Hobby and I had been hired as consultants by a European on-line poker company that was looking for a novel way to promote their website via a live poker tournament. After we had proposed a radical concept an aberrant employee wanted to rip us off. The German we knew as Hans was subsequently fired. Our CALP concept, for computer- aided-live-poker, would be featured in the finals of an upcoming tournament. We met with Trevor, the Rekopnuf (that's poker fun spelled backwards) CEO who had hired us, and his development team. After introductions Trevor said, "I've briefed them on the basics.

Today I will wrap up this series of articles and offer my final comments on the article written by Jennifer Harman. I will also offer some insight into the next series of articles. Jennifer defines a loose game as one where "six or seven players are seeing every flop". This is indeed a very loose game. She further states that "you should play most hands that have A-2." I fully agree. In a loose game like this people are playing every kind of low hand imaginable as well as many not so great high hands. One must be extremely mindful of getting quartered or worse.

If you're looking for a high-stakes theory book for no-limit hold'em, then look no further than this one produced by the tandem of Ed Miller and David Sklansky. It's likely to be the hottest poker title this year, since it covers the specifi c topic everyone seems to be looking for.

It often happens that our image dictates our strategy. If we're perceived as tight, we can exploit that perception and steal the occasional pot; if we're thought of as loose, we can get them to pay off our monsters. Poker, then, is often a delicate dance between who we are and who we seem to be. It is through the filter of this dance that I would like now to examine a bluff of a certain type, an image-dependent bluff, if you will. It is a bluff, moreover, intended to victimize certain types of players, and specifically targeted against them.

Located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip the TI, formerly Treasure Island, opened in the fall of 1993. Steve Wynn designed and built the TI adjacent to his Mirage Resort. The pirate themed resort was primarily marketed to family vacationers as an upscale alternative to the adult oriented resorts. With a full size pirate sailing ship permanently docked in Buccaneer Bay, TI guests enjoyed free shows nightly when a British frigate sailed into the bay only to be hit by cannon fire and sink with all hands.

I recently took a marathon trip to Atlantic City, leaving my home in Boston at 1:30 AM, driving through the night, arriving early on Saturday morning, and then playing in all the poker rooms I could find. This included a stop at the Trump Taj Mahal (known familiarly as "The Taj") - once the premier poker room in the area. For stud players like me it still is.

Professional gamblers in the lawless American West were ruthless, dangerous, courageous competitors; none more so than Doc Holliday. He left his mark in nearly every infamous frontier boom town of the 1870s and '80s.

John Henry Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia in 1851. His father was a pharmacist who later became a wealthy planter and Confederate Major during the Civil War. John's mother died of tuberculosis when he was 15.

He told her Vegas was the place to be. She thought about this, letting the possibilities that sparkled like diamonds roll across her mind.

May as well give it a try, she finally decided. And so on the day she turned 21, Canadian born Evelyn Ng took the advice of close friend Daniel Negreanu and hopped a plane for the gambling capital of the world. Her decision wasn't merely about a chance to gamble in an environment where she could do it legally to her heart's content, a point she worked hard to make with her apprehensive family members.

One of the most mysterious categories of hands for hold 'em players is called "suited connectors." As you'll soon hear repeated, the name means you begin with two cards of the same suit, usually adjacent in rank and not particularly high or low in value. Examples of suited connectors would be 10-9 of diamonds and 8-7 of clubs. These hands can be profitable in many situations. But you need to know that you won't improve them nearly as often as most players might expect. Suited connectors are often overvalued and played incorrectly.

Las Vegas, NV - When Jason Lester walks into any poker room, everyone seems to recognize him. He's been playing in poker tournaments for twenty years. He's cashed 16 times at the World Series of Poker, and made six final table appearances. He was part of poker's biggest story ever when Chris Moneymaker rocked the world and won the 2003 championship event. Lester finished fourth that year. Had a few key hands gone the other way, perhaps it would have been Lester's day and he'd be a world champion. But alas, that's poker.