Episode #142: Heads Up With Michael Craig

MAIN TOPIC

Full Tilt "red pro" Michael Craig joins us from Las Vegas to assess the field for NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which begins today. Michael will be covering the tournament on his excellent blog. He named a guy I've never heard of as a possible winner. Where is Chris when I need him? Chris would have heard of this guy! Craig also has some tips for playing limit heads up and recounts his very good day on Full Tilt this week. How good? Let's just say he puts my cash in Full Tilt's $26 token frenzy to shame. Click here to listen to the show.

OTHER TOPICS

Chris: Who? Oh yeah, him. The painkillers are working, and he's still got a few one-liners left in his trembling frame. Seriously, he's doing fine, resting at home, and we miss him. Kind of.

Daytona: Scott and another one of his gearhead adventures. But with a poker ending.

Full Tilt:  Uncle Tilty has made it easier for Scott to replenish his account. Either that, or they were going to have to start offering 23-cent sit-n-gos. Plus some other good changes at our favorite, totally random, poker site.

21: Mark your calendars for March 23, opening day for a movie about the MIT blackjack card counters that looks pretty good.

Hot Line: We have a call from a listener with a good technical suggestion involving PSP and RSS and some other stuff. Most of you will understand it. Scott, however ... He actually said this before today's show while staring at a laptop: "Where's the 'on' button?"

Tampa Bay Poker Replay: Scott tries a NL O8B tournament, and a knucklehead tries my patience.

HAND OF THE WEEK

I am weak-tight, so I don't even play Ac8s in middle position, but fearless JLBSox raises it up at the final table of the AIPS Main Event and gets called by the button (Zerkaboid). The flop is 2h 5h 3d and our hero's continuation bet is met with a min-raise. Me, I'm done, but JLB thinks his opponent has nothing and calls. Turn is 2s and JLB bets big. Zerk raises all-in, putting in his last 965 chips, and JLB says, "I figure I'm crushed when he moves in." Turns out Zerk has Ah6h. River comes 9d and our hero wins a 76K pot with deuces, A-8 kicker. These guys are good.

NEXT WEEK'S SHOW

We interview Martha Frankel, author of Hats and Eyeglasses, a memoir on gambling addiction. And change the keys to the studio so Chris can't get in.

- MIKE

Full Tilt photo

One Minute Mystery: The Case of the Fast Moving Truck

It's early in a no-limit Texas hold'em tournament.

It folds around to us in the cutoff, and we raise 3x with Ks-Qs.

It's folded around to the small blind, who reraises 3x. We call.

The flop: Js-8d-As.

Small blind bets 875 into the pot of 1575 - about 20 percent of our stack.

What's our play?

Heads-Up bracket, baby!

Gambit has created a bracket for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which begins in just a few hours (1 p.m. Eastern). You have to have your entries in before play begins!

Click here to play.

Blow off lunch today and register to play. And then later today, get a report from the field as Michael Craig is our guest - and he's covering the event for FullTilt.

- SCOTT

How much would you raise?

Here's a 10-second mystery of the day:

In a $1/$2 no-limit hold'em game at Derby Lane ($100 min/max buy-in). I have $98 after folding my big blind on my first hand. (In that hand, five people called an $11 early position raise).

No other read on the table, other than lots of above-buy-in stacks, and some stereotyping that leads me to believe the table is heavy on solid, laggy players.

On second hand, I'm dealt two black Aces in the small blind. Five callers to me. How much do you raise?

- SCOTT

How'd you get your screen name?

Every so often, we get an e-mail from a listener suggesting we do a show on online screen names - some of the best ones, the worst ones, the ones that make you LOL as you're saying NH.

And even just the names you're curious about where they came from.

We'd said this on the show before, but here's where the Ante Up brass got their names:

OffDeadline (Scott): A reference to his newspaper job - when he's off deadline, it's fun time.

willhopper (Chris): The main character in a novel he wrote. (And it's still a secret what his screen name is on Poker Stars. I was hoping he'd still be hopped up on surgery drugs so he'd let it slip when Fasso and I visited him at the hospital last night, but no dice. BTW, he's doing fine and will be released soon. We passed along the well-wishes of The Nation).

stpetebeach (Fasso): City where he lives. The city where he sleeps.

columbo (Columbo): It's his name. Well, er, his fake name.

How did you decide on your name, and what are some of the best you've seen?

- SCOTT

Episode #141: Poker Moment of Truth

Fox

MAIN TOPIC

Fox's newest game show, The Moment of Truth, inspired us to dig deep into our poker souls and expose our darkest card-playing secrets - while trying to bluff each other. Fasso is the host for this revealing look. Click here to listen to the show.

OTHER TOPICS

He flopped quads! Fasso, famous for saying he's never flopped quads IN HIS LIFE, does so not once, but twice in one week. And neither time was online, you conspiracy theorists!

AIPS recap: Well, not so much, since we had to tape in advance of the big event. But if you're reading this post, then you know who won because you read the previous post, right?

Scott's Rant o' the Week: Folks, wash your hands when you're in a dirty poker room. Your mom never showed you how? This Times file photo gives you a clue. (You'll also be happy to learn that most restrooms stock free soap.)

Annette, we want you ... to be on our show. But it hasn't been easy to book the European teen phenom Annette Obrestad.

SpadeClub launches: CardPlayer gets into the monthly membership poker site business. Just imagine the competition we'll have if the federal government decides to regulate online poker.

Hotline: SickBrain submits some musical possibilities, and Chicago Jason has some fun with Fasso and a former guest.

Tampa Bay Poker Replay: Scott says the small difference between a $2/$4 Omaha 8 game and a $3/$5 Omaha 8 game can be significant here in Tampa Bay, Land of Everyone to the Flop.

One Minute Mystery: We decide to fold, and are relieved when our opponent turns over his pocket rockets. Dodged that one.

HAND OF THE WEEK

Ross from Indiana is fond of Stud 8, but is working on his Stud game in order to round out his HORSE abilities (you're a winner already, Ross). He submits this stud hand for our analysis:

He starts out rolled up with Queens, with two Aces on board. He slow plays on 3rd Street, and doesn't need to get frisky as it's completed, raised and reraised by other players.

On 4th Street, he continues the ruse, just calling the single bet.

On 5th Street, danger lurks its ugly head. A pair of 9s with an Ace bets out, and our hero raises. A player with three to a flush sticks around, and we're reraised and then cap it.

On 6th Street, our hero boats up, and he drives the action. He's raised by the now-fourth diamond, and reraised by the 9s, and Ross caps it.

On 7th, Ross quads his queens, raises and caps it after it's reraised.

And then heartbreak: He loses to a steel wheel.

NEXT WEEK'S SHOW

TBD.

- SCOTT

Author Martha Frankel booked for Episode #143

Martha Frankel, author of the new book Hats & Eyeglasses, will be our guest on Episode #143 on March 7.

Martha's book chronicles her fascination with poker, starting with a Wednesday poker game, then moving on to online poker (back in the dial-up days!) and her eventual realization of how much the game had consumed of her life.

An advance copy of the book is en route to Fasso and me, but the reviews I've read make me believe we all can learn from Martha's journey.

Interestingly, her nephew Scott is a member of the Ante Up Nation and played in last night's AIPS event.

- SCOTT

AIPS III, Event #2 Champion: NewtSkins

Congratulations to NewtSkins, who wins the second AIPS III banana as champion of the Stud event, which drew a healthy 110 entrants.

NewtSkins won the last hand against engstrok with three 9s over engstrok's sixes-and-deuces. Congrats to everyone who made the final table!

Just-for-recognition bounties go to:

• decks613 (Columbo "columbo" 33rd place)
• Chappy99 (Scott "OffDeadline" 50th place)
• imtoomuch4u (Fasso "stpetebeach" 89th place)
• Chris "willhopper" DNP (listed as "out" on the injury report)

NEXT EVENT: No-Limit Hold'em, Thursday, March 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS III events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to NewtSkins, who wins the second AIPS III banana as champion of the Stud event, which drew a healthy 110 entrants.

NewtSkins won the last hand against engstrok with three 9s over engstrok's sixes-and-deuces. Congrats to everyone who made the final table!

Just-for-recognition bounties go to:

• decks613 (Columbo "columbo" 33rd place)
• Chappy99 (Scott "OffDeadline" 50th place)
• imtoomuch4u (Fasso "stpetebeach" 89th place)
• Chris "willhopper" DNP (listed as "out" on the injury report)

NEXT EVENT: No-Limit Hold'em, Thursday, March 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS III events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to NewtSkins, who wins the second AIPS III banana as champion of the Stud event, which drew a healthy 110 entrants.

NewtSkins won the last hand against engstrok with three 9s over engstrok's sixes-and-deuces. Congrats to everyone who made the final table!

Just-for-recognition bounties go to:

• decks613 (Columbo "columbo" 33rd place)
• Chappy99 (Scott "OffDeadline" 50th place)
• imtoomuch4u (Fasso "stpetebeach" 89th place)
• Chris "willhopper" DNP (listed as "out" on the injury report)

NEXT EVENT: No-Limit Hold'em, Thursday, March 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS III events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to NewtSkins, who wins the second AIPS III banana as champion of the Stud event, which drew a healthy 110 entrants.

NewtSkins won the last hand against engstrok with three 9s over engstrok's sixes-and-deuces. Congrats to everyone who made the final table!

Just-for-recognition bounties go to:

Chris doing well

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I just heard from Chris' wife. His surgery appears to have gone well. I know he appreciates everyone's kind thoughts, and I know he's looking forward to getting back to Ante Up! as soon as possible.

- SCOTT

Michael Craig booked for Episode #142: Heads-Up Play

It's Mike Fasso's first time in the host chair in a couple of weeks (while Chris recuperates from his surgery), so I asked him, "What topic do you want to do?" If you're a regular listener, you know Fasso has been smitten with Michael Craig's limit hold'em heads-up SNG play of late, so it didn't surprise me when Fasso said, "How about heads-up play?"

Well, we did a heads-up show a long ways back, but as with the pot odds show, there's always room to do it better the second time around. And why not ask Michael Craig to come back to help us out?

He's on board - and even better - it'll be the first day of NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which Craig is covering for FullTilt, so hopefully we'll get some insight on upcoming matches.

Have a heads-up question for either of the Mikes or me? Post it here or e-mail it to us.

And remember, Episode #141 is in the can, and will be uploaded Friday morning. It's a good one - our own version of The Moment of Truth, hosting by Fasso.

- SCOTT