Interesting hand from Poker After Dark. Matusow is always putting down opponents and criticizing them for not knowing how to play poker and trumping himself as such a great no limit hold'em player. In this hand we're down to three players -- Matusow, Negreanu and David Grey. I'm not sure of the chip stacks, but none of them appear to be too short-stacked. In the hand Grey is on the button and folds, Negreanu has K9o and completes his small blind, and Matusow makes a standard bet with K7s. Negreanu calls and checks in the dark.

The flop comes T87 with two hearts (neither player has a heart). Matusow checks his bottom pair. The turn brings an offsuit K giving Mike two pair and Daniel one pair. Daniel checks his top pair and open-ended straight draw, Matusow bets about half the pot, Daniel goes all in and Matusow instantly calls. The river brings a 6 and the straight for Daniel and Matusow is out.

Matusow doesn't lose his cool and is polite, but first complains that he was a 4-1 favorite, this always happens to him and he perfectly trapped Daniel and now this happens. It always happens to him, yada, yada, yada. He later tells Shana that he was a 3.5 to 1 favorite.

Well a few things about the hand. First, he wasn't a 4-1 favorite or even a 3.5 to 1 favorite. He was just slightly better than 2-1. Daniel wins with any 6 or J for the straight, a 9 for a better two pair, a T for a better two pair and an 8 splits the pot.

Also, what kind of trap did Mike set? He raised preflop with nothing special which is fine, but certainly not a trap. He checks button pair on the flop which actually seemed a bit weak and on the turn he bets about half the pot which seemed like a good value bet to get a call. It certainly wasn't some advanced poker trap. Of course he was smarting from the hand, but to say he was a 4-1 favorite and that he set a trap just seems plain dumb.

Thoughts?

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