Yesterday Hobby saved a man from a sinking boat a few miles offshore.

The unconscious man had suffered a bad head wound.

We took him to University Hospital. Early this morning we went to the site of the sinking and made a dive to inspect the sunken craft.

We recovered the boat's log and an interesting piece of salvage that was imbedded in the crushed bow of the ill-fated vessel. From the log we learned the skipper was an Australian named Jack Hayes. Back onshore, we called the hospital and learned that Mr. Hayes had regained consciousness; we were anxious to see him.

Linda Mae saw me waiting for a seat in a $4-8 Hold'Em game and headed my way breathing fire. (I won't describe her again, nor her attire, lest readers with dicky tickers skip a few beats.) She demanded that I explain why I wrote so many columns about Straights.

I've adapted today's lesson from one of Mike Caro's 1995 columns.

Sandbagging is also referred to as the checkraise. What does it mean to sandbag? Mike says one of the most common answers is: "When you check-raise, you can trap an opponent for two bets. You check, he bets, you raise, and he calls. If you just bet and he calls, you win only one bet."

Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky and the surrounding environs is known as a great stud horse farm. What's less known, but no less exciting, is the great stud poker game near them at Caesar's Indiana across the river from Louisville. I flew there recently to take my daughter to the Muhammed Ali Center and Museum. At night, after putting her to bed, I drove the twenty minutes or so to the glorious spot on the other side of the Ohio River -- Caesar's Indiana -- the huge riverboat casino in Elizabeth, Indiana. It is one of very few spots on earth with good mid-limit stud.

Today I will continue developing the point count system I began last time. I will continue the process until I develop a complete system. I should inform you, my readers, that this is a work in process. Meaning that I am developing this and testing my concepts and theories as I write these articles. That being said there may be gaps along the way as I may run into dead ends, inconsistent results and assumptions that don't pan out. When I am finished, I do believe we will have a true and tested system ready to deploy at the tables.

They may be neutral, but they'll still take your money. That's poker in Switzerland, which surprisingly has only had casino gambling with unlimited stakes since 2000 - the first such law since 1921. (Card games were prohibited as far back as the year 1379.) The law defines two types of gambling: games of skill, which rightly includes poker, and games like roulette and slots, which are games of chance. A third type, which encompasses lottery and betting, is handled separately.

"It really is amazing what life can do," Mori Eskandani was saying. The Las Vegas-based poker professional says it again, punctuating the thought with a soft chuckle and a raised eyebrow look that seems to say, you just never know. "It really is amazing, when I think about where I was, and where I ended up . . ."

And the acquaintance for whom he is in the process of poking through a collection of life-altering experiences, waits to see where he is going to go with it.

The great baseball Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra, was known for his "Yogiisms" - humorous sayings that were often confusing, at time seemingly contradictory, but had more truth in them than it first appeared. "It ain't over 'til it's over" and "90% of the game is 50% mental" are just two of the better known Yogiisms. A lesser known one, "Trying to Lose Can Help You Win," recently became very meaningful to me after playing in a $50 buy-in standard one table No-Limit Hold'Em tournament online at Party Poker. The payoffs were $250 for first and $150 for second.

Emotional intelligence, loosely speaking, is your awareness of your awareness. Poker players with high emotional intelligence are able to assess their strengths and weaknesses frankly and honestly, with acceptance, and without freaking out. To test your emotional intelligence, I'm going to present you with a number of poker situations and ask you two questions:

Has this ever been you?
How did you feel at the time?

To make the most of this quiz, just answer truthfully and write your answers down. Shine a light on your inner life; that's how emotional intelligence grows.

After the Civil War, Americans started moving westward and conflicts with Indians increased. To protect wagon trains, the Army built Fort Dodge along the Santa Fe Trail in 1865.

Six years later, in 1871, rancher Henry L. Stitler constructed a sod house about five miles from Ft. Dodge. The next year, the first business, a sod saloon, was constructed to service soldiers and buffalo hunters.