Phil Ivey Biography
Phil Ivey is easily considered to be the best poker.com players in history and he has more fans then your average poker player and can often be found in the media spotlight. Phil has always loved anything to do with gambling and winning money and he started gambling at a very young age. Before Ivey was even legal age to gamble in the USA he was playing with a fake ID in Atlantic City casinos as he lived nearby in Jersey which is where he grew up.
Ivey didn’t begin playing on the poker circuit until the year 2000 and he started out with a bang as he won his first WSOP bracelet that year in a PLO event. Ivey won three more WSOP bracelets in 2002 which was an incredible performance for anyone let alone a player as young as Ivey. Phil has also played very well in Bellagio and Commerce events throughout the years.
Ivey was won his fifth WSOP bracelet in 2005 and then he cooled down on the WSOP circuit until recently in 2009 where he has already won two bracelets. Ivey has yet to win a bracelet playing NL Holdem which is why some people believe he isn’t the best Holdem player in the world, but the best poker player in the world. He has proven to be able to win in numerous different poker games without much problem and he is definitely one of the most feared poker players in the world.
Phil is always in the media spotlight and has made a ton of appearances on television shows such as Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, Aussie Millions Cash Game and many others. Ivey is a bluff master and is never scared to gamble his chips away, which is why he is so hard to play against. You will often see him on television bluffing his chips away with nothing but a 9 high or something, and often he will get away with it. Andy Beal who is a poker billionaire played against Ivey in a heads-up challenge and in only 3 days Ivey managed to win $16 million off of the billionaire poker player. Those 3 days alone Ivey made more then most of us will make in our entire life and it goes to show you that tournament play is such a small part of poker.
In all Phil has won 7 WSOP bracelets in his career and as you can see two of them came this year in 2009 so he still could easily pass Hellmuth for the record. Ivey has played on the WPT a lot as well, but hasn’t seen nearly the same success as he has on the WSOP circuit. Phil has won one WPT title in his career and that didn’t come until 2008 when he won the WPT Championships. He has finished on quite a few final tables in the WPT though so he has been close to winning a lot more titles then he actually has.
Ivey has almost earned $11 million in live tournament play and has earned countless more millions on Full Tilt Poker as he is a Full Tilt Team member who actively plays in the online poker room. Phil lives in Las Vegas so he can be near the biggest poker games and he lives with his wife. When he isn’t playing poker Ivey loves anything where he can gamble and often is playing golf with his friends for money.
Erik Seidel Biography
Erik Seidel is one of the only poker players in the world that has accomplished a lot at Everest Poker, but that doesn’t receive very much recognition. Erik has always been a very smart individual and good with numbers which is proved by the fact the worked as a stock broker. Before working as a stock broker Erik spent time playing the backgammon circuit for almost a decade in New York which is where he also grew up. Erik was born in New York and stayed there until well into his adult life.
After working as a stock broker Seidel decided to move to playing poker full-time and in his early days played at the Mayfair Club. Seidel started playing the tournament circuit in 1988 where he finished in second place at the WSOP Main Event which was quite the accomplishment. Erik won his first WSOP bracelet way back in 1992 when he won the $2.5K Limit Holdem event. He followed the first WSOP bracelet up with another two bracelets coming in 1993 and 1994.
After winning a bracelet in 1994 Seidel didn’t win his next bracelet for four years which is when he won the $5K Deuce to Seven Draw event in 1998. After winning the bracelet in 1998 Seidel has gone on to win a total of four more WSOP bracelets in his career thus far which brings his WSOP bracelet grand total too eight. Not many other poker players in the history of the game have ever accomplished the feat of winning eight WSOP bracelets and it puts Erik in a league with very few other players.
In 2007 which is the last year Erik won an UltimateBet.com WSOP bracelet he also finished in second place in the Aussie Millions $100K Event. In 2008 Seidel managed to win his first WPT title when he won the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic which earned him almost $1 million in prize money. His most recent tournament success was in 2008 when he finished in second place at the Aussie Millions Main Event. He almost earned $1 million for his second place finish in the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event and it was another nice payday for the veteran poker player.
Seidel has made almost $10 million from playing live poker tournaments over his career and finished in the money 55 times on the WSOP circuit which is quite remarkable. Erik is apart of Team Full Tilt which is the best poker pro team in the world and you can find him playing online poker on Full Tilt from time to time. Erik really enjoys playing tennis in his spare time so you can often find him playing tennis in the Las Vegas area as that is where he resides. He also loves listening to music whenever he possibly can and you’d be surprised how much music knowledge he actually knows.
Erik has always been talented with numbers and with executing strategies which is why he has done so well playing games such as backgammon and poker. Erik has more poker accomplishments then almost every other player in history and he will always be remembered by most poker fans as one of the best old school poker players.
Mike Matusow Biography
Mike Matusow is one of the most recognized poker players in the world due to his antics at the poker table which seems to bring in the cameras. Mike never started out thinking he would be a professional poker player and when he was younger he spent time working as a dealer in Las Vegas. After spending hours upon hours of watching poker being played Matusow decided that he would try his chances on the tables and gave playing poker a shot.
Mike spent time playing poker late at night in the casinos and on absolutepoker.com around his shift working as a dealer was completed. He ended up doing pretty well as a part-time poker player and he realized he would make more money playing poker full-time then he would playing part-time and dealing cards. Once he figured this out Mike decided that he would become a professional poker player and start playing full-time.
Matusow started playing in tournaments soon after beginning to play full-time and he won his first WSOP bracelet back in 1999. Matusow won his second bracelet in 2002 and then didn’t win his third bracelet until recently at the 2008 WSOP. In 2005 Mike won the WSOP Tournament of Champions which topped off an excellent year of poker for Mike. Throughout 2006-2008 Mike has played in a ton of tournaments and has had some amazing finishes including many top 10 and top 20 performances.
Mike has earned almost $7 million in live tournament action on PKR since he started playing poker and this puts him amongst the top of the list of tournament earners in poker history. Another little fact about Mike that you might not have known is that he was the first poker player to win $1 million+ twice in the same year. Matusow may let his antics have the better of him sometimes, but he is definitely one of the best tournament players in the world and his resume will prove this fact.
Mike Matusow also plays online poker quite a bit at Full Tilt Poker with the other team members, but he doesn’t have as much luck usually online. Mike has lost millions in the past by playing online poker and its one area that he hasn’t been able to specialize in. Matusow has also appeared on quite a few television shows including many episodes of Poker After Dark. Mike is known to be one of the most outspoken poker players at the table and this is why he is always asked to come on the television shows.
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow is definitely one of the most colourful poker players on the circuit and has had his share of personal problems. Mike has been in trouble with the law on numerous occasions including one time when he did a small amount of time in jail for drug related offences. Matusow has since got his act together and now he focuses on playing poker almost everyday. Mike has seen some success so far in 2009 at the WSOP and hopefully he can make a deep run into the Main Event this year.
How to Tell You’re on Tilt & What to Do When You’re on Tilt
As most strategy articles will tell you it’s all about the profit you make in poker and in order to make the most amount of money you need to maximize profits and minimize your losses. A small part of playing poker on Full Tilt poker is dealing with your emotions at the table and being able to observe when you’re dealing with emotions. The term “tilt” is a commonly used word in poker and it refers to players who are playing with their emotions rather then skills. If you’re on tilt you not only need to be able to observe you’re on tilt, but you also need to be able to do something about it.
When you’re on tilt it’s the most prone time in poker for you to lose a lot of money which could not only hurt your bankroll, but your bank account as well. In order to find out if you’re on tilt all you need to do is think about the emotions you’re feeling. If you’ve just lost a few buy-ins in one session and you’re having no luck and getting bad beats all the time then you’re probably going to feel pretty angry.
When you’re angry at the poker table this basically means that you’re on tilt and you’ll begin playing with your emotions of anger rather then playing the way you should be. You will stop thinking hands through properly and you’ll start chasing every hand possible in order to catch up from the bad beats.
A lot of the time when a player goes on tilt they could lose 2-5-10X what they would typically spend in a session before leaving the poker room and before qualifying for their full tilt bonus code. The only way to deal with tilt in poker is by walking away from the poker table and taking a break from the game for a little bit. If you’ve been playing poker for awhile then it’s often a lot easier to go on tilt because you could be a little worn out from playing the game so much. In order to minimize your losses you need to take a break from the game until you get the motivation back where you want to beat everyone you play against.
If you don’t take a long enough break from poker then you’ll often not be confident enough to play the game. When you aren’t confident you’ll often second guess yourself, and basically you won’t be playing your best poker game which is what you need to be doing when you’re playing with your own money. There is no set amount of time that you could place on your emotions for the game so it could take a week or it could take a couple months.
Once you feel confident about playing poker again and you have the drive to actually sit down and play the game you should head back to the tables and give it a shot. If you find you’re still playing on tilt then you should take a longer break, but if you start playing your best game again then you should start working on making the money back that you lose when you were on tilt, but remember keep your emotions out of the game and play with the skills you’ve learnt.