The 2005 World Series of Poker broadcast on ESPN is airing the final two days of the main event played at the downtown Las Vegas Binion's Horseshoe Casino, now named Binion's. I thought it a good idea to review the poker room so readers will have some advance background in the properties poker rich history. If you're coming to Vegas and plan to play some cash game or tournament poker then stop downtown and test your skill and luck where it all started.

I'm hosting a home tournament tonight. Ten of us will compete for a total of $1,000 -- $700 for first and $300 for second. I'm cooking a spicy chili and loading up the frige with high alcohol content beer for the game. Hey, since I'm hosting I might as well try and get everyone else drunk so I'll have some kind of an advantage, no?

Today let's discuss everyone's favorite subject, Bad Beats. I make that statement with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek. As you read the title of this column you may well have concluded that Leonard has truly lost it! I can almost hear the groans..."Embracing Bad Beats"...and you're thinking, "How can I embrace something I despise?" Well, hear me out as to why you should really be embracing bad beats and welcoming them to your game.

Oklahoma is another frontier state with a long history of gambling. It's only recently that Indian casinos have reintroduced the concept to the state, and though the lawlessness isn't around anymore, many casinos in the state still try to promote a frontier theme.

Around the turn of the last century, many enterprising settlers laid claim to land on the Cherokee Outlet. It wasn't long until 110 saloons and gambling houses were open in what is now Perry.

As I suggested in the last issue - I have been busy with developing a new way of playing online poker. I did plan that I would continue with this theme, however, something else has developed. For me, it means a trip back in time - back to what started my "pro" career in poker.

In the last article, I discussed some of the more common moves you see in small-stakes tournaments. Hopefully you are incorporating those into your overall game-plan. It will take some trial-and-error before you find that comfort zone where you can use them effectively. Not forgetting that selective aggression is the key to winning, here are a few more moves for you to try out:

As we continue following the evolution of the WPT Boot Camp, which we'll cover in later articles, we are lead to Gary, Indiana, a half hour's drive from downtown Chicago. Who would ever have believed that Gary, Indiana, which was once known for soot-belching smoke stacks from the steel mills and oil refineries, would become a gaming destination? Gary has gone through a complete metamorphous according to Greg, who lived in Chicago during the 60's and 70's. As we drove around town, he repeatedly commented, "I can't get over how clean and neat this town has become."

The Wynn is running weekly no limit tournaments. One of my biggest pet peeves in tournaments is the fact that the structures make a number of them crap shoots. The Wynn's structure is one of the best I have seen. The starting stack of t3000 in chips is 60 times the size of the big blind. In addition, the levels are 45 minutes long. The levels increase at reasonable increments and because of this the final table takes several hours to complete. David Egsleder (the tournament director) made the structure of the weekly tournaments one that will attract tournament players to the Wynn.

Tournament poker is huge these days, and no event has more cache, more prestige, or more history than the World Series of Poker. Since 1970, the entire world poker calendar has revolved around the WSOP. Each year it has been bigger and more spectacular than the year before. Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback chronicle the history of this event in their book, "All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker".

I finished writing a book today. Killer Poker Online/2. You can expect to see it in your bookstore within the year, and I hope to heck that it won't have been horrendously overtaken by events by then. Meantime, I've got a few spare minutes on my hands, and while any time during the last six months I would certainly have filled those minutes playing poker online (in the name of research, mind you) I gotta tell ya that I'm just a little sick of that recreation right now. Like they locked me in an ice cream store overnight and by morning I couldn't stand the sight of the stuff.