Michael Craig's Journal

 

The Razz chapter in the Full Tilt Poker tournament book is going to be something special. I just have to figure out a way to get all the off-topic dialogue between Ted Forrest and Huck Seed into the manuscript.

1. Ted: “The problem with Razz is that too many of the old razz players died off.”

2. Ted and Huck had a lengthy discussion of the first hand Huck ever played against Ted. It was 15 years ago but you’d have thought it was 15 minutes ago from the way they described it.

3. Huck talked about one of Ted’s Razz tricks, putting in the third raise as a bluff.

Huck: You ever do the 3d-person-in-the-pot bluff, where you come in with a junkie hand?

Ted: After it’s raised and called?

Huck: Yeah.

Ted: How junky?

Huck: Like a 9-8 in the hole and a baby up.

Ted: I don’t really like the Oldsmobile hand.

Huck: I saw you do it once with 9-8 or maybe T-9. You 3-raised it.

Ted: I don’t like that in my repertoire unless a queen and a jack raised it.

Huck: That’s the ultimate tricky play. You’d never put someone on a bluff on a 3-raise.

Ted: I think the only trick you accomplish with that play is making your chips disappear …. To be honest, I don’t remember it happening exactly that way.

Huck: Don’t worry, it happened. Table 3, Mirage, $500-$1,000 Razz.

Ted: Who were my opponents?

Huck: I forgot. I know Mark Spirit was in the game but I don’t think he was in the pot.

4. There was lots of discussion about old Razz games and old Razz players. They talked about the daily $300-$600 Razz game at the Horseshoe back in ‘91. (By the way, both Ted (who is barely 40) and Huck (who is in his 30s) both used the expression “back in the day” over the course of the evening.) There was a discussion of the players in the game and Ray Barton or Don Barton came up. They took turns asking and explaining what happened to Drayon Barton. He’s either playing no-limit tournaments or, because he was 85 years old back then, is long dead. I think they concluded it was 2 different guys.

There was discussion of Slade West. For a reason I still can’t fathom, I said, “Is he the guy with the eye patch?”

Ted said, “No, he’s the guy who got shot in the throat.”

As far as I know, I’ve never heard about anyone in poker with an eye patch.

The subject of calling when you’re behind came up and, though we were talking about tournaments, they talked about how to get a guy on tilt to stay on tilt. Or if he’s close to tilt, pushing him gently over the edge. It involved letting him win small pots.

At one point in this discussion, Huck pointed to my audio recorder. “Is the tape still on?” Ted’s girlfriend Roxanna said, “Don’t worry. These tapes are just for Michael’s personal entertainment.”

She got that right. I’ll try to include a bit more of this after I get the chapter written. There was some great discussion. It was like asking Woodward and Bernstein to teach me about reporting, but only telling previously untold stories about Watergate.