detention Center, a
Las Vegas jail, the
media reports said.
Matusow began
serving his sentence
in late 2004 and was
released from prison
in 2005.
But Somach is quick
to point out that
Matusow has
acknowledged his
dark - albeit recent
- past.
Shortly after his
release from prison
in 2005, Matusow
told the Baltimore
Sun: “It was all a
big setup. I was set
up by my doctor, who
was in some big
trouble. He begged
me to pick up some
drugs from someone,
and after they
caught me, they
wanted me to wear a
wire, because they
were after someone
prominent in town.
If I had, my life
could have been in
danger. But it
(distributing drugs)
was wrong, I
shouldn’t have done
it. Now, I’ve been
trying to be a good
person.”
 And
in 2007, Matusow
told USA Today: “I
still don’t believe
what I did. What has
happened to me in
the last five years
shouldn’t happen to
anybody. Drugs
became such a
natural part of my
life, I didn’t think
of them as illegal.
I was so dumb and
naive. I met someone
who became my friend
and who says he’d
never hurt me, and
he turns out to be
an undercover cop
and destroys me. I
thought it was a
joke.”
Matusow is just one
of a series of
"questionable"
characters appearing
at this year's World
Series of Poker.
They include a
person of
interest in a brutal
double murder
and a
convicted child
predator
----
Ace King,
Gambling911.com
Originally published
June 28, 2008 12:28
am EST
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