Bitter war of words escalates between Scott and Mike Matusow

LAS VEGAS, NV - One of poker's most well known and colourful characters Mike "The Mouth" Matusow has had his family feud made public by his brother Scott in an open letter on his blog.

The brutal, sometimes vicious, letter came after Scott and Mike traded blows on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. A transcript of some of their Facebook chats can be found at popular poker forum TwoPlusTwo.com.

Scott Matusow said he did not want to make the issues public but said he was doing so to help out his family as they "have had enough with his Mike's actions and lack of action". He went on to claim that they had tried to sort out the problems privately but nothing had been resolved.

Among the poker public Scott Matusow is not the most popular person; perhaps seen as bitter towards his brother's greater success, deal with Full Tilt Poker and popularity as a personality on televised poker. That said, his open letter, if honest, does bring up plenty of reasons why Scott and his parents may well have had enough of Mike.

According to the letter, Mike has a "serious gambling addiction on top of an addiction to legal drugs" and he only calls his parents when he needs help with the mortgage that they co-signed for. That a man with nearly $8 million in career tournament winnings and $400,000 in winnings this year can miss a mortgage payment seems to indicate that he has some serious financial issues, perhaps linked to a gambling and drug addiction and big losses at cash games.

Scott calls for Mike to take responsibility for his issues and stop blaming others for his problems. The letter even states that Mike blames his brother for the demise of Full Tilt Poker, the world's second biggest online poker site that Mike was sponsored by until earlier this year.

The letter states that, "You asked me to be quiet about FTP, then you go on QJ (QuadJacks Radio) and spew about it for 4 hours straight. If I say anything, u call me nuts, tell others I am crazy and even make up horrid lies about me, and you know this.

I interjected into the FTP thing because I felt bad for people who have been fucked over that whole deal. Your own agent instructed you to leave FTP over a year ago because they were fucking you. Rich constantly looks out for your best interest and you treat him like shit as well. Why are you so concerned what fucking degen scum strangers think about you? You constantly whine how you run bad, but I say it is deserved karma for your actions towards your own family."

To close the letter Scott tells Mike that when he makes the decision that his family are more important than "gambling and fleeting strangers" that they will be there for him but that they will not accept him the way he is just now.

This is not the first "open letter" to be published by a poker player and certainly won't be the last as often they seem to prefer to air their dirty laundry rather than deal with any personal issues head on and privately.

Scott Matusow probably feels his family issues are worth making public just because his brother is a well-known poker personality. Like many open letters in poker this one has got attention because of the people involved rather than the issues themselves. Scott is trying to make the few people who are interested in his opinion take sides and form a negative opinion of his brother. If the TwoPlusTwo forum thread is anything to go by, people just don't care or think that both brothers are just as bad as each other.

It is up to Mike Matusow himself to make a decision to deal with his alleged addictions and to be supported by those close to him when he decides to take action to resolve his problems.

Poker players have written some classic open letters in the past. Favourites include this ill-judged effort from part-owner of Full Tilt Poker Rafe Furst, Annie Duke's letter to PokerStars and the one that may have started it all when Howard Lederer (Duke's brother) wrote an open letter to Daniel Negreanu.