Aaron was sitting at the breakfast table, enjoying his hotcakes, when his wife Anne asked him how the poker game went at the casino yesterday.

"It went very well, honey. There's one hand in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed playing. I was up against Mick-you remember, the maniac I told you about?"

"Oh, sure, dear."

What's the fastest, most reliable way to lose money in this game? Make hands that look good, but just aren't good enough to win. Second-best hands. Oh so promising, oh so seductive, but in the end ... oh so deadly.

We hear a lot about "the Act of Mercy" or "Acts of Faith" applied to emphasize different acts we employ. But no one refers to "The Act of Poker." Yet the Act of Poker is what sets poker apart from other activities.

Some people make an attempt to play poker while others really commit the act of poker. There are certain things a player must commit to before his or her game can be called the act of poker. I'm sure most veteran players will agree and could add to this list.

P - Is for playing position and having the patience needed to play a good game.

I recently played extremely well and just killed a $10-$20 limit hold'em game. It was like leading the lambs to slaughter. I felt like I deserved a good meal, and decided to head for the "All you can eat buffet." There I consumed a rack of ribs, roast beef, fish of the day, and all the trimmings, along with a sampling of the desserts and two glasses of merlot.

I want to introduce you to Carol and my daughter, "Oklahoma" Sarah Hale. Forgive me, my buttons are busting when I talk about OK-S!

She is Hollywood beautiful, Vegas street smart, college smart, and employed by Caesars Palace in Las Vegas! OK-Sarah is also one hell of a poker player, and was the first woman to win a poker tournament at the Wynn poker room in Las Vegas.

On September 30, 2007 OK-S won first place in my eightieth birthday poker party at the Venetian!

David "Chip" Reese was, born in Dayton Ohio in 1951 and died in his sleep December 4, 2007. Widely regarded as one of the best poker players in the world and the youngest player inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, this profile was done by Phil Hevener a few years ago. Poker Player Newspaper is presenting it again, in honor of Reese's memory. -Lou Krieger, Editor

Investing in the Nut Flush

It was a lively $3-$6 hold'em game at the Normandie Casino-the oldest casino in the Los Angeles area and one of the original Gardena poker clubs, with old-world charm that's hard to describe in words. The poker gods had not yet smiled on me and I was a bit behind, but I wasn't too disturbed. After all, I know that you must be patient in the game of poker. Then a fascinating hand came up. It was the combination of circumstances that made it memorable.

Yes, you can play too cautiously, even though most players don't play cautiously enough. Once you've discovered the key secret to winning, which is being selective about the hands you play, you want to make sure you don't take it to an extreme. Do you ever talk yourself out of playing hands because you're being extremely careful about avoiding unprofitable situations? By being this conservative you could be missing opportunities to profit from medium-strong hands.

In the last issue of Poker Player, I described how a very tight preflop reraiser can earn a few extra big blinds per session by tossing in an occasional reraise bluff. Unfortunately, this bluff leaves little room for error in your reads and slight differences between your perception of your opponents' raising and folding distributions and how they actually play can mean the difference between riches and rags.

2007 was a bumper year for poker in Europe with more venues opening, more festivals being staged than ever before, several poker tours operating, and online poker still legal and booming. Although some countries, such as Norway, are considering a more hard line stance against Internet poker, the vast majority can look forward to a 2008 without interference from governments meddling in things they don't understand.