There's method to his madness. -William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

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

I worked as a union organizer in West Virginia from 1983 until 1988, and in many respects, not much has changed in the 25 years or so since I first visited. West Virginia is still largely impoverished, still beautiful, and I still stick out like a sore thumb!

I received an email from a friend of mine who saw the draft of my recent article, A Short-Stack Story. John (not his real name) asked me, "How can you glorify short-stackers? "They're brainless sycophants. They're the dirty underbelly of poker winners. They should be sent to Hell." Now, John, don't hold back with your opinion.

To look down and see two high cards in your grasp is usually a promising start to any hold'em hand. This we know. But when bad things happen to good cards and the flop fails to connect with either one of them, your beautiful beginning has turned into a thorny and potentially expensive situation. Your naked high cards aren't good enough for you to continue in the hand with any degree of confidence, and yet it can be oh-so-difficult to let go-especially if you raised before the flop-and oh-so-tempting to stay in, hoping to hit something on a later street.

We interrupt our series of raisin' 'n' chasin' columns to assess the flop. We read in D. R. Sherer's book, No Fold'em Hold'em, that the median flop contains a queen. If true, that explains why our pocket jacks, tens, and nines so often fail to prevail-those pesky overcards kill our chances much too often!

The median flop has just as many flops with higher ranking cards as those with lower-ranking ones. Before looking at our hole cards, C(52,3) describes the total possible number of flops: 22,100. The median flop has 11,050 higher flops and 11,050 lower, by definition.

Hobby and I were still at the Del Coronado Hotel suite where a private poker game ended with Hobby having won a multimillion dollar pot and a significant share of a superyacht. The owner, Carlos Gomez, who lost playing poker with Hobby, asked for time to raise money to pay off. Hobby insisted on settling the debt, then and there, by making a cash offer for the yacht. After some haggling Carlos agreed to give up the yacht for an additional $4 mil which Hobby satisfied with a check.

The first event of Commerce Casino's LA Poker Classic is in the books and is one for the books too. Not only did the $335 buy-in event become the largest tournament ever at that casino with 5,847 entrants-a field that size sounds more like the main event at the World Series of Poker- but the winner, Sacramento's Darrell Cain, made the most remarkable comeback in LAPC history. Thinking he was finished for the day after losing virtually all of his chips, he was cashing out when someone noticed he left eight chips on the table.

Hard Rock Grand Opening Redux Scheduled for February 5-8. The Hard Rock's grand re-opening begins with a $20,000 tourney at 8 p.m. on February 5. The $250 buy-in event offers $100 re-buys and 12,000 in starting chips. The $1,100 buy-in Trash Talk Championship of the World charity event benefiting the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Foundation will kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday, February 6. Stick around for the Who's Your Daddy high-stakes celebrity $100-$200 no-limit cash game that's scheduled for 8 p.m. If you've always wanted to test your heads up skills against a pro now is your chance.

While playing low-limit hold 'em at the Hustler Casino, it seemed that most players did not use the concept of pot odds and card odds in making key decisions. Perhaps as a consequence, most of them went home losers, so I thought it appropriate to share my perception of this important-and somewhat confusing-concept with you.

This is not a comment on the age-old debate of whether poker is more skill than luck; it's about the one skill that some players have since childhood, and others must develop. When you did something wrong as a child, were you good at escaping trouble, or did you get caught every time? If so, you may lack the very skill you need to be good at playing poker.

It's the skill of being a good liar. In fact, most skills in poker are traceable to this one skill. Whether you are bluffing, avoiding being read, or avoiding giving out tells, the one common denominator involves lying.