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The Amateurs Tale My first major tournament event at the World Poker Open

New FTOPS are Coming aka My Red Dawn

I'm interrupting the remainder of my Bellagio Five Star adventure because I noticed yesterday that the new FTOPS are on the Full Tilt tournament schedule.

I've also noticed that the rajahs running Full Tilt were nice enough to put me in red.

Because of my sorry showing in the last FTOPS - I played every event but one and never finished in the money, an escapade that cost me a couple grand - I am bucking conventional wisdom and common sense and calling my shot:

THE NEW, RED MICHAEL CRAIG [note the conceit of referring to myself in third person] WILL MAKE A MARK IN THESE FTOPS!

As sorry as my performance was, I was very pleased with some of the things I wrote about the events.

Expect me to blanket the events with my writing, finding more and better ways to cover online poker tournaments.

Here's the preview, with some bits on the pros "hosting" the events.

May 11 - $200 + $16 NLHE, hosted by Kristy "the Gaze" Gazes.

Kristy is playing red hot right now, going deep in some WPT events and the Heads-Up Championship.

Having gotten to know her a little at the HUC, I also thought she radiated Star Power.

May 12 - $100 + $9 PLO, hosted by Eric "Efro" Froelich.

I met Eric just briefly at last year's World Series.

I congratulated him on winning his second bracelet and said, "Sorry you're not the youngest to win two anymore," because Jeff Madsen had just won his second.

"Well," Eric said, "We'll see who's the youngest to win three." This was during a break early in the Razz event and he had chips there for a long, long time.

I thought maybe we was going to do it in that event.

May 13 - $300 + $22 NLHE, hosted by Huck "the Sun King" Seed.

Huck told his table during one of the last FTOPS events (in which he played best of the Full Tilt pros) that he gave up drinking last summer.

He's doing well online and played great at the Heads-Up Championship.

I think he's going to have a great World Series this year.

(It would be a great bit if I could get him to let me play the event with him, or sweat him while he plays.

I don't know him very well, but we'll see.) Huck and Ted Forrest taught me to play Razz last summer, a dialogue that resulted in a strange, interesting chapter of THE FULL TILT POKER STRATEGY GUIDE: TOURNAMENT EDITION.

May 14 - $1,000 + $60 NLHE hosted by Gavin "Punch" Smith.

Gavin's a geat guy.

I don't know him well but I run into him a lot on the tournament circuit and he's always got something funny and/or interesting to say.

When he played Andy Bloch in the quarterfinals of the Heads-Up Championship, Andy asked if Gavin had called Mike Matusow for any advice.

(Matusow played Bloch the previous round, and was so frustrated by Andy that he moved all-in blind twice near the end.) "No," Gavin said, "because I already know enough not to move all-in blind against a fucking math genius." Gavin wrote a very interesting, revealing little chapter of the FULL TILT TOURNAMENT EDITION about how to play a big stack.

May 15 - $200 + $16 HOSE, hosted by David "the Eye" Grey.

Grey, an all-around consummate pro in high-stakes cash games, has a great sense of humor.

He usually adopts a skeptical view of the world and from that perspective gets off some great jokes and observations.

It was from questioning the sincerity of Howard Lederer's commitment to vegetarianism that he offered his buddy $10,000 to eat a cheeseburger.

I think both men believe they won.

Howard ate the burger (and didn't get sick, which he says bothers David no end) and went back to being a vegetarian.

Grey would probably tell you that he poked a hole in Lederer's belief system.

And he gets the ten grand back if he eats one olive, but he hates them and won't do it until he really needs $10,000.

May 16 - $200 + $16 NLHE-6, hosted by Jeff "Hood" Matsen.

Wednesday, May 16? Doesn't Jeff have final exams? Graduation? The prom? If I have to REALLY call my shot, I would pick this event.

I've been doing extremely well in the $30,000 Guarantee 6-handed nightly tournament.

If I could afford the stakes, I'd do a last-longer with the Hollywood Kid.

Maybe I'll do his laundry or he'll write my blog.

Or he'll let me tail him on a date and write about it or I'll take one of his exams.

E-mail me at suicidekingfulltiltpoker, if you've got the guts, Mad Dog.

May 17 - $200 + $16, PLO HL, hosted by Layne Flack.

This game scares the bejeezus out of me, as does its host.

May 18 - $200 +$16, PLHE, hosted by David "EPA" Singer.

Did you know David Singer used to be an environmental lawyer? I think he's doing one of those Chris Ferguson mass hynotism deals on us, doctoring up his appearance to hide his juris doctor degree and intelligent approach.

He may look like the guy who hands out the towels when Aerosmith steps offstage, but your secret is out buddy.

May 19 - $100 + $9, NLHE with rebuys, hosted by Clonie "Black Widow" Gowen.

Sorry, I have no Clonie Gowen stories.

She is such a dear friend, and they are such a precious commodity, that they make it immediately into the blog, the instant I learn/see/hear them.

Clonie finished 11th in the $5,000 buy-in NLHE event at the Bellagio Five-Star today.

She was poised for a big win and I thought maybe today was the day, but it'll happen.

She plays very well in invitational events frequented by only the top pros, and she's starting to learn how to plow through big fields, as this event and some recent WPT finishes are proving.

She's got time, and it's going to happen.

May 20 - $500 + $35, NLHE super-stack, $1.5M Guarantee, hosted by Gus "the Great Dane" Hansen.

Gus and his manager have asked me to help them with a proposal for a book Gus is working on.

The proposal is FASCINATING.

Gus has been using a voice recorder the last two years to record every tournament hand he plays.

He did this in the Aussie Millions, won the tournament, and wants to write a book taking readers through every hand and every decision.

Naturally, he's going to skip the "3-8o, folded" - though with Gus, maybe that's a playable hand? - but it's going to take you right inside his head from beginning to end.

Gus gives off the vibe of being a madman at the table but in tournaments, that's about as accurate as characterizing Chris Ferguson as some Jesus freak or David Singer as some gothic-rocker wannabe.

Hansen is regarded with great respect among players who are strong on game theory and other non-exploitive strategies.

I'm looking forward to all these events, except maybe the PLOHL, which is a complete crapshoot to me.

And Layne Flack's teeth remind me of a shark's.

I can't wait to play them, though, get this FTOPS monkey off my back (though I moneyed in a Limit Hold 'Em FTOPS event last year, I'm still a no-limit FTOPS virgin, and it's eating me up inside), and write some more interesting stuff.

I'm already looking for ways to ingratiate myself to (or agitate) the hosting pros to get you more good info.

I will bet the buy-in with any pro who wants to do a last longer bet.

In fact, I may try to get each of the hosting pros to make one with me and keep a scorecard.

That way, if I don't win one of them - WHICH MICHAEL "RED" CRAIG WILL - I can at least break even by outlasting those guys and freeroll into the money.

And I'll look for other ways to make the coverage lively.

I hit the mother lode in the last FTOPS main event when Clonie Gowen came to my house to play it.

(She got busted after getting through over 75% of the field and she was holding pocket aces when it happened.

But I got to report the results of some love and sex tests she took out of the PSYCHOLOGY TODAY Magazine I had on my desk!) Then Robert "Miss Lulu" Williamson made the final table and was at his Phoenix-area home, and through his generosity I was able to report the final table from one of the competitors.

I want to find something like that, unless of course I can report an inside final-table account from my own play.

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