I bet you're fun to hang out with

Don't discount the possibility that David was doing business development in that interview. Also, with the exception of Jennifer Harman (and later Phil Ivey) none of the players there were particularly LHE specialists. Had the (e.g.) Matt Hawrilenkos of that era been in the mix, I think the results would have been spectacularly lopsided.

Furthermore, the pros seemed to take an astonishingly laissez faire attitude toward the whole thing, allowing Mimi Tran (IIRC) and Lyle Berman to go into the box. Seriously?

The book, BTW, is an awesome read, and the opening sequence quoted above is a great taste of what's to come. My only disappointment is that Craig tries to insert himself into the narrative at the end of the book. He was doing an excellent job of describing a surreal series of events from the rail, and should have stayed there.

Regards, Lee

I don't know anything about Mimi Tran's game, but Barry did stake her in at least one heads up limit holdem freezeout against Daniel. She lost, and surely the chance to really ding Daniel's ego played a role in Barry's decision to put her in, but I would still be surprised if she was one of the two worst players allowed to sit with Andy.

Not sure about that.

I was under the impression that Andy Beal put a lot of effort into learning the game and only decided to play "the corporation" after that.

David Grey totally kills that notion by saying that Beal was basically your average tourist player (read: terrible) who happened to have a nack for standardized timing.

He probably wouldn´t say that if he thought he might ever get action from Beal again, but it seems a harsh thing to say either way.

Let´s also not forget that no poker noob millionaire would watch that show anyway.

Update? Did the banker ever go pwn the Macau games?

Love all the random speculation.

Love this book, It is a fantastic read.

also 3 year bump FTW

+1 great read.

Re: Mimi Tran, I used to play 30/60 with her at Mirage in the 90s when the bigger games weren't running, and she was a stone cold assassin. Easily the best woman player I've ever seen.

Barry G confirmed not busto. He is up a few mirrion on untracked euro sites

Almost 20 years later at this point... should we actually give a **** where a bunch of those peeps that were associated w a company that stole a lot of other peeps money are ?

I surely couldnt care less about a book that was written which documents how they hustled money from yet another fellow player

I have always wondered what happened to Michael Craig after the FT scandal - he was their main cheerleader during the boom years; his adulation for the FT pros was unparalleled, especially Lederer and Ferguson (and Forrest) - to be fair, his blog was entertaining and all the stuff he wrote about the Beal match round two (which, as other people have already said, is when Ivey featured) was quite exciting. Anyway, it seems like he completely disappeared, does he write about other things now? Did he squirrel away a load of ill-gotten gains from the FT gravy train and so is keeping his head low? there was one WSOP where he went deep in a few tourneys, maybe even final-tabled - anyone have any info?

I was just reading this book and came across this:

Are you implying that the Lederer was running a long con?What will happen when it gets out?

Remember liking this book when I read it over a decade ago

My favorite excerpt of the book:

"Only Ted's eyes hinted at the fires burning within. They were narrow and gray and, though he did not try to stare down opponents, those beady pupils behind the slits made the rest of Ted's appearance look like a mask he was peering through.

He holds out his hand, and in his palm are two shiny silver balls linked with a thick black thread … Inside me! I gasp, and all the muscles deep in my belly clench. My inner goddess is doing the dance of the seven veils … Oh my … It’s a curious feeling. Once they’re inside me, I can’t really feel them—but then again I know they’re there … Oh my … I may have to keep these. They make me needy, needy for sex.”

I played with her in the 40-80 at Commerce and she was a fish. Seriously.

She still is. Welcome back!

Thanks, Michael. Great post you made in the Sklansky thread in the other forum.

As for Mimi, it's very easy for a relatively anonymous person like myself to be ciritcal on a forum about a relatively well-known player. I should have said that IMHO, based on my personal experience--which btw include a very recent session--she's not nearly as good a player as her reputation.

One thing that I think is beyond opinion is that she's a thoroughly dislikeable person. I have yet to play with her (at least half a dozen occasions) when she didn't get into an argument with either another player (or players) or with the dealer over rude behavior on her part. Most recently, it concerned her rabbit-hunting (in a hand in which she did not see the flop). She was in the 1 seat and simply reached over to rabbit-hunt the river card in a pot that ended on the turn. She did not ask the dealer if she could see the river card and when the dealer told her to not do what she did, Mimi insisted that the floor man come over. The floor man of course told her there was no rabbit-hunting allowed, to which Mimi disagreed.

The rabbit hunting,without a fun player wanting to,proves that she is not good(seriously).

I also heard he has a 5k daily deposit limit on stars...

Not sure what's up with Bluff.com's webserver/site, but this article from Craig from April 2006 takes about 30-45 seconds to load, and even then, the article cuts off about half way through it seems:

The Return of the Richest Poker Game of all time

The Phil Ivey article (May 2006) appears to load all the way through, but still takes forever:

The Banker & The IceMan

Also found this ESPN Bluff reprint article from June 2006, which appears to include the content from the first article I linked, along with other content, but don't think it includes the Iceman (Ivey) content:

The Banker, The Boss, The Junkman, & The Warrior Queen