"Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe...maybe. I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet."- The Heavy on battle strategies.

The Heavy Weapons Guy (Heavy for short, Real Name: Misha [short for Mikhail]) is a Russian mercenary and defensive class from the Team Fortress series. In Poker Night at the Inventory, he plays after Strong Bad and before Tycho Brahe.

Background

The Heavy made his debut in the Quake mod Team Fortress, which was later ported to Valve's GoldSrc engine as Team Fortress Classic. His appearance and personality in Poker Night at the Inventory comes from the Source engine sequel, Team Fortress 2.

The Heavy is the largest and has the most health of the Team Fortress 2 classes, carrying a minigun he calls Sasha that can tear opponents to shreds at close range. To compensate, he has poor long range firepower and is a huge target for Snipers and Spies. When in battle, Heavy is very loud and boisterous, he relies on Engineers and Medics for support. He has the odd tendancy to personify his weapons, like naming and cuddling his miniguns and taking advice from his "Sandvich", which is a ham sandwich that can instantly heal him of any ills or injuries. Surprisingly, Heavy's conversations with Tycho reveal he has a degree in Russian Literature. He also counters many other common Russian stereotypes like alcoholism (he prefers peach bellini to vodka and admits he's susceptible to hangovers), a love for Communism (has an assassination fee of $500,000 - he was also in the Gulag), and even the near universal love for Tetris.

According to him, he learned of the Inventory from the RED Engineer.

Poker Strategy

The Heavy plays it safe, folding whenever he has less than satisfactory hands. He does make aggressive raises with a big stack of chips. This play, contrasted with that of Max and Strong Bad, means he tends to be eliminated close to the end of the tournament. This makes it somewhat difficult to beat him outright, since whenever he stays for the hand, he tends to have good ones. However, this also means you do not need to worry about him as much, since he has a rather broad definition of a bad hand.

Heavy's Tells

• If the Heavy slams his fist on the table, he has a bad hand.
• If the Heavy checks his cards and looks furious, he has a bad hand.
• If the Heavy adjusts his belt, he has a decent hand.
• If the Heavy checks his cards and nods, he has a good hand.
• If the Heavy rubs the bottom of his nose, he has a very good hand.
• If the Heavy stretches his neck after betting, he is bluffing.

Relationships with other Characters

Max	Heavy and Max seem to treat each other as friends, talking about their lines of work and Max even inviting Heavy to cameo in one of their future games. Max additionally promises to take care of ghosts for the Heavy. Though on some occasions, Heavy threatens to make a hat out of Max (see below).
Strong Bad	Heavy and Strong Bad get along with each other very well. They both seem to enjoy violence (except when the Heavy says he took the enemy Engineer's wrench from him and shoved it down his throat and ripped off all of his fingers). He often calls Strong Bad a "tiny heavy," which Strong Bad doesn't appreciate. They both tend to enjoy boxing.
Tycho	Heavy and Tycho have a mixed relationship. He may not trust Tycho because of a blue sweater he's wearing (making Heavy think he works for BLU, the Heavy's enemy team), though in other cases, they seem to enjoy casual conversation. Because Heavy thinks Tycho works for BLU as a spy, Tycho will taunt him saying he is a new class.
The Player	Heavy thinks The Player is "weak, like tiny baby", and is always shocked whenever The Player actually wins a hand. If The Player wins however, he will always admire him/her, without getting angry.



Heavy's Collateral - The Iron Curtain

The Heavy's buy-in is canonically the Heavy's first minigun (and first love) he crafted, which he affectionately calls Sasha. The regular minigun also appears when all the players hold Tycho at gunpoint for not admitting defeat. If Heavy is knocked out out he will grab the minigun, move it a little closer to his head, say "Goodbye, my love," before picking it up and moving it next to whomever knocked him out, then sadly walking away. If Max knocks him out, Max will repeat his comment (in a slightly different tone) saying "It's beautiful!"

Heavy Trivia

• Heavy is the only character from the first game whose collateral buy-in is wholly owned by themselves. Max uses Sam's badge in addition to his own gun, Strong Bad uses Homestar's shutter shades, and Tycho bids with a watch which constantly changes ownership between him and Gabe.
• In the Game, the Heavy states that he likes the first 20 minutes of Rocky IV. This is a reference to the fact that the film's main antagonist, Ivan Drago, is a Russian boxer. (that's possibly why Strong Bad called the Heavy "Ivan")
• His drink of choice is a Peach Bellini, though he says he sometimes gets a headache from its bubbles.
• The Heavy thinks of chips as teammates, just as he personifies his Sandvich and miniguns.
  • This could be a reference to Grandma Shaky from Telltale Texas Hold'em, who frequently called her chips her "babies" and often would personify them.
• Sometimes, the Heavy will not have money in the beginning of the game claiming he bought "gifts" for Sasha. Therefore, for him to keep playing, he will offer up his Iron Curtain, which can be obtained by busting him out.
• The Heavy is unaware that he is a game character. He even believes his cycle of dying and respawning are a series of nightmares, which Tycho actually knows the truth about.
• The Heavy mentions that he, alongside the rest of RED, is unionized under RED local 615. According to the Heavy, however, this was mainly for securing group medical benefits.
• The Heavy considers King Hunger, a play depicting pre-revolutionary Russia by playwright Leonid Andreyev, a classic.
• The Heavy states that when he eats the Sandvich, he becomes an unstoppable killing machine. This is a reference to the "Meet the Sandvich" promotional short, where he brutally kills a Scout and a Soldier offscreen after eating one half of his Sandvich.
• The Heavy thinks Strong Bad is a "tiny" Heavy, due to his dominantly red clothing and his "hands" resembling the KGB (Killing Gloves of Boxing).
• The Heavy uses his "inside voice" in the game, which lead people to believe that he wasn't voiced by Gary Schwartz, his voice actor for Team Fortress 2.
• The Heavy admits to having a fear of ghosts. This is no doubt a reference to the ghosts which terrorize multiple Halloween-themed maps in Team Fortress 2 during the annual Halloween events.
• To avoid crushing the chips and cards, the Heavy uses only two fingers to lift them.
• The Heavy calls weak hands "Baby Hands", and good hands "Big Man Hands". He is also highly amused when Strong Bad says that the Player has baby hands.
• The Heavy believes in Honor, as he states that he kills people for "Honor". It is unknown if it's honor for himself, the RED team, Russia, or his minigun Sasha.
  • When The Player beats the Heavy he says "Beat me once, shame on me. Beat me twice, also shame on me. Beat me three Times?! I am sent to my death". However, since the Heavy "respawns", he can't really die.
• When the Heavy loses, he takes a seat in a darkened booth not so far away from the poker table, spectating the event. Brock Samson sits in this same booth, facing the other way, in the sequel.
• The Heavy states quite clearly to Max, "I will make hat from you, little bunny," an obvious reference to a TF2 hat appropriately named "Max's Severed Head" which was a preorder bonus for The Devil's Playhouse.
  • Also, Heavy says to Max after one of his conversations "You crack me up, little bunny." This is a reference to Max's namesake series, where upon saying something funny, Sam would say "You crack me up, little buddy."
• If someone wins over him with a three of a kind or better, there is a rare chance he will burst out into rage, destroy the cards he has in his hand, then flip the table open and attempt to open fire with his Minigun. Before he manages to, the screen switches back to normal as nothing has happened, and he responds by saying "Deal new hand now".
• Strong Bad often calls the Heavy "Ivan", even though it was later revealed in TF Comics #3 that his real name is Mikhail.
  • This is due to Strong Bad's tendency to make older cultural references, as the term "Ivan" was typically used in the same context as "Jerry" or "Limey" during World War II, specifically to refer to the Soviets. The term continued to see use throughout much of the Cold War, even into the late 80s.
• (This happens only if Strong Bad is still in the game) When folding, he has a chance to say "Strong Bad might have good cards." This can be a warning to the player that Strong Bad indeed does have good cards, or it can reveal Strong Bad's strategy of bluffing.
• Tycho mentions that the Heavy has a sister while bragging about his computer skills before it was made "canon" in this comic.
• When someone goes all in, The Heavy will sometimes exclaim "хорошо" [(k)horosho]. This is Russian for "All right!" or "Nice!"

Team Fortress Wiki Link

• Heavy Weapons Guy on the official Team Fortress Wiki
• Poker Night at the Inventory article on the official Team Fortress Wiki

New version of Meet the Heavy on YouTube, original on EA Games as part of the first Orange Box trailer.