Michael Craig

Michael Craig plays online at Full Tilt Poker.

From the mid-1980s to 2000, Michael Craig was a litigator in Chicago. After reading Al Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town and Anthony Holden's Big Deal, he became a "hobbyist player". Although he imagined befriending the larger-than-life characters of Alvarez's book and taking his own shot at the big boys like Holden, his life was occupied with raising a family, taking depositions, writing legal briefs, and preparing for trials.

During his last years in practice and after he retired, he pursued his passion for writing, publishing articles in magazines like The American Spectator, Golf, Cigar Aficionado, and Penthouse, and writing a pair of books on business and finance. A rumor he heard while playing poker with a friend at the Mirage in late 2003 led to his third book, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King - Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time. That book and articles and columns about the game that followed made Michael Craig one of the best-known poker writers in the world.

Michael's exclusive access to top professionals and some of the biggest games ever played means that he's witnessed poker history that most mortals can only dream about.

Starting in December 2005, Michael worked with a dozen top pros (including some of Full Tilt's biggest names) on his fourth book, The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide - Tournament Edition, which came out in June 2007. To test and demonstrate the skills shared by the pros, he has become a regular tournament player on Full Tilt Poker.

In 2006, he won his seat into the WSOP Main Event on Full Tilt Poker and also racked up some other impressive results: wins in one of the first $150 + $13 and $10 + $1 Midnight Madness tournaments, and a fifth-place finish in the first $350,000 Guarantee event.

In 2007, Craig has been a regular presence in late-night tournaments, twice (in four days) winning the $18,000 Guarantee Double-Stack and twice winning the Turbo Hundo. He also won the first $16,500 Guarantee Knockout Tournament.

With the publication of The Strategy Guide, he played the 2007 World Series of Poker to show off what it could teach an amateur player. He finished in the money in his first event, $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'Em, and later made two final tables, finishing seventh in the $1,500 Mixed Hold 'Em (earning $22,813) and a week later racking up another seventh place in the $1,000 S.H.O.E. (earning $15,943).

Michael shared his poker adventures and observations on the Full Tilt Poker Blog for four years until the end of 2010. His entertaining stories from around the poker world gave a fascinating insight into the world of the poker professionals: from the grind of the tournament circuit to the craziness of the prop bets.