Last night was apparently flashback night at the World Series of Poker, and I wouldn’t blame anyone if they thought they had time-travelled back to 2004. Two bracelets were awarded on Friday night; the first went to Mike Matusow, who won his fourth bracelet by triumphing in the $5k Seven Card Stud 8-or-better tournament, while at the final table of the $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem tournament Allen Cunningham just missed winning his sixth bracelet, and first since 2007.

Matusow’s victory came on the same day that Cardplayer Magazine posted an interview with “The Mouth” where he talked about his tournament prowess, calling himself the second best tournament player in poker history behind only Carlos Mortensen: “I play my three or four tournaments, and I win them. You know what I’m saying? Per tournaments played, there’s probably no one in the world except Carlos Mortensen that has ever done better than me. I don’t play many of them. It’s quality, not quantity.”

You can read the full Cardplayer.com interview with Mike here: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/15696-mike-matusow-i-m-the-second-best-tournament-poker-player-ever-considering-number-of-events-played

While this is an arguable point, for Matusow to win his fourth WSOP bracelet on the same day does somewhat backup his claim. Matusow’s bracelets and other big wins and scores have come in a variety of different formats ranging from his forte of high/low split games, to 2-7 Triple Draw to Heads-Up No Limit Holdem, so while I don’t really agree with his notion that he is among the best tournament players of all-time, he is most certainly one of the best-rounded tournament players in the game.

The win was Matusow’s first bracelet in five years (Mike did final table two events at last year’s WSOP), and comes on the heels of his NBC National Heads-Up Championship victory earlier this year. Here are the results from the two tournaments that concluded on Friday night:

Event #12: $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem

1. Lev Rofman — $166,136

2. Allen Cunningham — $102,819

3. Jaspal Brar — $68,332

4. Kenneth Shelton — $50,709

5. Anthony Harb — $38,055

6. Eric Crain — $28,839

7. Nicolas Halvorson — $20,050

8. Tim Reilly– $16,994

9. Jean-Nicolas Fortin – $13,195

Event #13: $5k Seven Card Stud 8-or-better

1. Mike Matusow – $266,503

2. Matthew Ashton – $164,700

3. Mike Leah – $108,412

4. David Baker – $79,078

5. Yuval Bronshtein – $58,835

6. Tony Cousineau – $44,543

7. Gavin Smith – $34,268

8. Vladimir Shchemelev – $26,757

The mid-2000’s flashback theme continued in other tournaments on Friday night as Bryan Micon (sans the Thriller Dance) made a deep run in Event #14, a $1,500 NLHE tournament and was one of the most updated on the WSOP.com live feed where his “The Icon” nickname was dusted off and reapplied to the now married father. Micon’s run in the tournament ended with a 34th place finish.

*Resources: www.wsop.com, www.thehendonmob.com

 

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