I awoke realizing there was no sound from the Lazybuns; we must have made port at Cabo San Lucas. We'd been at sea two days and two nights. It'd been smooth sailing, hardly a wave over three feet. Besides those of us who would be making the long cruise, we had four ladies aboard: Kim and Sue, and lady friends of Peter and Charlie. I nudged Kim, "Wake up, honey, we're at Cabo."

"God, it's about time. I don't like being a board ship this long. I need to get the ground under my feet ... and go shopping. That's what I miss the most. Shall we get dressed to go ashore?"

Last column's review of Colorado poker covered the Gilpin Poker Room. This issue begins with The Lodge Casino, owned by the same company that owns the Gilpin. The Lodge has no tournaments; only live cash play with $2-$5 blind and $5-$5 blind hold 'em.

Hello, poker homies, it has been a great year for me. In the past year or so I have had the most amazing opportunities that a girl could ever hope for, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the whole USA.

I was born in Oklahoma and have loads of kinfolks back there. My father retired and my life with him and mom has been better than good.

I was not too happy when we would leave Oklahoma for a month or so and live in our Nevada home while dad played a little poker in the WSOP with Benny Binion and the boys.

Dad would take me for long walks and talk about everything in the world.

[Editor's Note: This column is running out of sequence due to an error on our part. But if you are collecting all of Sam's Omaha/8 starting hands rules, now you have the missing piece to that
puzzle]

You are dealt A-3 along with a pair of fives. Well, it is not A-2 and your cards are not suited, but you do have three cards to a wheel and a pair. You have some counterfeit protection and say to yourself, "If no one in front of me decides to raise, I will." But how good a starting hand is A-3-5-5?

Poker is a game of decisions. Make the right decisions and you will be a winner in the long run. But, when there are decisions to be made, mistakes are often made. We're only human. Mistakes may be momentary gaffes-blunders that are avoidable, missteps where you just take a wrong step, slip-ups, or errors in judgment. Perhaps the worst mistake a poker player can make is oversight-a failure to notice something that could be important. It may well be inadvertent, but it's avoidable-and often costly.

When Fred plunked himself down, I asked if he knew three letters beginning with 'A,' for 'Bread machine.' (He didn't.) He wanted to know more about money odds.

"You should pay to see the next card," I said, "only when the money odds for you exceed the card odds against you. If you'll follow that rule, then you'll have your very own 'bread machine,' otherwise you'll just be gambling.

Several recent emails commented on a recent column about the things you love to hate, so I thought I'd share with you a few more.

Although guilty of it myself, I hate to hear how badly someone is running. Some players whine constantly at the table about never making a hand, and about how they've been running bad for so many years. It makes me wonder why they think they should be able to beat the game. Have they ever studied, read any books, or watched some instructional videos?

Mike doesn't have favorites when it comes to colors, foods, sports, or celebrities. He also professes not to have any favorite tells. There are, however, a few that he has singled out in the past as being special, or important, or "selected."

Here's a common tournament situation: One short-stacked player pushes all-in and is called by two or more larger-stacked opponents. Among experienced tournament players, there's an unwritten rule that both of the bigger stacks will just check the hand through all the way to the river-maximizing the chance of the short-stacked player being eliminated, because he's competing against two other hands at the showdown, instead of only one.

More Hold'em Wisdom for All Players
by Daniel Negreanu
Cardoza (2008), 167 pp, $14.95
ISBN 1580422241

Serious players always welcome poker advice from a respected champion, even if that advice isn't totally written by the champ himself. For example, in his first book Daniel Negreanu invited a handful of friends, poker pros of course, to contribute to his long-awaited work. In More Hold'em Wisdom for All Players, Daniel covers topics by himself.