2007 March 5

We were playing a half-kill at a $4-8 Hold'Em table in my local poker room on a spring Tuesday. I was The Button. I saw both black Deuces; decided my position was worth raising, and raised. Only the three blinds called, and we saw the Flop four-handed.

The Flop came Qd-9d-2h. Hot diggity dog, I had flopped a Set! They all checked to me: I bet $6. Mac, the Small Blind, raised. The Big Blind cold-called both bets. The Half-Kill Blind folded. What was happening, I wondered? Slowing down a bit, I called.

There's More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

Have you ever heard that expression? I don't know why anyone would ever want to skin a cat, but it is true that there often is more than one way to accomplish an objective. On Friday, October 13 (are you superstitious?), President Bush signed into law the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement (UIGE) Act, effectively banning online poker in the U.S.A.

With poker's accelerating popularity and millions of new players nationally and internationally looking to get in on the excitement of live action at the tables and computer games on Internet, people will always wonder about cheating.

Wynn Las Vegas is quite simply the plushest destination resort and casino on the planet. The magic that produced this Las Vegas landmark comes from the Wizard of Las Vegas, Steve Wynn. The tallest building in Nevada provides 2,716 luxurious rooms and magnificent suites for the most discerning guest. Located center stage on the famous Vegas Strip, the magic is just behind a curbside Alpine mountain range that has a great copper hued arc of a building rising above it all.

Hobby was seated next to me at the Bike in a Texas Hold 'Em game.

"Look at that chunk of glass," he said as he gestured toward a player at the end of our table.

The object was cut like a diamond, but about the size of an egg. The player put it atop his hole cards as he contemplated his bet.

This is not unusual as many players, top pros among them, use such devices.

"I should have something like that," Hobby said.

"It's a bit garish, don't you think? Maybe you could have something more subtle, like a miniature of your yacht or Rolls?" I said, tongue-in-cheek.

Playing suited connectors is not as common of a hold'em leak as some of the other group of hands I have discussed. Still, there are some players who will not fold these hands despite the fact that they are unfavorable in most situations. The only time that they should be played is when the game is loose passive. The truth is that in most typical middle limit games there are rarely enough pot odds to play these hands profitably. The table composition is usually tight and aggressive with no more than three or occasionally four players seeing the flop in a raised pot setting.

Greed is an ugly thing. Avarice is a virtue not a vice. Two aphorisms that seem diametrically opposed. So which is right? My favorite treatise on the subject of greed comes from the movie Wall Street when Gordon Gekko, the Wall Street legend speaks at Teldar Paper Company's annual stockholder's meeting.

Before we jump into today's pool of plentiful poker profit, here's an announcement. In either my next column or the one after, I'll declare the winners of December's "Finish My Lecture Contest." I expect to finish grading all the entries by next week.

Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke from Champaign, Illinois has been playing poker for about two years and dropped out of school to play full time. He recently made a name for himself after he cashed in two major events inside of eight days. The 19-year old internet pro took 22nd place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas then flew halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia where he took down second place at the Aussie Millions. Although he lost to Gus Hansen heads-up, Gobboboy won $1 million (Australian dollars) in the process.

Do you find yourself regularly going to the same casinos and playing against the same opponents?

Among those players are there any that you dread playing against because they're unpredictable and too aggressive? Do they raise too frequently, usually when you'd prefer that they didn't? Do they bluff too often? Are they interfering with your concentration when you're trying to profit from the weaker players? Do you find it hard to read what they are going to do and when? It's frustrating, right?