2007 January 22

Richie Lopez was born on a military base in Ft. Lewis, Washington on December 5, 1971. On Christmas day with baby in tow his family returned to their hometown of San Jacinto, California. In 1992, Richie took a Security position at Soboba when it was just a Bingo Hall. He left Soboba to pursue a career in forestry but left the forest in 1994 when Soboba reopened as a casino. At the time there were no security positions available so he started as a poker dealer.

Italy has spawned several notable poker professionals. Jeff "Iceman" Lisandro was actually born in Australia but lives in Salerno, Italy. He won a Lake Tahoe WSOP circuit event in 2005, and cashed 17th in the WSOP main event that year for $659,730. As for poker players who are actually Italian: Luca Pagano is part of Team PokerStars and has cashed five times at European Poker Tour events, including third at the Barcelona Open in Season 1.

On a sunny summer afternoon I noticed Hakim moping in a corner of my local poker room. After I signed up for a $4-8 Hold'Em seat, I meandered over to his chair and said, "Hey, Dude, wha's up?" He told me that the player with the 'funny grip' stopped playing in his home game after he introduced a transparent dealing shoe. He was still losing in his home game, just not so much nor so often.

Last time I left you with a challenge. You were to put together nine hands that would always lose to a player holding As-2a- 3d-Af and as a second challenge a player holding [As]-[2h]-[Kd]-[Ac].

The chart above displays the solution I developed. If you have another solution I would be interested in hearing from you.

The top part of the chart show results for "You" the first hand displayed. Please note that in both instances "You" scoop the pot 100% of the time meaning you win the high half of the pot 100% and you win the low half 100% of the time there is a low.

I can state with certainty that I know I am a winning poker player because I have kept meticulously accurate records for over ten years. The key word in the last sentence is poker. I'm not trying to confuse you, dear reader, but my problem is not poker. It's the fact that the online poker site that I spend most of my online time at offers alternative gaming options. Alternative gaming options is a very nice way to say, they give you a chance to piss your poker profits away at negative expectation games. Hey, so far nobody has put a gun to my head and forced me to play these other games.

Hobby and I were on a "Mexican Riviera" cruise with our girl friends. We hadn't reached our first stop at Mazatlan and we were already in trouble. They were complaining about us playing too much poker.

Kim said, "If this is the way it's going to be, I'm flying back home."

"And I'm going with her," Sue added.

"What's the problem? Aren't you girls enjoying yourselves?" I asked innocently.

"Don't give me that baloney, Joe Crest. You're always playing poker!" added my dear Kim.

"Well, you can play too," I suggested.

After a decade, the California Gold Rush was on the wane. Miners began looking elsewhere for the next big strike.

In 1859, a small group of gold seekers found some promising ground high in the mountains east of Washoe Valley, Nevada. Placer (surface) miners, they cursed the heavy blueblack sand that clogged their rockers.

You understand how position works in poker, right?

The earlier that you must act, the more players are waiting to pounce, and the stronger your hand needs to be to earn profit. Fine.

What if you didn't need to settle for the rotation of the blinds or dealer position to determine when you got to act late?

Remember, in the long run, when you act late, you make more money. You can add a period to that - there are no exceptions.

Players who get to see what others do before making their decisions have an advantage. Period. (There, I added it for you.)

Station Casino's Fiesta Henderson Casino-Hotel stands at the 515/215 interchange in Henderson. Originally christened the Reserve, the property was acquired by Station Casinos, remodeled and name changed to Fiesta Henderson; but, the new owners didn't stop there. They recently opened a new 1,500 space parking garage, a modern Race & Sports Book, new sports bar and hotel registration area.

Editor's Note: This story is excerpted (and adapted) from Ms Eolis' forthcoming book, Power Poker Dame, to be published in 2008.

As a child I blurted out whatever questions came into my head. More often than not, they were basic and simple questions designed to challenge my parents' authority: "Why are you asking?" and "What do you mean?"