Before I tell more about the red games of poker and how cheating is accomplished, I first wish to repeat part of last week's column and preface my remarks with a few comments.

I know that this is a controversial subject-so I wish not to accuse anyone-or make any references to any casino or card room! I would rather trust a poker player than any other profession, be it banker, lawyer, preacher, politician, doctor, accountant, policeman, car dealer, professor, plumber, contractor, stock broker, Indian chief or any other of the professions.

I hope the folks know how much I love poker. I spent a large part of my life trying to help bring poker up out of the back of pool halls and into the living rooms of the world.

I do think that poker is an honorable game-more honorable than golf, basketball, horse racing, baseball, wrestling, and yes, even football.

The population of the Untied States of America is approximately 302,453,000 people and the population of the prisons and jails is about 2,250,000. More than one-half of one percent of our population has been convicted of crimes bad enough to warrant incarceration.

Moreover, some seventeen of our current elected congresspersons have been convicted of wrongdoing.

So I can understand why the game we all love is not Simon Pure! Let's just say that a poker tournament has 10,000 players. It is reasonable to assume that if we take the average of incarcerated people-those who have been convicted, not the ones accused-we can expect that there will be 50 cheaters in a group of 10,000 poker players.

But the bad thing is that one rotten apple crooked poker player can spoil the entire poker barrel. I said all of this to tell you about just one type of team cheating in poker tournaments.

This again is a very red poker tournament. It is off the litmus scale.

Let me tell you a personal red team poker tournament story. I know thousands of poker players and some of them are very good, but some have very bad habits, like betting sports too heavily or shooting dice too often, and some get into controlled substances too. Others drink too much. Many like big cars and fancy jewelry, or spend more money than they win playing poker. A friend of mine is a good poker tournament player and wins more than most folks.

He had misused all his money and came to me for a stake in a big poker tournament.

I knew it was a good deal for me; the man can play tournament poker. I agreed and bought him into the event. My horse ran out of the money, and I thought that was the end of that race and chalked it up to profit and loss. The next day the player came by with a lot of money and gave it to me. I said. "I thought that you had lost and did not come into the money!"

He said, "I was in." I asked what that meant. He said there was a team of ten players who agreed they would help each other in every way possible and that they would pool and split all the money that the team won in that tournament! I told him to count me out! I took the money and gave it to charity!

A team of ten top tournament players that are working together can really cheat and win a lot of money! Think about this:

When a cheating poker player gets something for nothing, there must be an honest poker player who gets nothing for something. Come back next week, if you want to keep reading the truth! Until Next Time, Remember to STAY LUCKY!!