He's been playing this game for how many years and still has a terrible mental game?!? Maybe he should just give up poker. I mean it's not like he just won the main event or something..he just won a hand...something that shouldn't be that big of a deal for someone who has been a professional in the public eye for 10 years.

Should have been a warning first. Maybe there was one , do we know?
If MM disregarded the warning and continued, some kind of penalty is OK.
I doubt the whole truth is being told, but the penalty does seem harsh enough considering the circumstances.

Maybe he should keep fighting.

Poor Mike has a mental illness and gets a penalty for it.

Kick Mentalism Out Of Poker.

Im pretty sure its the quiet robots turning people away from the game, not Mike Matusow.

How enlightened. Eagerly awaiting your list of things people on "that kind of medication" can do.

He got a penalty for a rule that doesn't exist?

How can anyone argue that is right? Of course the ruling floor should be fired. It just isn't acceptable to affect the tournament outcome like that.

How about year after year Phil Hellmuth swearing and yelling at any player that beats him in a pot? Year after year nothing is done. It's a joke.

Floorman is doing his job. It's not all about this moronic, infantile attention seeker. The other players shouldn't be forced to listen to his bullsh*t. Excessive attention wh*ring should be punished.

Bipolar doesnt work this way; the emotional swings are not immediate and in direct response to the environment. these are simply emotional swings that anyone with little self-control might experience.

Not saying that mike isn't bipolar, of course, just saying that this is not responsible for the sudden swing of high to low emotions in this case.

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+1. Tournament director hopefully will be held accountable though

Matusow is 46 years old. he can act like an adult or he can GTFO and quit playing tournament poker.

This comment should have ended the thread. Sure, if the rule no longer exists, it's a horrible ruling. Sure, if there is some form of a rule that would apply here, a warning may have been a better punishment. Fine. The TD messed up too. It's not the first time and it's not the last time a ref/administrator made a mistake during the course of his attempting to enforce the rules of a competitive event involving many competitors. NBA refs anyone? Heck I'm sure the national spelling bee has had a bad judge ruling at least once in it's histroy.

Doesn't change the fact that:
1) Matusow acted like a complete child by one-upping Fillipo Candido in terms of unresonable celebration in winning a big pot late in a tournament (but certainly not the tournament win itself), then

2) managed to outdo himself in terms of "how can I act like a 5 year old" by having a mental meltdown and spewing off his chips in epic fashion as part of basically a temper tantrum about a bad ruling. Newsflash - bad rulings happen, you still have plenty of chips late in a tournament, STFU and get back to playing poker, and as if it wasn't enough, then

3) cried about it in a ridiculously self-centered and delusional rant where he actually had the gall to say it "cost him the tournament", which is wrong for two reasons, first, his post-ruling spew had far more to do with the bust-out, (I believe it accounted for far more chips lost than the missed hands did) and second, even if it was the sole reason for the bust-out, a CHANCE to win the tournament is far different from the win itself...and even when he realized he was wrong at least on that fact, he then

4) Still insisted he was guaranteed a final table appearance, and tried to justify such stupidity with more insanity by arguing "momentum" and "cards have streaks" and "I could have won 4 of those hands and that's a huge amount of chips", you could have also lost all 4 and busted out even earlier than you did.

4 unique and entirely distinct demonstrations of a complete lack of maturity and self-control. All because of a legitimately error/mistake from a well respected TD. Newsflash - people make mistakes.

Oh, and just to further highlight some other good short summaries here:

Mike's been playing poker professionally for how many years now? And he still reacts to winning a big pot like it's a once in a lifetime experience?

Also, people seem to think that you need outbursts like these for poker to be fun to watch on tv and neccesarily for the game to stay popular. That's flat out wrong. You can show emotion and be likeable and social and good for TV without being a complete crybaby tool. Fillipo Candido is not why people watch poker. There is a middle ground between "Mike Matusow temper tantrum" and "Andrew Robl no-selling any form of a personality". The vast majority of people understand this. Poker on TV doesn't need everyone to be DNegs; as long as you're not stone silent and have some personality it'll be good TV. Phil Galfond's a great example - he's not some over the top personality but he does plenty enough and a table where everyone puts in that level of personality is more than enough. All you need is to not have complete soulless rocks who can't socialize or demonstrate any level of personality or depth of character past "5bet to induce overjam lol gg nhnhnh".

Actually speaking of Robl, I only mentioned him because of that one PokerStars Big Game Episode where DN got mad at him b/c of TV-related issues so he was the first name that popped into my head when I tried to think of a no-emotion no-personality poker player on TV. For all I know he's an absolute blast to hang out with and makes for great TV. Also, the name jumped out at me b/c he was the winner of a gross suckout where Patrik Antonious demonstrated exactly how you can show emotion, make a joke, be friendly, be good for TV, and still take a massively gross cooler in stride without embarassing yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49cDMHMITMg

This is a very poor generalization. Here is only a slightly better one:

Bipolar is intense, and can always be intense. You experience emotional reactions to things outside of the normal spectrum of occurrence, sometimes radically. Not only that, but returning to emotionally stable can take longer than someone without the disorder.

I'm affected by it, and would bet a lot that Mikey is too. It can be a real disability. It certainly changes your life, though it's hardly invincible.

That said, I'm certain there were other people in that tournament with bipolar who behaved professionally .

The disorder is sort-of over and under-examined at the same time, and that's what made me a little sad, but not entirely sympathetic, about the ruling. He's been so open about his struggles and attempts to improve, and the penalty was a certain death sentence for him. (Of course I'm assuming his story is accurate.)

What if everyone who wins a hand does this at the WSOP and, at the same time, everyone else at the tables stands about and yells in a bad way about the winner of the hand. You could have 1500 people in the room doing this non-stop.

I forget the name of the golf tournament ion which the US team plays against the European team. But I remember one year in which the US team were yelling and high-fiving and running around the course when US players did well. It was a perfect example of bad sportsmanship.

If you have an illness or take medication that messes with your mood that badly that it causes you to act in a socially unacceptable way, while also playing for large sums of money, maybe, just maybe, poker isn't for you. Not sure why that's unenlightened. But whatever.

I feel for anyone who has something as devastating as bi-polar disorder. Like my father, for instance. But that doesn't mean you get a pass for acting like an ass.

I have empathy for Mike and his medical issue but you can't expect a unique set of rules for every player. All players should (especially the pros) act like they have been there before. A humble recognition of the win, stack your chips, sit down and play.

I really hate the fans acting like it is feeding time in the chimp cage when their player wins.

Its pretty disheartening how many people are saying its not a problem, "just stack up your chips and move on the next hand." You guys realize people like matusow doing what he did are what made poker as popular as it is right? If everyone just plays hands and casually nods after big pots no ****ing body is going to care or want to watch poker and the game is going to dry up.

People say that a lot, but is there any evidence that actually supports that claim? I'd be interested in seeing some polls of what things people say got them interested in poker. I'm sure there are some people that got interested because of wacky tv antics, but I bet it's not nearly as many as a lot of people think.

Poker literally wouldn't exist right now if not for Mike Matusow. Think online poker in the US, but for everywhere.

That might be the most inaccurate statement of the year/all time. Like "poker was going nowhere until some jackasses got involved -- they really saved the game!"

Head Khan and Eric Molina did not contribute to pokers popularity. Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson did.

Warning first would have been better imo, but I think the rule below would certainly apply here.

You appreciate it's a stud game right? So noone is watching anyway. ESPN on rolls out cameras for NLHE. Even so, it's just absurd to think anyone is entertained when some jackass all hyped up on redbulls or adderall or whatever starts whooping and hollering. NOONE wants to watch that crap. If the cost of the penalty is so steep because they were so deep and the blinds/antes so high, why is he wasting everyone's time doing his stupid celebration dance? Sorry, I've got no empathy for Mouth here. He's a grown-ass man, a professional. He should know how to "act like he's been there before", because he has. Funny how he and others claim there is no rule against this. Just about every sport/game in the world has rules concerning unsportsmanlike behavior. MM only has himself to blame.

Great point. If he has a mental illness that cannot be treated with medication to the point where he is able to play a card game where significant sums of money can change hands due to a variety of random factors while maintaing some semblance of composure, then that is an unfortuante situation but the answer is not to accomodate his inability to stay composed but rather for him to not play for such significant amounts of money. The rest of the world does not have to bend over backwards for a person's mental illness. For example, companies/businesses are legally required to make "reasonable accomodations". I think the same standard can be asked of people in dealing with other people. Reasonable accomodations doesn't mean tolerating insane temper tantrums.