2007 April 16

Out front stands an active volcano that erupts at the top of every hour in a traffic stopping fiery display of might and magic. Out back dolphins swim in a peaceful ocean lagoon. It can only be one place on Earth, the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas. The spectacular first jewel in the legacy of Steve Wynn's Las Vegas strip makeover.

Even as a 12-year-old, Erik Seidel could pull a nice little bluff. Like the night he got a chance to make a few bucks appearing on the old network television show "To Tell the Truth," pretending to be the youngest of all comic book illustrators.

Until that evening, what Seidel knew about comic books was that he had enjoyed reading them.

But illustrating them? Please!

Linda Mae thrust herself in my direction muttering unpleasantries. Something upset her that winter's eve at her $4-8 Hold'Em table, and she wanted to get it off her rather bountiful chest. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the calamitous tale to follow. She opened by saying, "How could he call when he knew he was beaten? I showed him my hand and he still called and then he rivered me! What an imbecile!" She told me that on the button she raised with [Ad]- [Kc] before the Flop. The Small Blind folded; the Big Blind called; three limpers called.

"The best offense is often a good pretense"

The game was $200 buy-in NLHE with $2 and $5 blinds. I had about $250 in front of me and a no-nonsense image. I was dealt As-Qs on the button. A canny, frisky player limped from under the gun and the cutoff seat made it $15 to go. I knew the cutoff to be someone I could move off a hand, so I raised to $55, looking to get heads up against him, then outplay him on the flop.

Playing in a poker tournament for a fi rst time can be intimidating. Since the vast majority of participants of nearly any tournament are experienced players, tournament staff generally assumes that the players know what's going on. If that's not the case, tournament rules, procedures, and etiquette can be bewildering. There is a defi nite need for a book that helps fi rst-time players understand what's happening in tournament poker and David Apostolico's "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Tournament Poker" aims to fi ll this gap.

"I thank the Asian Poker Classic team for the great tournament, hospitality, and for the opportunity to visit such a beautiful place in such a beautiful country.

I will remember this forever and I look forward to returning next year to defend my title!" said Carl. Samuel Lehtonen from Sweden took second place, but the morst compelling story was that of India's third place finisher Pranav Bathija, from Mumbai. He learned to play poker at the tournament's sponsor site MaharajaClub.

The World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in championship main event will be held from July 6th through July 17th at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Probably the most popular place online to win a ticket into the most prestigious poker tournament in the world is on PokerStars.

No-limit poker is puzzling. You don't just bet or raise, as you do in limit games. You need to figure out how much to wager. That makes no-limit much more complicated, if you intend to play it correctly.

If you hold a big hand, you have something to sell, and you need to charge the right price. A lecture I delivered years ago will help you understand the concepts involved in establishing the best price. And if you carefully consider the advice the next time you're involved in no-limit hold 'em combat, you're apt to know how much to charge. Then you'll make more profitable bets and raises.

Raising is much different in no-limit hold'em than it is in a fixed-limit game. It begins before the flop. In fixed-limit games it pays to try to capture the blinds whenever you think you can, simply because they represent a larger percentage of your wager.

Like so many others in Las Vegas, Nolan Dalla made the unfortunate mistake of assuming that casino chips are liquid, just like cash. It turns out they're not, and the lesson he's learning might cost him $5,000.

Dalla, who's the media director for the World Series of Poker and for Harrah's WSOP circuit poker tournaments, received a $5,000 chip from a major Las Vegas casino as payment for a gambling debt. When he tried to cash it at the casino cage, it all went horribly wrong.