Mike Matusow first met aces with queens and then got slowrolled by Shaun Deeb, who held a four of a kind. The four times WSOP champion lost it.
The Poker Night in America TV show is currently being shot with some of the biggest names in poker, to restore the popularity of the game in the United States. While the first episodes are to hit the TV screen in 2014, producers of the show have already started a powerful marketing campaign to popularise the series. The several promotional materials published include the one below, where Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow is put through some difficult poker moments: first, his pocket queens meet aces, and then Shaun Deeb slowrolls him with a four of a kind. Needless to say, Matusow lost it completely over the incident.
The hand in question received great publicity and several community members believe Matusow, who is often considered one of the most annoying poker persons around, had it coming, while others say it was an unethical move from Deeb, even if a funny one. Yet others support that no matter who your opponent is, a professional players is not allowed to pull such moves and Deeb is a douche anyway.
After the barrage of criticism, Deeb felt the need to defend himself in a post:
“Just to chime in yah I’ve done a lot of slowrolls in my day a few times for a lot more equity than this pot. Timing was really poor he just did lose that 30k+ pot the hand before. But as anyone can see its a fun homegame **** talking was encourage we were there to have a good time and slowrolling was at the time a good decision.
But, Mike and myself are very close friends have logged many hours and we had discussed years prior his hate of slowrolls I had forgotten that in the moment and regretted it since I feared it would hurt our friendship. Anyone who thinks mikey was acting doesn’t know him but as you can see the rest of the table thought it was hilarious and that’s the type of table it was,” he wrote.
This is not the first time Deeb challenges the patience of the poker community with his unique sense of humour; he is well remembered to be the first to enter the WSOP Ladies Event in 2010. After serious attacks on his actions, he moved on to apologize.