When the Rio opened in 1991 it instantly became the party place for the young hip crowd. Loud music, sexy dancing girls' riding light floats high above the casino floor, even a Rio Rita showgirl host and a Carnivale atmosphere. that will turn even the hardcore grouch into a smiling mover and shaker. Today's Rio Resort continues to cater to the young party crowd while pleasing the more mature guest.

Hakim signed up for $4-$8 Omaha/8 on that stormy Tuesday evening in summer and then headed my way. He was doing better in his hold'em home game, he told me. He really preferred Omaha/8 and played hold'em only because his countrymen demanded it. He played hold'em at home and Omaha/8 at the casino.

He always played along if he had a potential winner for low, he told me, but it seemed to him that the low didn't get there as often as it should. Since eight of the thirteen ranks were eight or lower, weren't the chances of a low pretty good, he asked.

You may recall I once told you about that eminent senior citizen, Arizona Stu, who is a super poker player-as well as a winner in the game of life. It seems there is a new variety of hold'em at an Indian casino near his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's $5-$150 hold'em. The small blind is $3 and big blind is $5. "You can bet up to $150 at any time," he explained. That's a spread limit game. The buy-in is $350.

The Venetian to become new "Home" of the NPL The National Poker League, an international poker organization, announced that they joined forces with The Venetian Resort~Hotel~Casino in Las Vegas to host the 2007 Vegas Open, scheduled November 24- 30, and the World Championship Tournament on December 3.

The Venetian Poker Room will also serve as home base for the NPL Broadcast Center for all 26-episodes of the NPL television series, set to more than 100-million viewers.

It's the 2006 World Series of Poker and I'm in a horror film. My tournament table has temporarily been reduced to seven players. I glance at my six opponents and they're all humanoid creatures with huge and hideous green or brown eyes.

Are these the outer-space aliens you see in artists renderings based on eyewitness encounters? The similarity is haunting, and I'm definitely an "eye" witness. Fighting the urge to tremble and flee to the security of the Doyle's Room hospitality suite across the hall, I count the number of green- versus brown-eyed monsters.

My approach to playing poker tournaments has always been conservative. I play in my favorite real money games. If I win, I invest in up to three one-table satellites for the main tournament. If I win a one-table satellite, then I play in the main event. This approach has kept my net overall cost for playing tournaments to a minimum.

The balk in baseball is an illegal move by the pitcher, potentially causing runners to move prematurely, thinking the pitcher is actually throwing the ball to home. Runners are awarded a base and the motion is declared "no pitch." There are balks in poker as well. The good poker player needs to protect himself from them. It is also possible to take advantage of your opponents' poker balks.

In your wildest dreams, could you ever imagine your grandmother as boss of your favorite poker room? Since 1998, Lil Duquaine, appropriately nicknamed Tiger Lil, has been a driving force in Wisconsin's poker scene as the Table Games Manager for Menominee Casino Resort's Forest Edge Poker Room, no small feat for this mother of three and grandmother of two-soon to be three.

You better count your money while you're sitting at the table: I don't care what Kenny Rogers sings or what anyone else says, "Never count your money while you're sitting at the table" uh, that to me is the worse advice ever given about poker. Keeping track is the best way to know how much to risk, how much you've lost or gained and most importantly, when to quit... So count, keep track, it's the best way to know where you stand.

Recently, I was playing next to a whiner in a $3-$6 Texas hold'em game. After a while, when the whiner was complaining about having top pair and someone sucked out with two pair, I just had to say something. If I didn't know the whiner I don't know if I would have said this, "You know, you lost all your whining rights when you chose to play a low limit game, don't ya?" He said, "What do you mean?" I said that the conditions to protect your hand just are not there as they are in higher limits and particularly in nolimit hold'em. Of course, my comment didn't make any difference.