Do you think that professional lifeguards go to the beach on their vacation? I'm guessing they might be sick of staring at sand. I wonder if residents of Hawaii like to holiday in Canada and Alaska just to get away from the perfect weather and warm temperatures for a while. All of us seem to long to break the monotony of our daily lives once in a while to get away, even if the monotony is pretty darn good to us. A weekend jaunt, or a long hiatus, is often just what the doctor prescribes to reset our minds and soul.

Gambling has deep roots in Germany. The roulette wheel itself was developed by Francois and Louis Blanc and introduced in Germany. When the laws turned against gambling in the late 1800s, Louis Blanc took the wheel to Monaco, which led to the creation of Monte Carlo.

This column is different than my usual ones; but the recent Congressional legislation against online poker got me thinking. . .

Last time I briefly introduced the next group of hands that are frequently misplayed- the small pairs. Just like the trouble hands and Ace rag holdings, the small pairs do not do well in early position. Your primary objective is to see the flop cheap and to try to hit a set. Despite this I often see players who are willing to come in for a raise in early position with any pocket pair. At best these pairs are only slight favorites against two over cards. These aggressive players frequently ignore that they are at least a 4 to 1 underdog to a bigger pair.

Editor's Note: This story is excerpted (and adapted) from Ms Eolis' forthcoming book, Power Poker Dame (publication 2008)

Hobby and I had been playing poker at Hollywood Park. I couldn't get any traction. Lousy cards, and when I tried a time or two to make a play, they fizzled. I decided to cash in my remaining chips and see what Hobby wanted to do. He was at a nearby table.

"I've had it, Hobby. Are you going to play for a while?"

"Nope. I've had enough. You hungry?"

"Yeah. How about Chinese?"

"Sounds good. Let's do it."

In my last article, Surviving Slumps--Part II, I said that we will discuss how to pump a slump into becoming a better player and person because of stress.

We are checked in at the Warrick Hotel. The Warrick is just around the corner from the world famous AVIATION CLUB on the Champs Elysee here in Paris, France.

They play a lot of pot limit poker here in Europe, and they still smoke a lot, but we are the guest of Bruno Futossi, who is the poker Guru here in Paris.

Bruno has been a wonderful host and I know that Carol and my girls are enjoying all of the fancy French cuisine in the Aviation Club's five star restaurant-I will make it until I can return home for some good old Okie food.

I tend to play a squeaky tight-aggressive style in the typical $10/20 and $20/40 stud games I find at Foxwoods, the nearest public poker room. I make most of my money by squeezing money from the loose-passive bad players I face in those games. It's a style that's worked well for me there and in the low limit no limit hold 'em games I play in, around Boston.

All players experience the same degree of luck and misfortune over the long course. This is often cited as a pretext to explaining how the skill factor in poker separates the winners from the losers. If poker were purely a game of chance then all players would fair roughly the same in the long run and the only people making any kind of sustainable profit would be the casinos and poker room operators who spread the games. But this is not the case, as poker as we know it involves more than just pure luck.