Is Mike the Mouth the best player on HSP right now?

[Zain Ali]

Asides from his loud mouth antics Mike Matusow is arguably the best player at the table so far this season. He's outplayed people on a few big pots and knows when his opponents are weak. He has Negreanu figured out so far and you can tell it's annoying Daniel. It's hard for me to say this but Mike to me is the best player there. What also impresses me about Mike is that on the Monte Carlo Millions he got Phil Ivey to talk. Mike kept jabbing verbal punches at him when all of a sudden Ivey leaned up on the table, looked over at Mike and said, "Meet me at the Bellagio." That was classic.
My second vote would go to Daniel Aiela(misspell perhaps?). He had an awesome reraise and read on Sammy Farha and also laid down his jacks against Antonio's bad luck Aces preflop. I can't wait untill The Sheik finally sits his butt down. That table will be entertaining.

[Zain Ali]

LOL at the Chamenara vote...

[mlagoo]

Laak, Esfandiari, and Alaei have all arguably been playing better. They just all play tighter.

My vote went to Alaei. Nice folds of AK and JJ, and he's been playing well post-flop as well.

[ClonexxSA]

Alaei has made some great reads/laydowns/raises.

Mike I think it playing well, but I also think he has gotten lucky on his bluffs. I can't bring myself to give him credit for reading the players at that table dead on. He is the kind of player that when he donks his chips out there and is right, he says he's a genius and the best player. When he donks his chips out there and is wrong, he says he is just unlucky.

Not to say that making those plays is easy. Hell, I have problems plopping $1 bets out to bluff let alone $20,000 [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Tornado69]

Daniel N said in his blog he got almost no cards for the most part of day 1 until the later part of the day so I'm sure we'll see him be in more pots in the later episodes. Mike should stick to playing live he seems to do much better than online ;p

[AEKDBet]

on that list the worst is Fred C, folled by Mike.

[Runner Runner]

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Laak, Esfandiari, and Alaei have all arguably been playing better. They just all play tighter.

My vote went to Alaei. Nice folds of AK and JJ, and he's been playing well post-flop as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think Laak has been playing well. His bluff was just weird and I think Alaei knew Laak didn't have anything but he couldn't call or raise himself. Also, Laak has missed a few chances to pick up some easy pots.

[PartySNGer]

I think this shows 2 things about Mike: 1) He is a very solid player and 2) He has a huge gambling problem.

There is no way a guy with his talent should be losing thousands, let alone millions. When Mike is focused and wants to play his best poker he can hang with the big boys, but he seems to get in trouble when just playing casually, and the losses can add up at higher stakes.

[Jooka]

Mike M us obviously a good player yet has money issues constantly which means in the long run he sucks. DN has hinted more than once now that Mike M isnt playing the game with his own money.

[rudolphf]

I wouldnt be surprised if it is his own money, hes playing scared money, twice with the running it twice and dissapearing after getting ahead