G911 World Exclusive: Matusow Doubts He Caught Covid at UFC 264
Published on:
Jul/21/2021
LAS VEGAS — Poker pro Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, currently suffering from Covid, doesn’t think he caught the disease when he attended a UFC event a week and a half ago in town.
Instead, he thinks he might have caught it two days earlier while playing poker.
In an exclusive interview with Gambling 911, Matusow revealed that he was at a local event on July 8 that combined poker and politics, and that may have caused the problem.
“I was at an event with Republican legislators who wanted to play poker with me,” Matusow said. “There were a lot of people in tight quarters.
“Somebody there gave me a ticket for UFC 264, which I went to a couple of days later. At the UFC event though, I was in a large box (suite) with only a couple other people who were far away for me.
“So I think I caught Covid at the poker event, not the UFC event,” he continued. “The only other person I came in close contact with was a valet, so it may have been from him.”
Matusow, who’s been suffering from Covid for about a week now, said he has started to feel a little better in the last couple of days. (Covid normally runs its course in about two weeks.)
“I have completely lost my sense of taste, but my sense of smell is fine,” he said.
Told that he should take advantage of the opportunity to eat foods that are good for him but he may not like, he replied, “That’s what my mother said.”
Matusow noted that he has been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, and that’s where his problems may have begun.
“After my second shot, in April, I had a bad reaction,” he said. “I wasn’t able to lift my arm above my head for seven weeks.
“Finally, the doctor gave me steroids and that helped immediately. But steroids weaken the immune system, so that likely made me more susceptible to catching Covid. So in a way the vaccine is to blame.”
Matusow, 53, is one of the top professional poker players in the world.
He has earned about $10 million playing live tournament poker, and millions more in cash games and online.
He has also won four World Series of Poker championship bracelets, and is the only person in history to have won bracelets in four different disciplines of poker: no-limit hold ‘em, stud, draw and Omaha.
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Chief Correspondent
