Linda Mae swerved and headed my way after she saw me sign up for a few games. She went to Atlantic City over the weekend and someone there told her there were only 7,462 poker hands. "Was that right?" she demanded, "because you always say there are over two-and-a-half million poker hands!"

"We're both right," I answered. "There are 2,598,960 possible five-card hands from a standard deck. In poker games the particular suits don't matter, so there are 7,462 different hands. Let's do the math." She first rolled her eyes and then agreed to pay attention.

My recent articles dealt with low limit HORSE. Today we are going to look at a concept that has less importance in hold 'em and the hold 'em hands in HORSE and is often overlooked or misunderstood by today's younger players and other new poker players, who play mostly hold 'em.

In 7-card stud, 7 stud/8, and razz, many players do not recognize the importance of the number of cards they need that are already showing on the board, or already folded by their opponents, and therefore unavailable. They want what they want and it does not matter whether those needed cards are dead or live.

By the time a fool has learned the game the players have dispersed. -African Proverb

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

Opponents of Mississippi Riverboat Casinos called them "Ships of Fools," a reference to the old story of passengers oblivious to the dangers of boarding a leaky boat.

Five people in, around, or nearing the poker room of the Calamity Jane were about to find out just how leaky.

It's just about that time of the year again-time for the circus otherwise known as WSOP to roll into Vegas. I don't mean circus in a pejorative sense, but it's the only word that instantly crosses my mind when I think of the WSOP. Between the media coverage, the colorful personalities, and the bags of predominantly worthless swag to be obtained from the WSOP convention, it's easy to forget that there's some serious money on the line. But maybe that's the beauty of it all. Here's an equation for you all:

Jason Alexander and his Friends Helped Raise Money for Domestic Violence Victims: Cheryl Hines, Camryn Manheim, Montel Williams, Daniel Baldwin, Scott Elrod, James Lee, and Anthrax's Scott Ian were among the list of celebrity players who attended the event.

Go to www.pokeplayernewspaper.com to view this and other "25 Year Ago" archive issues. Poker's first publication started here a quarter of a century ago and blazed a trail that many other publications followed. See this issue for yourself; learn the news of 25 years ago, and read winning advice and stories from some of the biggest names in poker.

Well, it's that time of year again! Yes, the tournament many poker players have honed their skills for during the year, the World Series of Poker.

Today, I'm going to offer a few tips from MCU that I hope will guide you down the right path to achieving the goals you have set for the WSOP.

Tournament poker is a skill game which is designed-as most games are-to allow participants to engage in a competition to determine who the best player is on any given day at a specific event. The result ends with the finalists rewarded with varying amounts of the prize pool money.

Most people, in the course of life, know whether a person is sincere or just pretending. They look for consistency in words and actions, like saying "no" and shaking the head side to side. Or they notice when a person is being positive and their body-language contradicts them. These are the obvious actions that confirm or deny what is being said or implied.

When it comes to mouth-watering food and great live music, no city beats New Orleans. The poker action here isn't too bad either. In a sense, everyone who visits New Orleans ends up a winner.

That's a perspective shared by thousands of poker players, who come to the Crescent City each year to play in the South's most prestigious poker tournament series.