The second-most-hated player in professional poker has given his critics something else to hate about him–he’s won another championship gold bracelet at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, whose non-stop blabber and obnoxious manner (and public scorn) during tournaments is second only to that of Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth Jr., has won Event #18 at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, a $5,000 buy-in, no-limit 2-7 lowball draw tourney with rebuys.

The event drew 85 participants and had a total prize pool of about $1.7 million.

For Matusow, it was his third career WSOP bracelet.

He may approach Hellmuth on the obnoxiousness scale, but he still has a ways to go in the hardware department–Hellmuth has 11 career WSOP bracelets.

For the victory, Matusow, a Las Vegas resident who used to be a poker dealer at the local Sam’s Town casino, earns $537,857.

The windfall puts his career poker tourney earnings over $5 million.

Finishing second in the tournament was Jeffrey “Iceman” Lisandro of Salerno, Italy, winning $347,004.

Third was Barry Greenstein of Rancho Palo Verde, California, USA, fresh off his recent cameo appearance in the poker movie stinker “Lucky You,” winning $225,553.

Fourth was Erick Lindgren of Las Vegas, who earlier at this year’s WSOP copped his first gold bracelet, winning $156,151.

Fifth was Tom Schneider of Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, winning $104,101.

Sixth was Anthony “Tony G” Guoga of Melbourne, Australia, who operates his own online poker room, winning $78,076.

Seventh was David Benyamine of Paris, France, winning $58,990.

Eighth was Tom Dwan of Edison, New Jersey, USA, winning $45,111.

Ninth was Dario Alioto of Palermo, Italy, winning $34,700.

Tenth was David Grey of Henderson, Nevada, USA, winning $34,700.

After the tournament ended, the usually impatient “Mouth” talked to the media and roared: “My patience was great. I don’t know a lot about this game. I know a lot more about hold ‘em. I kept my patience and I never gave up.

“I played against 84 of the best players in the world. I played real good and I never say that about myself. I’m proud of myself.”

Then, in a rare display (for him) of honest introspection, Matusow declared: “The old Mike blamed everyone else for his bad luck. The new Mike says there is no such thing as bad luck. You make your own luck. This is a reward for hard work. Mike’s back.”

Maybe someone better rejigger that Scale of Obnoxiousness.

Even Hellmuth doesn’t talk about himself in the third person.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)