Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
“Tools of Craig”
Photo credit: Dr. Pauly
I shot the above photo at the 2006 WSOP. It is a perfect representation of the items that Michael Craig brings to the table. I’ve known Craig for several years and you will almost never find him without an elegant pen and some sort of notebook. Like a good writer, he’s always taking notes. – Dr. Pauly – Tao of Poker
Full Tilt has a nice luxury of featuring two different blogs on the site, a great way to offer a view of the poker world from different points of view. Michael Craig brings you inside action from the tables along with his person experience with the pros while I tend to spend most of my time on the rail for very good reason, showing everyone what is is like among the other 99% of the world. It’s easy to figure out who’s the big gun here when you compare the pedigree or accomplishments between Michael Craig and myself.
- Michael is the noted author of The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King and contributor to The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide (which available right here in the Full Tilt Store). The most noted thing I ever published was a stunning array of scantily clad women which quickly got me in hot water.
- Michael Craig has three (3) World Series of Poker final table appearances including runner up to Jeff Lisandro this year. My best result was a second place finish in a $100 blogger tournament, also this year.
- Michael Craig knows all the big names in the game of poker, most likely with them on speed dial in case of emergency story is needed. I’ve been known to feel most comfortable huddling with the degenerate masses who grind away their nut at 1c/2c NLHE.
This week Michael received yet another honor with a feature on the super blog Tao of Poker with Dr. Pauly. Pauly was able to grab a few minutes of Michael’s valuable time for an installment of his Tao of Five. He managed to get quite a bit of information in just 5 questions and talks about Ted Forrest, Andy Beal, and random Phil Ivey facts. You can read it all here at Tao of Five: Michael Craig by Dr. Pauly.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Dr. Pauly, Michael Craig
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
This weekend was already destined to have more huge action then usual with the $25k Heads-Up PLO World Championship running in addition to the regular slate of Sunday Majors. On top of all the scheduled action, most of the poker world now knows about the spectacle going down on the HIGH limit cash tables on Full Tilt. Isildur1 spent the entire week make news on an almost daily basis but shifting insane amounts of money back and forth across the virtual felt. The Swede has already pushed around some of the top online players, participate in the biggest ever online pot on Wednesday, and gave back quite a few after that. It’s not very often you see something for the first time, Saturday it happened.
It was only a matter of time at these elevated levels that we would finally see a 7-digit online pot, it finally happened Saturday evening setting the poker forums, blogs, and tweeters (?) into a frenzy. With nearly $2,000,000 sitting on the table between Patrik Antonius and Isildur1 all the pieces were in place to witness history. There was $162,000 in the pot before the players saw the 4s 5c 2h flop and then things went nutty. It only took a few re-pots before Isildur1 was all-in for his final $597,000 as a slight underdog. Antonius flopped the wheel but Isildur1 was holding a ton of out. The 5h on the turn did him no favors and he didn’t hit one of his final 9 outs on the river.
The $1,356,946.50 pot was shipped across to Antonius. Online poker’s largest and first million dollar cash game pot.
The action would go well into the evening with pots in the high 6-digits becoming commonplace and the swings mind boggling. By most online calculations it seems that Isildur1 gave back nearly $2.7million to both Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey. The session came to an abrupt end right after Phil Ivey smacked him on the nose for almost $1.5million within moments. Screen printed below for your enjoyment, click to enlarge.
35 players put down a cool $25,000 earlier in the day for a chance at the Heads-Up PLO World Championship including Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Andy_Bloch and the enigmatic Isildur1. Phil Ivey let the Swedish player know that he put a little side wager down on his victory, getting 10-1 on his money. None of the Full Tilt pros would feature in the final payouts with Cole South and Justin “Boosted J” Smith coming up one victory short. After a HU chop, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Andrew “Browndog19″ Brown would add this tournament to his resume.
All this action around the tables also generated plenty of available prizepool money in the Big Money Sunday tournaments. $1.9 million was on the line between The Sunday Brawl, Double Deuce, $750k Guarantee, and The Sunday Mulligan. “roddiass” was the big winner of the evening collecting $114,743.18 after a 3-way chop followed by “pytcheye1111″ ($108,726.80 in the Sunday Brawl) and “zavor4ik” ($107,757.59 in the $750k Guarantee).
Action continues Monday evening with the obviously named “$1K Monday” tournament, railbirds should also keep one eye on the high limit cash game tables. You never know when the next “biggest pot in history” will occur.
Tournament final table results after the jump, as well as my unfortunate exit from Michael Craig’s “Relay for Life” charity tournament.
Tags: $25K Heads-Up World Championship, AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Isildur1, Michael Craig, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It was one of the rare Big Money Sundays where the blog post almost writes itself. This week brought the monthly upgrade from the $750 Guarantee to the cool $1 Million Guarantee with a slightly smaller field and hugely larger prizepool. Big names were running deep all across the major tournaments and my little laptop screen was full of different tables as I attempted to capture some of the action.
My usual routine when keeping an eye on these tournaments is start at the beginning and move my way towards the big one, checking for red letter pros and big online runners, always looking for notables. When I took a quick look at the $1 Million Guarantee I saw two Full Tilt pros sitting together deep in the tournament. Both Vivek Rajkumar and Michael Craig (fresh off my having fun at his expense last week) were sitting together at one of the few remaining tables. Unfortunately Mister Craig busted out shortly after began railing him, getting out pipped when he 77 ran into 88 for 52nd place. Rajkumar, on the other hand, was a completely different story.
Once the field was down near 3 tables he picked up the lead and rarely released it. He started the final table with the chip lead and I sent an IM message to a friend saying “Vivek is running over the final table, he’ll have to be unlucky to lose.” I saw the exact same action in person when he took down the 2008 WPT Borgata Poker Open championship. He put his foot on their throat with constant pressure and never let up. In the end he chopped the prizepool heads up and took down the title for literally 1 penny short of $180,000. It was an impressive showing by the Full Tilt pro who also cashed in the Sunday Brawl. Also running deep in the $1 Million Guarantee were former FTOPS winner Jake “psutennis11” Toole, Brian Hastings, Phil “USCphildo” Collins, Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins, and Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis.
All finishing in the top 100.
I also spent quite awhile railing the final few tables of the Sunday Mulligan that saw Matt “All In At 420″ Stout make a final table push along with FTOPS runner up Austin “The Quietwinner” McCormick, Dan “USCswimmer” White, Bruce “Not Michael” Buffer, and Rick “MookieBlaylock1″ Whittington. I have to give props to MookieBlaylock1 since he’s based in my home neighborhood. Stout battled the entire final table, eventually moving his way up into a 3rd place chip stack but ran into a big blind versus blind hand. His JackAce was no good against the small blind’s KQ. That put a hurt on his chances and the JackAce was his final undoing when it ran smack into Kings.
Matt Stout is a ton of fun, if you get a chance you should read his blog post about getting berated at the Borgata in a preliminary event. I was one of the bloggers who witnessed the hand and this guy would not let it go. Just laying into Stout while he calming stacked the poor Jersey gentleman’s chips. He got “scumbagged”.
Those were the two really interesting developments during the evening, the Brawl moved along quickly and I continue to only throw a mildly amused eye towards the $200k Double Deuce. Yet another situation developed as they moved towards the final table that me shaking my head in disbelief. Simple question for every poker player on the planet, except for maybe this one. You need to call here with any two cards.
It was a 5-handed table just short of the final 9 players. With blinds at 50k/100k/10k ante it folded around to totsev on the button who pushed for 1,085,351. slikone is the chip leader sitting in the small blind and flat calls the all-in bet. JetYourChips in the big blind reshoves for 1,508,393. How can a player possibly fold getting near 10 to 1 with over a million already invested? Here’s the math, slikeone only needed to call 423,042 to win a 4,152,137 pot. 9.8 to 1 odds with any two cards with a chance to knock out two players and hit the final table with a much larger chip lead. Needless to say, slikone folded or I wouldn’t be writing this. Don’t believe my account, here’s the screenprint before he folded. Don’t ask me why I grabbed it then, I just had a feeling he was going to fold.
Click to enlarge
I felt pretty confident in my prediction that slikone was not going to win this tournament even with the chip lead. And I was correct.
You can find final table numbers and results after the jump:
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Matt "All In At 420" Stout, Michael Craig, Vivek Rajkumar
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
And that blogger would not be me.
We almost had special day for the Full Tilt blogging team here in Vegas. The writing team consists of two people, myself and Michael Craig. Two basic differences between us, Michael can write and play poker. I’m a keyboard hack and boardline grinder. Michael made his third WSOP final table yesterday, I once won a private $10 tournament on Full Tilt.
Michael batted through Day 2 of the Razz tournament and started the final day 8th out of 12. I’m assuming the blame goes toward the structure, but players were busting early and often. The unofficial “9-handed” final table was setup on the secondary feature table with a few players that had a shot. East Coast monster Allen Bari (over $1,000,000 in career tournament earnings), Kenna James (+$3,000,000 career), and of course Jeff Lisandro who already two WSOP bracelets this year.
I did a little “railing” dance throughout the day. Michael would start losing chips, I’d move back to my perch atop media row to watch from afar. He’d start moving up and I would go back. That’s how it went all day. I did not want to be his personal cooler so most of my “railing” was via the internet.
At one point he was the shortstack of the table then he started his run to second chip stack. The other players made their way out of the tournament to hit up the cage for a payout but he stuck around. Unfortunately for Michael the ultimate Stud “stud” was still sitting there. According the chip count reports, Jeff Lisandro was sitting with well over half the chips in play when 4 other players were still involved.
It was only a matter of time before everyone would succumb to his power. Senor Craig finished in second place, just shy of that elusive first WSOP braclet but no dishonor in losing to Lisandro. Not only is this Lisandro’s third WSOP bracelet this year but he’s won all three in different variations of Seven Card Stud. Stud Hi, Stud Hi-Low, and now Razz.
Congrats to Michael and I can’t wait to read his post (edit: his first post it up). He was taking enough notes for a new book.
For the record, I tried to find a picture of the ever-elusive Shauna sweating Michael for you my gentle readers. Either she dodged the camera well or she’s a ghost we’ve been imagining.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Michael Craig, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s been a crazy few days with so many chances for Team Full Tilt to add to their riches. Last night was Jon “Pearljammer” Turner’s chance in the $2,500 Mixed Event but fell short in 5th place. Combined with Vitaly Lunkin finishing second in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha final table and several Tilters just missing the $5,000 Shootout finals, Team Full Tilt is pushing to add some more prizes before the Main Event rolls around in a few weeks.
Fellow blogger Michael Craig is the latest chance for the red letter FTP players. He enters Day 3 of the $2,500 Razz tournament. He sits 8th out of the remaining 13 and plenty of tough players to deal with. Two of the top Player of the Year candidates sit in the field, Jeff Lisandro and Ville Wahlbeck. I’ll be sweating his action the entire day as he tries to win one for Full Tilt and for bloggers everywhere.
The Senior’s Event will play down to their winner today…..
Toto Leonidas and David “The Dragon” Pham lead the Full Tilt players into Day 2 of the Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship. 85 of the original 275 remain with 27 players getting paid. The winner received 2/3rds of a million dollars. Play resumes in the orange section of the Amazon Room.
Only one new tournament is kicking off today, the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em (alternate between No Limit and Limit Hold’em). We’re slowing making our way towards the big $50,000 HORSE event on Friday which is just a gateway to the Main Event and a new World Champion.
Chip counts for the restarts after the jump:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Michael Craig, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
In my other life as a completely unprofessional blogger (I am semi-pro at best in this space), I always take the stand that posting nothing but pictures on your site is just the crutch of a weak blogger. Words are hard, pretty picture keep the masses coming back. However, pictures can have the great effect of enhancing a story and I’ve been getting some top shelf images sent my way via Images Masters. Each Friday I’ll share with you some of the best images available.
All images credited to IMDPI.
Pictures after the jump, click to enlarge.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Allen Cunningham, Amanda Baker, Bloggers on the Rail, Chris Ferguson, Eli Elezra, Erica Schoenberg, Erick Lindgren, Jeff Madsen, Jerry Yang, Michael Craig, Phil Ivey, Pictures of the Week, Vitaly Lunkin, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Michael Craig claims that FTOPS acts as a vampire to his bankroll, after one MiniFTOPS I’m almost willing to put that claim down. My performance certainly was not outstanding and in the end I just tilted off my chips in a way I haven’t done in quite some time. It took me 4 straight episodes of Family Guy to finally come down off the ledge and take a look at what happened.
The numbers were huge. Over 14,000 players volunteered $22 for a shot at the $42,000 first prize. The total prizepool came to $280,000 and change. That’s 70 million chips plus in play with a slow structure and plenty of room to play the NLHE 6-max format. I was all set to go and make my mark on the very first MiniFTOPS event. I had my strategy in my mind, pick my spots and use the structure against the impatient push monkeys.
Best laid plans of mice and men.
The first hour was uneventful as it should be. This tournament was going to be 4 or 5 hours before it even sniffed the money bubble. I picked up a few biggish hands, no action on my one AA hand but I did have a dead stack to my left at the start for a little chip stealing. I was as high at 7k and started the break just under the chip average. Life was good and players were dropping at an amazing rate. Then I found the table where Full Tilt grayed out the fold button for most players.
I will never be that guy who goes on and on about the sub-par play in small buyin tournaments. I won’t go on and on, I promise.
6-max is obviously not the format most suited for my game. From what I can tell, the optimum strategy is to disregard position, hand strength and the betting patterns of your opponents. Suited connectors are practically unbeatable, ace rag will never lose, and baby pairs are the mortal nuts to three raises.
My patience was paying off for awhile, even if I had to snap a couple players off who began to think my blinds were there for the stealing, but I never showed down anything that wasn’t upper deck. I started to lose some chips by open-raising with big aces only to get half the table calling down then folding to monster action post-flop. I admit that I let the calling stations get under my skin. After the 100th time of the same player making moves on my BB, I made a read that my 88 was way ahead of his junk on the flop.
Bad read as he finally had a hand for the first time we were at the same table. 88 no good versus AA with two cards to come. I take full credit for losing my patience, making a bad read, and then way overplaying afterwards. My game plan went right out the window and I have no one to blame. Except those few button-mashing, junk-calling, over-hyphenating lemurs that I’ve added to my enemy list.
At least I outlasted Michael Craig, I’m putting that on my resume.
FTOPS and MiniFTOPS information after the jump.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, Michael Craig, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Eli Elezra and Chau Giang will battle it out in Friday Night Fights
Another tough week of grinding away at the tables will be rewarded this weekend with the big guarantee tournaments and other special events. Qualify continues on a regular schedule for both the 2009 World Series of Poker and the upcoming FTOPS XII which kicks off in less than a month.
Tonight brings us the latest in the Friday Night Fights, pitting Eli Elezra against Chau Giang in a Heads-up battle. They will play heads-up in a $50/$100 HA game – half Pot-Limit Hold ‘em, half Pot-Limit Omaha – starting with $10K in chips in a “winner take all” session. While you are railing there match, you can play in the $500, $75,000 guarantee Friday Night Fights tournament and a $10 Sweat Tournament at 20:05ET.
Big action and big prizepools for the taking. More for you after the jump.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chau Giang, Eli Elezra, Friday Night Fights, Michael Craig
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
A few weeks ago, our guest blogger Julius_Goat issued a challenge to fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig similar to the durrrr Challenge. Except it would be micro-limit, far fewer hands and nothing major at stake. But completely the same other than that.
Well Mr. Craig responded and now Julius_Goat offers up his end of the bet. I hope this happens and it’s nearly as funny as we all think it will be. You can read his terms after the jump.
(On a serious note, you need to check out the durrrr Challenge stat tracker. Just shy of 6,000 and they are almost dead even.)
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Julius_Goat, Michael Craig
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The Battle of the Blogger Tournaments 4 started up this weekend with a great showing. Bloggers/readers and a few big name online pros made their appearance in the first few events. These are not your average smaller buyin events, the play is a little tougher than you would expect at these levels. Not unexpected with thousands of dollars in added prizes on the line and 7 WSoP seats.
You will also find some very interesting banter in the chat as a lot of players have seen each other over the course of play and sometimes it gets a little heated. When that happens you need to know how to use it to your benefit.
Funnyman/blogger Drizztdj brings us a primer on that very subject. Stop back later in the week for a roundup of the week’s action as well as Michael Craig responding to the Julius_Goatttt Challenge.
Chatting For Profit
by Drizztdj
You’re a busy person.
Work, kids, school, A-Rod Fan Club President, professional poker player, needs to get a haircut. In the mist of getting twenty-five things done at once, you find the time to sit down at your favorite laptop , PC, or MAC and decide to fire up a few tournament tables here at Full Tilt. With that extra block of time you choose a couple of MTTs with fat guarantees and settle into your chair with a favorite beverage or eight sitting to your right.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, drizztdj, Guest Posts, Julius_Goat, Michael Craig
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