It was one of the most controversial scenes of the World Series of Poker last year.
Stacy Matuson and Will Kassouf first battled it out on the felt and then engaged in a verbal back-and-forth over his (and her) behavior in a high-profile hand shown on ESPN.
At the 888Live festival in Rozvadov in February 2017, they met again for the first time for a heads-up battle to "settle things" once and for all – and this time, they went differently.
More than six months after the now infamous incident at the WSOP Main Event, Stacy “I was 80% calling” Matuson and Will “I want you to call” Kassouf butted heads again – metaphorically, of course.
If you haven't seen the original hand, Kassouf used his 'speech play' to get Matuson to fold pocket queens, an overpair to the board.
The London attorney was bluffing and since the moment he slammed down his cards on the table and said “nine high like a boss” it has become a proverb in the poker community.
If you haven’t seen it yet watch the video below and you'll see why it caused such a stir:
If you thought these two would never talk to each other again, you were wrong - although when they met at the 888Live festival at the King’s Casino Rozvadov for their "grudge match" there was no tension at all. At least until Matuson won in a 2-0 whitewash.
Matuson Turns Things Around
Both players arrived with a couple of special gadgets for the match. Kassouf wore a T-shirt featuring his cards in the hand mentioned above, accompanied by a caption saying “nine high like a boss." He also had sunglasses with an electronic ticker of his famous phrases.
Matuson temporarily wore a pair of oversized headphones to at least shut Will off, as she couldn’t shut him down. Who can?
When it came to the poker things went pretty straightforwardly in one direction. Matuson had gotten some training from Michael Mizrachi and played the kind of loose-aggressive poker you need for heads-up poker.
Kassouf, not so much. She dominated Kassouf the whole way, incidentally demonstrating what next level thinking means in a very nice hand that ended on the flop. Watch and learn.
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