[Zetack]

This is from Steve Rosenbloom's article at ESPN.com.

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Here's the scene outside the Taj poker room: A bunch of well-known players are looking to hit someone up for a loan so they can make the $10,000 buy-in and play in the USPC.


Smith and his beads are milling around with the likes of Mike "The Mouth'' Matusow, "Capt.'' Tom Franklin and Jean Robert Bellande.


"How can so many poker players be in one place with no money?'' Matusow asks out loud, but then, Matusow does everything out loud.


"We keep less than $10,000 on us when we come back from Aruba because if you have more, customs people ask questions,'' Smith explains.


So, here's how Matusow gets into the event: He approaches Barry Greenstein - Greenstein is back to growing a beard; more on that later - and ask Greenstein is he'll loan Seidel "10 dimes'' so Seidel can stake Matusow. This is how you connect the dots in poker.


Greenstein hands Seidel two gray chips - 5K each - and Seidel gives them to Matusow, and bingo, there you go, Matusow is in and Seidel, not Matusow, owes Greenstein.

One thing going on here is that Matusow still owes Greenstein $1,500 from the World Series of Poker.


"Some people I've loaned $100, $200, and they're afraid to come up and talk to me if they haven't paid it back,'' Greenstein says. "With Mike, $1,500 is a fair price.''





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The baseball playoffs are going on, and Matusow is complaining that none of the televisions in the Taj poker room show any of the games. I tell Matusow that the White Sox lead the Red Sox 5-0 after the first inning.


"I have $5,000 on them to win the series,'' Matusow says. "(Red Sox starter Matt) Clement's been getting smashed. The Red Sox just don't have the pitching this year.''


How can a poker player bet $5K on a baseball series and not have money for a tournament buy in? Just asking.



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Kenna James: "Fifty-five times he (Matusow) has called me an idiot. What's he going to call me when he's walking out after I bust him?''

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Interesting rule in the Taj poker room: A raise must be at least double the last bet, whereas in many events, a raise only has to be half-again the last bet.


The situation arose at Greenstein's table where one player bet out $800 and another threw out $1,500. A floorman ruled that the player who threw out $1,500 had to take back $700 and could only make the call of $800.



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Is that last part right? At a lot of 10k buyin events if somebody bets 800 you can make a 400 dollar raise? I've never played in a game with a rule like that. Course I've never played in any major tournaments either.


--Zetack