There are two certainties in this life. One is: we cannot live forever, as we know it. Two being: the odds say, that we MUST WIN SOMETIME. The latter statement is what I want to focus on right now. In determining the when are we going to win part, let us do the math. If the current losing streak is about to hit double digits in consecutive losses, do not panic. I repeat, now is not the time to panic. However, if the current losing cycle is approaching the high end of the double-digit spectrum, begin immediate unadulterated, unchecked, panicking.

Very often poker turns into a game of soccer. This happens when the player with the bigger kicker wins. When players learn their lessons from watching a tournament on TV, they see players coming in with one high card and a small unsuited card. Often players in these tournaments will play small suited cards. Of course, you and I know that the reasons these veteran players stay in with these "Soccer Hands" is due to the fact that they already have a ten thousand dollar ante and the blinds are as much as $50,000 and $100,000. So, the pot odds make it worth their chase.

One of the most common psychological mistakes that we make happens automatically within our minds. All of us naturally look for common patterns in nearly everything that we encounter. With that, we often mistake a simple correlation for a cause. I remember a comical example of this on a newscast last summer, when a reporter warned of a study that showed whenever ice cream sales increased, serious boating accidents were ten times more likely! He was clearly implying that ice cream consumption had something to do with the cause of boat wrecks.

Kathy Liebert frowns at tendencies to separate the sexes in discussions of poker skills.

Pul-leeeze, her tone seems to say. This IS the 22nd century.

It's a habit the news media has created and continues to perpetuate, she grumbles. " There's no question the top women players can hold their own anywhere. They are very competitive with the top male players."

Thinking about that for a moment. "The fact is," she adds, "the top women players are among the top players period."

"D" is for Dealer The Ugly Man, in a wild rage, yells, "I know you have one! Give me your invitation to the House of Cards or I'll kill you." When I tell him I can't! he pulls out a knife and plunges it into my chest.

My torn-in-half "Lucky Deck," held in my shirt pocket, stops the knife. The Ugly Man curses, pulls out the knife, and raises it again.

TWACK!

The Ugly Man collapses.

The tire iron that has knocked my assailant down is held by the girl from the poker game, the young blond eye-candy Gyp hired to serve drinks.

What is it about poker that's so compelling? With so many fascinating things to do in this world, why do we invest so much time, energy, (money!), effort and obsessive attention in poker? Just what is it about this game that makes it so spellbinding?

It's not like we can take it or leave it: 'I've been playing poker three times a week for thirty years, but I can quit any time I want.' Yeah, right.

Dwight D. Eisenhower learned to play poker from an old frontiersman when he was a boy in Abilene, Kansas. Born in 1890, the small town where he grew up had been a notorious wide-open cattle town just a generation earlier.

Young Ike befriended one old-timer who'd been a scout, hunter and professional gambler. He was "my hero-a great teacher," Eisenhower said. On frequent outings, he taught him to hunt, fish, pilot a flatboat, and "the rudiments of poker."

Today we will look at how often a low will get there when the flop comes down with a single or two low cards. We will also look at which low gets there, that is the nut low vs. the 2nd, 3rd or other low. The charts below reflect the simulation results of running each listed rainbow flop 1 million times and analyzing the results. Where possible I chose hands that preclude making a straight. The first chart details the results of a flop containing a single low card.

I'm about to make an admission here, so prepare yourself...

That guy in his late 20s/early 30s at the tables in the ball cap, wraparound shades, and iPod? Yeah, that's me. I'm one of those latter day Moneymaker disciples, fresh to the game from the moment cable TV discovered poker was captivating drama.

Poker by the Bay, that's what you get at Casino San Pablo, just minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a popular spot for Bay Area card fisherman. "We're well stocked with a variety of Limit Hold'em," says Game Warden Doug Morgan. "And, if you want to try your luck in the No-Limit depths, we got that too," he adds. According to Captain Morgan, "All ya' gotta do is buy some chip-bait, sit 'n wait; it won't be long before you hook a hand. Then, just reel it in. But remember," He cautioned, "there are things lurking out there that can eat you."