Most everyone has heard the old saying that a fool and his money are soon parted. The syndrome in poker that epitomizes this saying is FPS, which stands for Fancy Play Syndrome and was first coined by the prolific poker author, Mike Caro.

The Power Poker Seminars at the Rio, presented by Mike Caro and Doyle Brunson continued on June 27. The topic was "Psychology, Tells, and Manipulation."

A Quote. Mike pointed out that once you have learned the basic skills of poker; using psychology against your opponents is the next step to increasing your bankroll. "In poker, psychology is the land where money grows," he said, and I have often watched him use psychology against his opponents with ease and great results.

Many moons ago we played low-limit hold 'em regularly at the Santa Fe in northwest Las Vegas. Every day an older couple would arrive around five p.m. and play until they could obtain adjacent seats, usually the five- and six-seats. They would then leave for an hour while they ate their supper in the restaurant. We don't like partners at the same table, much less side-by-side, but that's not the point of this column. Here we concern ourselves with the effect of players' absences on bad-beat jackpots.

Poker is 100 percent skill and 50 percent luck. -Phil Hellmuth

[This is a work of poker fiction set ten thousand hands in the future. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.]

When I was growing up my mother told me to eat everything on my plate. "Remember the starving children in Czechoslovakia." I wasn't sure then what eating a lot had to do with children in Eastern Europe, and today I'm even less certain. My mother also told me, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." That's usually the right thing to do in poker, too.

Summer has finally hit the Las Vegas Valley and the mercury is firmly planted into the 100s with no break in sight ... at least not for a few months. The WSOP has come and gone, except for the final nine who are set to play in November, and many new champions were crowned. There were repeat performances by some of the poker world's elite players too.

The Deep Stack tournaments at many other properties are also finished or winding down. It's been a great few months of poker in Las Vegas, with the Venetian, Golden Nugget, Horseshoe, Wynn, and Bellagio, all hosting major events.

In no-limit and pot-limit games, one sneaky little weapon that can prove very useful in the early rounds is the pot-sweetener. Typically, a pot-sweetener is a smallish bet or raise that's designed not to drive opponents out. It's a little bet that's trying to coax little calls-with the aim of fattening up the pot for the eventual kill. Opponents usually call the diminutive raise because they're getting good pot odds, and in the later rounds will be more inclined to keep on calling because of the now-larger pot.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently made an astonishingly bad $34 million bet.

The size of the cash isn't the issue-$34 million is peanuts for the federal government.

The DoJ is betting that it can scare Americans out of playing poker online.

But prosecutors don't seem to realize that they will probably lose this bet. And when they do, the decision will be read that Internet poker is legal.

We have all seen them on TV, the poker couples who seemingly disprove the old adage "lucky in cards, unlucky in love." Jen Harman and Marco Traniello, Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak, Erica Schoenberg and David Benyamine, Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown, the Jetts, and the Mizrachis are but a few of the couples who have shown that poker has come a long way from the days of Oscar and Felix.

Recall my column, Legal? Immoral? or Just Tricky? In the March 30 issue, Jim called Jill on the river. Jill announced she had a straight. Jim mucked his hand. Another player asked to see Jill's hand. Guess what. She did not have a straight! Jim would have won the pot had he shown his hand.

In response, Robert, an attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio shares his two key poker rules, commenting: "Your student might know strategy and odds, but it's also important that he know the rules."