I love innovation! It makes life all the more fascinating. And it keeps us seniors young.

In the January 18 issue of Poker Player Newspaper, Barbara Connors column (Connors' Corner) on "Enemies with Benefits," was concerned about a bounty button. I was intrigued. How could we best apply Barbara Connor's teachings for the benefit of the Claude Pepper Sr. Citizen Center Poker Group?

So I discussed it with my chief poker advisor, Esther Fayla Epstein-famed for creating the powerful Esther Bluff-as we drove home from her middle school. Could she be as innovative now as she was when creating the Esther Bluff? We kicked the idea around.

Background. Our seniors poker group at the Claude Pepper Sr. Citizen Center in Los Angeles began five years ago on the suggestion of then Center Director Homer Post (he recently moved on to bigger and better things!), following my talk at the monthly Seniors Club meeting on "Why Playing Poker is Great Recreation for Senior Citizens." The poker group started with just six people and quickly mushroomed. We now have almost 100 members. People drive from outlying cities to attend. Local casinos often host us to a special day, consisting of a first-class poker seminar, elegant buffet lunch, and then our own low buy-in limit hold 'em tournament.

Many of our members are quite skilled. They now play frequently at the host casinos, and can hold their own with the best in the business. One, Yvonne T., told me that she often plays in local and Las Vegas casino tournaments-and wins most of the time, thanks, she said, to using the Hold'em Algorithm she learned at our Claude Pepper Sr. Center Poker Class and Lab sessions. Wow! (I have asked her to discuss her experiences during a future Poker Lab session.)

Here's the plan Esther and I developed. The Normandie Casino in Gardena, Calif., will soon host the Claude Pepper Sr. Citizen Center Poker Group. Professional poker player Don Vance will present a seminar on playing A-K (Big Slick) in different situations. Based on Barbara's column we will include a bounty button at our post-luncheon tournament.

Now 14 years old, Esther is a great person to bounce off ideas about poker. Here's the plan we came up with: One of the tournament tables (we expect seven tables) will have a special bounty button sitting atop the dealer's button. Whoever knocks out the player with the bounty button will win a special added prize which Esther has selected. She will also create a special "congratulations card" to go along with the prize-could be very valuable in 100 years. The bounty button will move around the table along with the dealer's button, so everyone has an equal opportunity. At random, we will move the bounty button to another table. After all, poker is an equal-opportunity game for everyone-young and old.

The bounty button is a polished black stone (almost gem-like), artistically decorated with a royal straight flush by my bright and artistically inclined almost 19-year-old granddaughter Dani, who is now a freshman at University of California, Santa Cruz.

With about 70 players in our tournament at the Normandie Casino, we expect at least ten cash prizes from the buy-ins-no rebuys. Esther has promised that the added bounty button prize will be a "real sweetener." (Hint?)

Our thanks to Barbara Connors for leading us to this great idea. And thanks too, to the Normandie Casino for hosting our Claude Pepper Sr. Citizen Center poker group for this special event.

. . . So readers, what's YOUR opinion?

George "The Engineer" Epstein is the author of The Greatest Book of Poker for Winners! and Hold'em or Fold'em?-An Algorithm for Making the Key Decision and teaches poker at the Claude Pepper Sr. Citizen Center in Los Angeles. Contact George at geps222@msn.com.