Editorial

It’s that time of year when all my free time is spent playing poker. There are tournaments everywhere in Las Vegas—at all limits, on the Strip and Downtown featuring all games at all hours of the day and night.

Ask your friends, family, neighbors. Like it or not, most will tell you that poker is a gambling game. On that basis, some well-meaning people frown on the game—even though it offers many benefits aside from the potential of winning money.

“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine...”
 

In my day job, I’m required to follow various ethical guidelines. I have a license, and the Office of Professional Responsibility, the agency which administers my license, could  revoke it if I don’t follow the rules.

In every science there are lingering questions that remain unresolved. All intelligent forms of life that we know about have something in common—consciousness. But what is it? What makes a person conscious, and where does that go when we die?

Contrary to what many people believe, the “show one, show all” rule is not really about the cards per se. It does not mean that if, for whatever reason, you expose one of your hole cards that you will then be obligated to show both of them.

With the 2010 World Series of Poker upon us, Nolan Dalla appeared May 13 on my Internet radio show, Keep Flopping Aces. The show airs live every Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, 6 p.m. Pacific Time, and corresponding times worldwide, on Rounder’s Radio—located at www.roundersradio. com. It can also be downloaded for on-demand listening anytime, so if you missed the show when it originated, you can still hear it whenever you’d like.
 

Poker and etiquette don’t often go together. A game with rich traditions of shootouts, boozing, and drugs seems beyond polite protocol. And yet there are rules of decorum generally followed at the table. I know. I broke one recently.

I’ve written before about my pet peeves while trying to enjoy our wonderful game of poker. Today, I’m calling out the offenders of my favorite peeves and calling them pinheads. In no particular order allow me to offer up what I believe to be the five most egregious, teeth grinding rituals of rudeness and boorish behavior that are regularly perpetrated by the pinheads of poker upon all of us who aren’t pinheads. See if you agree with my list. Caution, if you do not agree, you may be a pinhead.

I have a math problem for you. If you can do simple multiplying and division in your head then you don’t need a pencil and paper. Otherwise go grab them.