Matusow Wins Florida State Poker Championship

Maybe Mike Matusow spoke a little too harshly when declaring Florida’s poker players to be “terrible.” Then again, after his performance at the 2010 Florida State Poker Championship, maybe he still feels the same way.

Matusow topped a field of over 400 players to win the 2010 Florida State Poker Championship title, winning $103,000 for his efforts. The tournament, which had an $1,100 buy-in, was held at the Isle Casino in Pompano Beach.

Matusow came to Florida to teach a poker clinic, known as DeepStacks Live. The clinics were timed to occur just after the caps on poker wagers in Florida were lifted on July 1, making true no-limit games and large buy-in tournaments possible. Now that Florida was dealing what “The Mouth” referred to as “real poker,” it seemed like an ideal time to run his clinic.

For Matusow, the cash winnings were probably secondary to the exposure for DeepStacks Live, a fact he pointed out not long after the tournament ended.

"People need to know that when they take a DeepStacks Live camp they can expect to learn the same strategies I used to become the 2010 Florida State Poker Champion," Matusow said.

Matusow’s final hurdle on the road to victory was a heads up clash against Brian Gray. The short battle ended when Matusow flopped two pair with his KJ offsuit, while Gray caught a T on the turn to make two pair with his JT. After Gray made his second pair, all the money went in, with Matusow’s higher two pair holding a huge advantage. When then river came a blank, Matusow had won.

Mike Matusow has been one of the world’s most successful poker players over the past decade. Since bursting on the scene by winning the $3,500 No Limit Hold’em event at the 1999 World Series of Poker, Matusow has won over $7 million in poker tournaments, including a total of three World Series of Poker bracelets.

DeepStacks.com is a poker training website that features lessons taught by several professional players, including Matusow. The site also runs a variety of poker courses featuring Matusow, Tom McEvoy, Alex Outhred and others under the name DeepStacks Live.