Misc.

First off, if you are playing Limit or No-Limit Hold em' and your two personal cards are a 10 & a 5-and of course there will be a flop-which will total five common cards if the hand is played to completion. Out of these two in your hand and the five in the flop, then, WHAT STRAIGHT IS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO MAKE ?

I am really wondering how many people look for the answer, the anecdote, the solution, and the remedy, outside of themselves. If you conclude that judging by the sales figures of soothsayers, palm readers, horoscope books, and infomercial responses, the statistics have got to be staggeringly lopsided in favor of "in others". Since we have a meal half cooked - on this subject - I would like to also add, psychoanalysis, the hairdresser, a friend of the family, good guy who works on your car, and two guys named Mike!

In the year 2006, all kinds of unimaginative ideas are en vogue. For example, since poker is the flavor of the month, there are probably all kinds of ideas floating around for a reality show, sitcom, promos on TLC (The Learning Channel), and a variety show featuring the next three winners of the W.S.O.P. tournament bloopers! These kinds of ideas are o.k. To try to capitalize on if you happened to be a poker connoisseur in the mainstream eyes, with name recognition to boot. So then what would we say about Mr. and Mrs. Everyday Jones and their plight, to be number one?

In the last article I discussed how hand selection in no limit hold em is based on variables other than just position. In future articles I will continue with the discussion of no limit hold em and the influence of the different variables in the no limit structure. I let my mind wander a little too much lately and after a rather lengthy fight with the typewriter I think it wandered a little too far. The book writing and the daily live poker had become such a grind that I decided to skip the WSOP and the faster paced Las Vegas scene and slow down to a more lazy life style for the summer.

WILDHORSE Resort & Casino, just outside Pendleton, in the Northeast corner of Oregon annually conducts two of the most popular and successful tournaments in the country: the "Spring Poker Round-up" and the "Fall Poker Round-up".

Everybody has an opinion about what attributes that a good poker player must possess. If the question were just about an ability to play the game as in athletics, it would be elementary. For example: Question; "Why is it that on any given session anyone can win for a period of time?" Well, the answer lies in the theory that poker requires more than just an ability to play certain hands, read certain tells, playing position, and the like. No, poker is more closely related to who you are at the time.

My new book on Low Stakes No Limit Hold Em will become available within the next several months. It has taken a lot longer to complete than I thought it would. The main reason for the delay though is because I wanted it to be the most complete book ever written on the subject. The book covers the concepts involved in the no limit structure, discusses player's weaknesses, the importance of table composition and recognition, how to use implied odds properly, positional considerations, draws, made hands, betting strategy, and everything in between.

"I never really knew that she could dance like this
She makes a man wants to speak Spanish
Como se llama, bonita, mi casa, su casa
Shakira, Shakira

Oh baby when you talk like that
You make a woman go mad
So be wise and keep on
Reading the signs of my body

And I'm on tonight
You know my hips don't lie
And I'm starting to feel it's right
All the attraction, the tension
Don't you see baby, this is perfection..."

Mike was invited by PaddyPowerPoker to present a seminar on April 13 at Trinity College in Dublin, one of the most prestigious colleges in all of Europe. Nikki Newman, Poker Operations Manager for PaddyPowerPoker, commented to me that she felt the players would "benefit greatly from Mike's wisdom." PaddyPower Poker is a "sister site" affiliated with the same network as Doyle's Room, so the seminar was endorsed by both sites.

I have decided to set up the first unofficial gaming complaint department. Since there does seem to be a standardized format to hear these woes, I have taken it upon myself to be the unofficial spokesperson. For identification purposes this office shall be referred to as: Complaint Central. Since it is going to take a little while to set up the logistics for this program I will ask you to bear with me during the initial trial run.