A few weeks ago, Derek reported that Andy Beal had returned to Las Vegas to face The Corporation in a repeat of the epic heads-up battle detailed in Michael Craig's outstanding book The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King. After an initial loss of about two million dollars, Andy reportedly retired from the game, then instantly pulled a Michael Jordan and came out of retirement to continue the match.

This game will take its place in history next to the first World Series of Poker in 1970, Nick the Greek and Johnny Moss's famous marathon "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go" game, and Doyle Brunson's back-to-back WSOP wins in 1976 and 1977. Indeed, Andy Beal will almost certainly be remembered as one of the best non-professional poker players in history.

Throughout this incredible series of matches, Lou Krieger has been a reliable source for just-off-the-rail information, offering interesting and informative insight, based upon his decades of poker experience, at his blog. This morning, Lou wrote that Andy is back in Texas, after winning ten million dollars from The Corporation, a group of players which includes Todd Brunson, Jen Harman, and Ted Forrest.

Michael Craig is a friend of mine, and I knew that he had been sitting at the table with the players the whole time, so I called him up to see if he could confirm the amount.

Michael is writing a huge feature article about the game for BLUFF magazine's April issue, so there isn't much he can talk about on the record, but he was able to confirm that Andy did, in fact, win ten million dollars between February 12 and February 15. Since Andy had lost three million dollars on Superbowl Sunday, he left Vegas seven million dollars -- or about 70 big bets -- to the good.

Michael was also able to share a few tantilizing glimpses into the game, which I can pass on to CardSquad readers: Though the stakes were high, he told me, "Both sides respect each other, that's clear, but the games were played in a surprisingly casual atmosphere, marked by jokes, small talk and camaraderie. It's not what you'd expect from such a big game. A player could lose a million dollars on a two-outer and shrug it off, but the competition was always deadly serious."

As the game wore on, Michael told me, he felt like neither side wanted to be there, but neither side wanted to be the first to quit. During a break on one particularly intense day, Andy Beal and Ted Forrest independently told Michael, "This is a war."

Anyone who has read Michael's best-selling book knows that the money means absolutely nothing to Andy, who is out to prove that he could beat some of poker's best at their own game. The numbers may say that he succeeded, but the numbers are only part of the story. Michael and the players know the rest, and in April, so will we.