Michael Craig's Journal

My streak of playing tournaments on Full Tilt and going deep without a big cash continues. And my streak of attracting crazed railbirds continues as well.

The guy’s screen name on Full Tilt is “strohsix” and I have reported him. You be the judge.

This was what I call “the midnight tournament,” which starts at 2 AM EST. No-Limit Hold ‘Em, $69+$5 buy-in, a double stack of 3,000 starting chips, and a $7,000 guaranteed prize pool. With about 250 entries, the pool was more than double that size.

We were down to 65 players when I made the play that put me near the chip lead and made me a mortal enemy. I was in the big blind (240), strohsix was in the small blind (120), and antes were 25. Average chips were about 11,000. I had 17,732, strohsix had 10,025. We were nos. 1 and 2 at the table.

It was folded to our blinds - very tight table - and strohsix called my big blind. I had 8h-7h. There was 705 in the pot and I wanted it, so I raised to 720. He called that, too. The pot was 1,665.

The flop came Qh-6d-4h. Strohsix checked.

I bet 960. I didn’t have anything, but I wanted the pot if he didn’t have anything, and I also had good draws: 9 hearts would make me a flush, plus 4 fives for a straight - making sure not to count the five of hearts twice.

Strohsix then moved all-in, raising to 9,280.

My first thought was, That’s sure odd.

Would he slowplay something like aces, kings, or queens, and then play it so fast that there was no possibility I would call? I didn’t think so.

Would he do this with a strong but vulnerable hand? Maybe but why would he have limped with something like A-Q or K-Q? Weaker than that, he has to worry that I have one of those hands and might call. Maybe he had 4-4 or 6-6 and is worried about me having a straight or flush draw, though even then, it seems extreme to bet 9,280 into a pot with 2,600 in it.

The move seemed fishy, like he had nothing and was trying to push me out. If he was doing that and had just overcards to mine, or a pair below sevens, I had 19 outs against him and was 62% to win. If he had top pair, like Q-T, I was still 48% to win. If he had two pair, like Q-4, I was 43% to win. If he had a set, I was 34% to win. (I figured out the percentages after, but I figured I had 12-19 outs, depending on what he had.)

Because of the likelihood he was putting a move on me, the number of outs I had even if I was wrong (assuming he didn’t have a set, which I thought was unlikely), and the fact I’d still have 7,000 chips left, which would still be third at this table, I called. (I later calculated that I was putting 41% of the chips into the final pot, so I had the right odds against everything but a set, which is what I generally figured.)

He turned over Kc-6c. With just a pair of sixes, I was 62% to win, and a heart on the river gave me the flush.

You would have thought someone firebombed his house. He was eliminated in 65th. The tourney paid 27 and we spend a long time near the bubble. I was eliminated in 14th, about 90 minutes later. The guy stayed there the whole time (actually leaving a just a couple minutes before I was eliminated, which had to have disappointed him).

Here is what he said in the next few hands:

strohsix (Observer): great play

strohsix (Observer): &&#&ing idiot

strohsix (Observer): michael, are you really that stupid?

strohsix (Observer): if so, you might want to go start your car in the garage and get it over with

Other than telling him that I had 12-19 outs against him, everything I said to him was of a nature encouraging him to be civil.

So when he said,

strohsix (Observer): so what was the smart part michael? raising when you are 40% before the flop?  or calling you whole stack with zero?

I responded with,

Michael Craig: Don’t you think your loss of control is a sign of weakness? (We won’t even talk about how you played the hand.)

When it was clear he was going to stick around, I turned off his chat. I read his comments after, which included some threats and wishes for my death. He would “educate” new players at the table about me, replaying the hand, bolstering his reasoning by claiming I was out of position and he had me outchipped. I don’t know if he was hallucinating or concerned his vehemence alone wouldn’t be enough to get people to hate me.

What concerns me most are three things he said before leaving, after complaining and being ignored by me for an hour and a half:

strohsix (Observer): michael, you may want to consider buying some cyanide caplets instead of poisoning the poker world with you lack of knowledge

strohsix (Observer): seriously michael, you should kill yourself

strohsix (Observer): michael, have a good night, hope you don’t get into a fiery accident

These sounded somewhat threatening to me, far beyond swearing and running through the limited lexicon of The Loser (i.e., donkey, luckbox, fish).

It concerned me enough that I wrote Full Tilt Support the following letter:

While playing in Tournament #9143979, on December 3 (AM), a player named “strohsix” made numerous veiled threats against me. In addition to staying at the table as an observer for more than an hour after he was eliminated - Table 18 - he said things like   strohsix (Observer): michael, have a good night, hope you don’t get into a fiery accident  

Because I play under my own name and am well known in the poker world, I consider that a specific, identifiable threat. Please tell me what steps you are going to take against this, and give me information identifying this individual so I can contact the appropriate authorities.  

Thanks,  

Michael Craig

I honestly don’t obsess about what people say about me in these rooms. I like the frieds I have made through the chats and the occasional critic is fine. But I’ve been saying for a little while that these guys are getting out of hand. I hope Full Tilt is committed to the same point of view. Granted, these are their customers, but if the site is the reputable, above-board kind of operation I have always assumed it to be, they take some action to keep this extreme behavior in check.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 12:06 am and is filed under My favourites:.