Today, I'm going to repeat the introductory words that launched my investigation into the parallels between gambling strategy and life. That was a dozen years ago. And there were a dozen tips that accompanied those words. We've been seeing the tips in the reverse order of their debut, counting down toward one. In this column, I conclude the list of 10 everyday winning concepts already presented with the 11th and 12th members of the list. That's why today's word is "dozen"-a dozen years of research, a dozen core tips.

Sandbagging is achieved when you're holding a fantastic hand and you check, hoping that your opponent will bet and then you can raise. It can be profitable against the right opponents. However, if you use it against the wrong opponents, it can devastate your bankroll. Now, you're asking, "Who are the wrong opponents that I shouldn't sandbag?"

Hakim stormed into our local poker room on a Wednesday afternoon in summer, spotted me and headed in my direction. I asked him why he seemed so upset. He replied that he had lost yet again in his own home game, and he wanted me to fix it. "If it weren't for the 'kitty,'" he said, "I'd be even farther behind." Let's review your progress, I suggested. First, you thought someone was manipulating the cards, because one guy had a funny grip and he always seemed to do well when he dealt. So you showed everyone the Scarne cut, and insisted that everyone cut the deck that way.

Craig's Full Tilt poker book is the perfect tournament tutor!

Michael Craig hit a home run when he wrote The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King. (If the name's familiar, it's where he wrote about the super cash game in Las Vegas that became a modern legend).

Let's discuss aggressiveness in limit hold'em. Aggressive play is a key element to winning poker, but can aggression cross the line and become recklessness? While everyone defines that line in his own context, based upon his individual playing style and mood de jour, conventional wisdom always espouses selective, aggressive play as the most successful.

I was honored to be named the Grand Marshall of The Seniors World Championship of Poker and to host 1,882 senior players from all over the world at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas on June 25, 26, and 27. It was the largest senior event in history. The inaugural event of The Seniors World Championship of Poker was held down at Len Miller's Oceanside Card Casino in Oceanside, California about 15 years ago, and the Seniors Hall of Fame was created. The Grand Old Man of Poker, Johnny Moss, was the first member inducted.

Vintage Hills, a senior residence in northwest Reno, spreads an in-house limit Texas hold'em game every week. The blinds are 25 and 50 cents. It may be the strongest game at that limit anywhere! The players in this game are all members of The Greatest Generation, the men and women who saved the world from the terrorists of WWII.

Last issue was the first part in this two-part series on continuation bets. We talked about raising before the flop with a big pocket pair and betting into a board that doesn't look like it helped anyone. What about a flop like A-7-3? A bet into that flop represents an ace. But if you don't have an ace in your hand it's very difficult to call an opponent's raise, when his raise, in essence, is telling you this: "You don't have an ace, buddy; but I do. So take your continuation bet and stuff it!"

Following are four strategies that I use in very special situations:

1. SMOKING. You have 6-5 off-suit in the big blind with a raiser in middle position as the only other player. You've been on a rush, so you call. The flop is A-K-3 of clubs. You check. Your opponent checks. You read him for either a very big hand or a pair below kings with no club. You now check in the smoke and he bets in the smoke. You raise in the smoke. He folds when the next card fails to help his under-pair or re-raises in the smoke if he has a big hand (in which case you fold in the smoke).

Verona, New York-Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) events are beginning to attract national attention. This small but growing televised poker tour emerged from the Midwest three years ago, has steadily grown in popularity nationwide, and televised HPT events continue to gain a wider viewing audience.