I think you hit this exactly. At the table, we can all see you are two guys who know each other well doing what you always do. But when you are The Commentator - well, then you are giving an opinion as an expert. If I were Mike, I think I might wish someone in that position, just once, would also say, "This guy is a helluva player." It's hard to make any progress when everyone around you insists on still seeing you as that screw-up you are trying not to be. You might hope maybe when a friend gets a chance, they could use it to build you up a little bit, so I can see where he is coming from. (BTW, not that he cares what some nobody on a message board thinks, but if you talk to him, you might tell him I'm a big fan of his and admire his courage as well as his ability.)

Oh yeah, and how do you pronounce his name? I keep hearing it both ways - the last syllable rhyming with "how" and also with "hoe." How does he say it? And speaking of which, is the last syllable of your name like "you" or just "oo?"

These monumentally important issues need to be settled once and for all!

just saw the episode..i thought it was kinda harsh, main reasons being that mike couldn't defend himself, and i think seeing the hole cards makes it very easy to see others' weaknesses.

but i also remember DN tearing a new one for poor jamie on the score, lol!! to his face!

is HSP edited for time? are we missing hands? maybe it was made to appear as if DN was on his case (moreso)?

anyways...your wife goes to bed at 5:30am?? man, it must be a totally diff. world when u don't have to wake up early..not knockn', it's my dream..

I am surely among many of those in forum who enjoys poker on TV. After we get bored of playing on the internet for 8 hrs stright when no live games are available, we tune it to watch our favorite pros batle it out for milions of dollars. It is always a treat to turn on the tv and see someonewith so much class and humor at the table.

Thank you Daniel for making poker on TV what it is meanto be...entertainment. It can never become a very effective teaching tool (especially the WSOP episodes) but we rely on you all to provide us the look into the high stakes life. I hope you clear things up with Mike, as friendship is very important. We all get the joke, and know that you are trying to provide what GSN meant to provide from the very beginning...extremely entertaining television.

Thank you gain for being such a gentelman and so very enjoyable to watch.

Matusow and Negreanu are two names that are mispronounced often. The correct pronunciations are:

Mat-uh-so

and

Nuh-gron-oo

That's what I always say, too and I'm not trying to challenge you but....how do you know for sure?

Mike can be up and down emotionally too. Daniel might have just caught him on a bad day. I feel for Mike. I have a couple of relatives that are bipolar, and I'm a bit ADD myself. For him to struggle with both and have risen to the level of play that he is reached is pretty amazing.

He drives me crazy the way he runs his mouth, but I have read and heard that he can be a really nice guy away from the table. ... I think may people would think a lot more of him if he could learn to be more respectful of others at the table. In turn, he might start getting more respect.

I'm glad to see that the two of them were able to patch things up. Good friendships are hard to come by.

That's okay.

This is how Mike and Daniel pronounce their last names. It bugs me when the commentators mangle the pronunciations of their names.

Thanks. I just couldn't recall ever hearing either of them say their own last names.

I agree. I also know that something called "pressure to speech" is part of being bipolar, it seems pretty strong in him. Be nice to think everyone can just easily decide how much to talk or what to say, but the stress of a tournament can send a bipolar person into exactly what we see Matesow do. Tho' of course, I don't know if he has such a diagnosis. Might be common to other conditions, too, I guess.

I think what I admire is the courage it must take to have these personal episodes televised, listen to a lot of critical public commentary, and still keep coming back and trying to work, again and again. I don't think, no, I'm sure, I don't have the guts to do it.

I agree, Daniel being in the booth, along with the editing that may have taken place, really plunge the needle deep into Mike. However, does anyone remember Mike fanning Shieky with his own bills?? Mike also put a bounty on Sean's head- $1k to any dealer that felted him. I love watching these guys needle... throw Helmuth in the mix, and the fireworks are so fun to watch. The #1 rule of needling- you have to be able to take it if you can dish it out.

I have watched Mike insult, curse, degrade, and berate people for years (the Raymer incident in 04 comes to mind as a prime example), so the idea that he had his feelings hurt makes me laugh at him more than I usually do.

I hate these people who generally say and do whatever they want then use the excuse "I was only kidding". Bullcrap!!!

But isn't that what Daniel did? (No offense DN, just pointing out the juxtaposition.) It was what he said on the blog.

I actually wasn't defending Daniel in this situation either, just saying that the idea that Matusow got offended by some comments was funny to me since I find the most insulting and annoying person I have ever seen at a poker table (Yes more that Hellmeuth and Tony G, though they are in my top 5).

I have to say I thought Jamie Gold at the ME was the most annoying, I kept having this fantasy about pouring Superglue into his mouth. But I hear you about these guys. Doesn't bother me so much, I figure it's illness or tactics, maybe a bit of both. But then, I used to be a cop, so as far as insults, I'm pretty much immune.

Semi-Baked; Perhaps if you stopped self-medicating yourself, your viewpoint of reality would be a little closer to the norm.

Mike is Mike, plain and simple. It's just a persona he puts on when he plays; no different than anyone else who has a "character" that they play. Phil Laak does it, Tony G does it, Helmuth does it (although personally I think this is closer to the real Phil than anyone elses characters are to their true personality).

I've shared some interesting e-mails with Mike & his brother. Very, very nice people. I've also heard more than 1 top professional say that Mike is (paraphrasing here) one helluva poker player.

Go get 'em Mike!!

I don't self medicate myself, way to assume things about people you don't know.

You think Mike just puts up an act, you don't think that just for a minute he tries to be mean and hurtful with some of his comments? Youare truly stupid if you think it is just all innocent kidding around.

Well, let's see where I may have gotten the perception you deny. Your screen name is "SemiBaked".

Naaaah....no reason to assume anything.

And no, I don't think his ramblings are meant as anything more than kidding. There may be 1 instance out of 100 where he's actually hurtful, but I doubt it's anything more than a lapse into his problem of Bi-polar.

Have you ever lived with anyone with bi-polar? My wife's suffered from it for 15 years. Believe me, there's no intent there; but sometimes it cannot be helped. The occasions are few and far between, but do VERY rarely happen.

Now....if you want to talk about Phil Helmuth's outbursts......there we have an absolute, without a doubt intent.

you guys know what it means to assume dont you?

Well, I assume that I do.

My name has nothing to do with drugs, you make alot of snap judgements with no real information, you are probably a Christian, but I digress. Sometimes words and several meanings too sir.

You may think he is kidding around most of the time and sometimes it is just kidding around, but I have seen many instances of him on tv where he is be mean and hurtful. So if he is Bipolar, that gives him the right to be disrespectful to others? I think not sir.

And if you read my previous posts, I do mention that I don't like people like Helmeuth and Tony G, but obviously you didn't.

Wellllllll.......

As for bi-polar I think it's great that you wife is managing her illness in a way that makes her outbursts limited. I'm sure your support has much to do with it. But bi-polar is a spectrum, and some are more unstable, react less well to drug therapy. And, if you are bi-polar with an originally stable perosnality it's one thing, but if you have zero self-esteem, come from a pretty bad background.....things are pretty difficult. Add to this that Matesow puts himself in these exceptioonally stressful situations, playing a tournament like the ME, on TV no less and it's a mirale he survives at all. Like I said, I admire his courage very much, but I don't think it's all put on. Which makes me admire him more, actually, for sticking himself out there.

Now, about Hellmuth. C'mon this is a real screwed up guy. He has some kind of personality disorder, for sure. Being a Narcissist might garner a less compassionate response, but it's still a disorder. I kind of admire him, too, come to think of it. He is apparently compensating so well for what must be a miserable existence inside his own head that we think he is just mean instead of terrified he'll disappear altogether if he isn't the constant center of attention. I think it's why he is always late, I think he must be having an anxiety attack and throwing up a few times before he can make himself get into the car. I wouldn't trade places with either of them.

Imagine being someone whose life, behavior, psyche, were dissected on public message boards all the time. (Sorry guys.)

I'd bet Hellmuth had an agent tell him he needs to be "The Poker Brat" in order to stand out, and thusly make money off the table.

Firstly; to SemiBaked....I apologize if I jumped to the logical conclusion. Please inform me of the actual connotation of your screen name if you would.

Secondly, 11 to 1; you seem to have a fairly good basic knowledge of Bi-polar which is pretty unusual. You were correct about one of the key ingredients being support, and I think that Mike has that in abundance through his family. You also hit the nail on the head when you mentioned stressful situations. Add to this the sheer numbers of people in his immediate vicinity, many of them scrambling to get close to him for one reason or another, and it is amazing that he can comport himself as he does.

I also wanted to thank you for what I assume was a compliment to me about the support. I must tell you though, that without nearly 15 years of first many missed diagnoses, then a correct hunch by a therapist which lead to the most wonderful psychiatrist I've ever met, we would probably still be battling. Without this saintly woman, we would still be trying an endless array of medication combinations; some of which helped, some of which did not, but none of which made life livable for my wife.

Luckily, a recent development was recommended by her psychiatrist. It's called a VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulator), and it basically is a small pacemaker which constantly sends electrical impulses to the brain. It's allowed her to stabilize to the point where she volunteers at Goodwill 20 hours a week. After the many, many years since she was working, this is a breakthrough of unbelievable proportions.

Anyway, sorry to make this so long-winded, but I feel almost duty-bound to expound when Bi-polar is the subject. So many suffer from it without even knowing, and so many more are diagnosed but still don't improve.

I have no idea where Mike's at in his treatment, it's not for me to know...none of my business. But I will stand behind him no matter what anyone else thinks of him. I agree that not all of his actions are put-ons, but I'd bet that the greatest preponderance of them are.....that's all I was trying to get across originally.

Go get 'em Mike, be yourself because that's all any of us can hope for.

What Daniel said about Mike betting big to obtain small pots was right on the money. Mike M. continuously risks either his whole stack or a large pecentage of his stack on a pot that is not worht the risk - because all it takes is one call to felt him. And he has and does get felted. Obviously he will get action in a lot of games by the way his game is now publicized - so if I give Mike M a lot of credit, maybe he is playing one way on TV and another in private. I doubt it though. I think Mike should take some lessons from Daniel, from Gus, from Doyle. BTW, Jamie gold looks a little queer with his eye make-up, though he really tries to come off as with humility and self effacing statements, my guess is that he really has a big ego and is playing for public conumption. I think ther Aussie guy is more sincere and real than Jamie Gold is. I do love to watch Gabe though - even though he has turned into an old codger, he is likeable. My mom used to babysit him in NYC when he was a kid.