Editor's Note: This story is an adaptation of material and interviews that may be included in Ms. Eolis' forthcoming book, Power Poker Dame

Last month it was the galloping poker economy, rather than a disaster in the making, that sent me scurrying off on a trip overseas. The itinerary was London, Barcelona and Vienna. I was trying to keep up with Thomas Kremser, the immensely popular European tournament director who has established TK Poker Event Consulting, GmbH to serve the international poker community.

"Joe, remember last year I invited you to my poker club?"

"Hobby, how could I forget? You needed a new poker game and gave me two hours to invent one."

"It was more time than that, but anyway, it's guest night tomorrow. You wanna come?"

"Not if you need a new game."

"No game, Joe. Just come for the fun of it." I remembered that many of Hobby's friends were lousy poker players-and since I didn't have anything better to do...

Enter an online satellite, win a seat in the main event at the 2004 World Series of Poker, and go on to win the event leading to almost unimaginable fame and lifechanging riches.

This is the dream of a great many poker players, including Richard Sparks. As we know from history, he fell short of his ultimate goal, but in "Diary of a Mad Poker Player" he tells us about his journey.

Fitzgeralds opened during downtown's pre- Fremont Experience era of prosperity. Back when Fremont Street was filled with bumper to bumper 'look-at-me cars' cruising along only a few short feet from slot machines players, separated by only an invisible air-curtain. Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas was one of the great American cruising experiences of the era. Downtown Vegas was jammed night and day with players, lines of taxis, long limos, exotic hot rods, throngs of pedestrians and crowds of cops.

In the last article I discussed how hand selection in no limit hold em is based on variables other than just position. In future articles I will continue with the discussion of no limit hold em and the influence of the different variables in the no limit structure. I let my mind wander a little too much lately and after a rather lengthy fight with the typewriter I think it wandered a little too far. The book writing and the daily live poker had become such a grind that I decided to skip the WSOP and the faster paced Las Vegas scene and slow down to a more lazy life style for the summer.

Folks, remember I talk slow and write long-so when I got started on this article, I really did not mean it to be a novel-but this is part three and the end-I hope.

Mark Seif says it was the 2001 World Series of Poker that made a difference, providing the moment in time when he reached that metaphorical fork in the road and, as the joke goes, decided to take it.

He thought about his career as a lawyer up to that time. Yes, he would tell an acquaintance years later, law had been good to him.

But compared to poker? Gee . . . it was hard not to stifle a yawn.

Poker was another world. There was nothing like playing successful poker to get the juices flowing. Particularly with the level of success Seif was then enjoying.

What do you think would be the most frequently cited cause if we were able to poll a group of players experiencing a losing streak? How about the most frequently cited cause stated by another group that happens to be experiencing a winning streak? We all know the answers to these questions so let's say them together. Ready? One, two, three..........bad luck and superior play Is there any way that the correct answers just might be horrible play and good luck? I'm sure many times these are the correct answers but a good portion of the poker population lives in denial.

"A cross between John Wayne and Jesse James", is how Mafia gambling kingpin Meyer Lansky once described Benny Binion. Lester Ben "Benny" Binion was born in rural Texas, between Dallas and the Red River border with Oklahoma, in 1904. Still very much the Wild West, a man survived by his wits and wisdom, luck and pluck. Life was a competition for survival and fairness was folly. Everybody looked for an edge and Justice was your own responsibility. As a boy, Benny was frequently weak and sick.

Stan Seiff is Casino Manager for one of California's premier casinos and one of Poker's foremost success stories - Bay 101. It's in good hands. Born into Poker, Stan's father, Leonard Seiff was a highly regarded California cardroom operator. "I knew what a bad-beat was before I learned to wish upon a star", Seiff says. Although good at math in school, it wasn't because I studied arithmetic; I just learned to figure odds and percentages early."