I was playing in a somewhat wild $75 - $150 stud game at Foxwoods the other night. It's not my normal game, and I had been warned that it tends to be a bit more aggressive than the $20 - $40 game I'm usually in. The warnings were prescient. Typically, there was a lot of what I call "bouncing around" early in the hand-when players pushed very aggressively to try and get the hand heads up. With the very high ante structure, it made sense to do this-to get a piece of the substantial money already in the pot.

For many years, I was in the sporting goods business. Warm-ups or jogging suits were a big part of my business. I sold many of my poker buddies and others warm-ups when I came to town for a tournament. My wife summed it up best when we were watching a WSOP final table where over half the players had on my warm-ups. "You may not be remembered for your play," she opined accurately, "but you have had a significant effect on poker fashion."

Green Valley Ranch is Sweet on the Ladies. I spent the last two Sundays playing in the Ladies tournament at Green Valley Ranch and it was a lot of fun on both occasions. The first Sunday they had two tables and the following Sunday they had three tables.

At a poker discussion group meeting I agreed to read a number of chapters from a book and report on it. Luckily for me, the book was the amazing new limit hold'em book by Barry Tanenbaum, Advanced Limit Hold'em Strategy - Techniques For Beating Tough Games. I have a confession to make that I hope helps someone else overcome a handicap of sorts: I am a very poor reader. I got through school by being extremely clever and therefore, able to fool my teachers.

Mike Caro is one of poker's most prolifi c and most readable instructors. He is the author of more than a dozen poker strategy texts and several very helpful videos that focus on beginning to advanced poker strategies. His latest title, Most Profi table Hold'em Advice-The Complete Missing Arsenal, is well worth reading.

Today, our questions relate to online poker. Despite current legislation aimed at preventing United States players from participating in worldwide poker games, poker's future is online. That doesn't mean realworld poker rooms won't prosper. In fact, over the new few decades they'll become much more common than they are today.

But most poker activity will be online. So, let's get started with this short two-question interview. As always in this series, I get to ask the questions and answer them. Hey, it's my column.

Question 22: When will online poker return to the United States?

Wildhorse Casino, Pendleton, OR- Spring's arrival at The Wildhorse Casino is loudly heralded every April as the air is filled with the unmistakable rusty racket of the gregarious yellowheaded blackbird. Not a native to the area, this gregarious bird began showing up in the marshes and reeds of the property's golf course in 1998, and they have flourished in the past ten years.

Last issue's column examined many of the negatives that gamblers face when complying with U.S. laws on taxes. In Part 2 we'll look at some deductions available for gamblers, as well as the problem area of state taxes.

The Tax Code forces the amateur gambler to record some potentially ridiculous amounts as "income." For example, a gambler might have $300,000 of winning sessions and $275,000 of losing sessions. His Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) would be artificially raised by $275,000. There's actually a benefit to this.

BINION'S CHANGES HANDS

Is poker a game of skill?

In states without licensed cardrooms, the answer will almost always determine whether it is legal to operate the game as a business. In about half the states, it would also determine whether merely playing in a commercial game is a crime. States do have the right to put restrictions on games of skill played for money. They may even be able to outlaw them completely, although there is case law holding that governments cannot discriminate by picking on only certain skill games. But all states outlaw unauthorized gambling, defined as games with three elements: