On May 23, I will doing a charity seminar In Nashville Tenn with high stakes player Terri Evanowski. This event, with registration starting a 5:30 PM and dinner served at 6:30 PM. It will be at the Hampton Inn an downtown and will include a dinner catered by Valentino’s Restaurant. Complementary soft drinks will be served by the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders. In addition, a poker event will held with the opportunity to win a $10,00 seat to the World Series of Poker Main Event and Round Trip Airfare. The cost of the evening is a tax deductible $500 donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, and you can get more details from .

Using the ship’s computers, I fat-fingered some e-mail and accidentally deleted about 20 messages. So if you sent me something in the last three or four days (April 16-19) and did not get a reply, I lost it. Please resend.

There I also a chance that on May 3, I will present a seminar in Nashville to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can find more details here as plans firm up. But if you are in the area, please set the time aside. It will likely be at the Gaylord Hotel and will request a donation of $100.

Many cruise ships now have automated poker tables. I like these for a lot of reasons. First, ships do not have trained dealers, so they tend to make up rules. Second, even if they do, they do not have the flexibility to switch from ring game to tournament. Automated tables can handle games of any denomination, and size, (up to ten players) as do SnGs well as rings. Only one person is required to run it, and he has only to enter the type of game and each player’s buy in.

This ship does not have this. They run a “tournament.” Here is a set-up. They play on blackjack tables limited to seven players. For each event, the buy in is $90 for 1000 in tournament chips with one rebuy OR add-on for $50 which gets you 800 more chips.

Now the structure. Ten minute rounds (not a typo) starting a 25-50 and doubling every level. Yes, at the end of a half hour, they play 200-400 with at most 12,600 chips on the table. Clearly an all-in fest starting after 20 minutes. I guess at least it levels the playing field.

And what does the winner get? He gets to play other winners throughout the cruise with the final prize (yes, one prize) of a free two-week cruise for two (cabin level unspecified), and an entry to an annual cruise company-wide with event with (they say) $100,000 in prize money.

Can you compute th4e amount of the entry returned to the winner(s)? Me neither, but it seems to be way less than 50 percent.

I took this cruise to get away from poker for a while, and the poker they play has made it easy. No way will I enter this thing.

Things are going quite well. Crossing the Atlantic on a cruise ship is a great way to relax. I will post again when I get home, or when I get final details of the Nashville seminar.

I hold Qs 10s in the small blind. Al fold tot he button, who limps. Weird, but there it is. Does he have A-A? I doubt it. I think he (a regular) is stuck, knows I often 3-bet (I would have here) and is just trying to see a flop.

I would often raise in the SB to kill the BB when I have a hand as good as Q-10 suited, but the big blind will never fold anything and I will be out of position against two, so I call.

Flop is Q-6-5. A decide to check and check-raise the auto-bet from the button (players who limp preflop in my game pretty much ALWAYS bet the flop if only the blinds are in and both blinds check. They are correct to do so.

OK, check-check-autobet-raise-fold. Now a reraise. What is this? A-A? A good queen? A draw like 8-7? I am pretty sure my queen is still good ad I fur bet. He calls. The pot is big, but I do not like his call.

The turn is a king,. I am not crazy about that either, so check. He bets. I call. He comments, “No raise this time?” This comment almost certainly means I am now losing, if I was ever ahead, I should check-fold the river, which is a 2 but I check call. He has K-9. He tells me he figured I figured he had nothing for his bet on the flop, so he reraised to show he did even though he didn’t. Then he caught his out. Fun, huh?

Similar hand. SB, and me in BB with 6-7. I take the free play. Flop is K-K -7. Two spades, I have none. SB checks, I bet as I do not want anyone play on. I do not even want to try to pick up the autobet.

Limper raises. What can this be? Does he have a king? Can’t be. First, he is likely to have open raised. Second, with a king he is highly likely to wait to punish me on the turn, No, this is just a nonsense raise. Maybe a flush draw.

Perhaps I should 3-bet here, but I call (SB folded) and see if the turn is a spade. Bang! Spade four. I check. Wait. He is checking his hole cards. Now he bets. Does he have a flush and knows to me a false tell. I doubt that. I think he has nothing and is afraid the check and show it. Should I raise? Probably I should as I am pretty sure my read is accurate, but at the table I did not. I called. River Q. I was hooping for no queen, no jack )quack) I check-call. He has Q-10 off with no spade and takes the pot.

These are not bad beat stories. And I could have played each one differently. Probably even better (though I could have played worse too and folded the best hand) . Just another day in the life. But I thought they were interesting examples of how the $30-$60 is playing these days. Much money to be made, but you have to work for it.

I have been playing more in the past week, which is a good sign on several fronts. One thing I have noticed in the past few days is several instances of totally wild play. You just do not see that many $30-$60 maniacs in the course of year, and this past week there have been four different players assuming the maniac role. By this I mean raising with far to many hands, sometimes all of them, going too far after the flop, and, naturally, laying a series of beats on the other players.

Maintaining your equanimity under those circumstances is critical, and for many, quite difficult. When I started playing, it was impossible. Every time I lost a pot I “deserved,” it tied may innards up in knots. A guy would hit is kicker, make runner-runner miracle, flop trips with his 3-2 when I had kings, and find other creative ways to drive me nuts. I tried to remain stoic looking as I played through the psychological pain, but it was tough. Often, I tilted (some), and tried to give them a dose of their own medicine. Usually, I just gave someone else a dose of my chips.

One day, still several years ago, I took a terrible beat. To my surprise, nothing happened. I was looking for that familiar intestinal-clenching, blood-rushing sensation, but nothing was there. I sat there in amazement and tried to decide what happened. I still have no idea. Maybe I had passed the statute of limitations on beats. Maybe I had been playing enough years successfully that somehow inwardly I realized that either these were a part of the game I had better get used to, or my results over the years were good enough that I knew I was winning player in spite of these (actually because of these, but I did not understand that for a while).

Since then, the evil sensation has not returned. I still suffer flashes of annoyance when someone shows me two rags that beat my lovely premium holding in an unlikely scenario for a huge pot, but I no longer get upset. I do find myself playing too loosely with these characters at time, as did last night, and had to rein myself in. I set a goal of folding hands for 45 minutes to get better control, and came close, playing only one hand (and losing that one after putting in multiple bets on the flop with a large advantage).

Overall, I am glad I spent so much time in low limit games, learning, among other things, how to play with wild players, how to take the ridicule they heap on you when they are winning, and how to control myself when “unfair” things are happening. While it was surprising to see that many “any two cards” guys and “I raise two-thirds of the pots” guys in a short period of time in middle limits, it helps to have lived through the range of experiences and wild swings before.

Yesterday, Betty the beautiful and talented wife and I attended the induction ceremony for the First Annual Women in Poker Hall of Fame at Binion’s. Of course, Binion’s is the site of the original Poker Hall of Fame, and this will stand with it. The purpose is to recognize the achievements of Women as players, contributors and role models, and the honorees were all part of poker for a lot of years. All were pioneers playing, dealing, administering, writing and winning poker when, in many places, women were not allowed to deal or play.

Congratulations to the four ladies: Barbara Enright, Susie Isaacs, Linda Johnson, and Marsha Waggoner. I am not going to review their bios here, but all have made considerable contributions to the poker world. It was a very moving ceremony hosted by Mike Sexton as, after a presentation of the history of women in poker, each of the inductees was introduced and said a few words. Jan Fisher did a terrific keynote talk as well, and hopefully, she will be a Hall of Famer herself in a short time (she already is in my opinion).

The event sponsored a charity: Breast Cancer Angels. There are a lot of Breast Cancer charities (too many compared to other forms of cancer that are more prevalent and also need money desperately), but Breast Cancer Angels appeals to me. They take 100% of the money they get, and give it to people who are fighting breast cancer and need the money for rent, food, clothing, and emotional support for them and their kids. Their overhead is paid for by corporate contributions, and all of the staff are volunteers. The organization was started in 2000. You can find more information here.

On a personal note, by a somewhat amazing coincidence, I have played heads-up with three of these women (though I am fudging one). Partially this is a function of being a night person, and having played for a long time, but I have not had that many heads-up games in my life (in live poker rooms) over the years.

I met Marsha Waggoner on my first Card Player Cruise (to Alaska), but of course I had never seen or heard of her. She just seemed like a nice lady. One night, when the 20-40 game broke, she asked me if I wanted to play heads up. I was surprised, and actually asked her if really wanted to play me (I suspect I overemphasized m the “me”). She did, and we played for a while. I cannot remember who won (really) which probably means she did, but we both recall the event clearly.

Several years ago, the Casino Europa in Costa Rica hosted amazing poker tournaments. They comped airfare, hotel and meals, so I went. On this trip, to get your airfare reimbursed, you had to play 50 hours during the week. So I was playing a short-handed limit hold’em game at 2 AM or so when I spied Barbara Enright and her life partner Max Shapiro, playing heads-up Omaha hi-lo to burn off some hours. I had never met either of these famous people, but I did recognize them, so I walked over to meet them. They were receptive to me joining their game, and I did. It was just like walking into a Max Shapiro Card Player column, with Max whining he wanted to go to bed and Barbara tongue-lashing him to play (in her wonderful way, of course). I settled the thing by offering to play Barbara heads-up so Max could retire. She agreed, and we discussed what to play. Barbara suggested seven card stud (politely suggesting her best game). I agreed, and we played heads up seven stud for a couple of hours. This is an interesting game, as Barbara is ruthlessly aggressive, and with only two players, there are no dead cards to take into account. One of the things that saved me I suspect is that not one dealer in Costa Rice had ever dealt a board game, so every 20 minutes we had to train another dealer, which slowed the game down. I did eke out a victory that night, but a tiny one. I did have a blast. I suspect Barbara does not remember it or me.

My fudge is that I have played heads-up with Linda Johnson, but only Chinese Poker, only for a few deals and only for $5 a point (which is all I will ever play her for in that game, she is way better than I am at it).

Anyway, congratulations to the new Women in Poker Hall of Fame, and to the first inductees.

When In Boston, I did get to some Pats games (tickets were nowhere near as scarce as the Giants tickets were when I lived in Brooklyn), and even drove to training camp once. In New York, I did get to go to some New York Titans games. This was the AFL precursor to the Jets. These tickets were great because there were never any fans there, and you could effectively sit on the line of scrimmage. If a team gained ten yards, you could walk ten yards and sit down again That was fun.

I was going to add some poker, but I have not and it has been a week. (My column took a while). So I will post this pre-Super Bowl.

As some of you have been kind enough to ask, my second eye surgery went well, and is healing fine. I will probably need some final laser touch-up after things settle down, but then I should be able to drive, play and even possibly compute without glasses for a few years. Reading will still need some help.

Book sales have been going well, and I have gotten some very nice feedback, especially from several people who took time out of their lives to write to tell me they enjoyed and benefited from the book. These notes make me feel great, and I thank everyone who wrote (and yes I still reply to my e-mail messages).

OK, let’s get back to some No Limit talk. We are still in the early stages, so I will be saying some pretty basic things. It helps if we all get on the same page.

In limit, most things are about frequency. It matters a great deal how often a thing works. A-K wins often enough, so we play it. 7-2 does not, so we don’t. If we flop top pair, we treat it as the best hand, and generally bet/raise all the way (yes, I realize how overly non-specific that sounds.) Sure, we will lose to players who outrun us, but the profit in the long run comes from being ahead in the race, and staying there often enough. Pot odds dictate, but it is tough to give a guy terrible odds, so mostly opponents (or us) with good draws are getting the right price to play and try to draw out.

No Limit is not about frequency at all. It is about rarity. (Relatively) huge wins and losses center about the rare times when someone hits a miracle hand, gets all the money in, and gets paid off. OK, maybe not a miracle. Sets have huge value in both games, but are far more valuable in NL, where a well-hidden set can bust someone (and, for better players, the threat of a well-hidden set keeps them from being too aggressive with vulnerable hands.)

Players spend hours at the NL table waiting for the one or two opportunities per night to have the right type of hand or circumstance to spring a trap and double through (note, for the record, we are still discussing cash games, which are not timed events and players have time to wait for hands). Sure the give-and-take in between involves money, image, and action, but the real money is in stack off your opponent and that in most games is a rarely.

This frequency vs rarity issue is one of the reasons limit players have a tough time making the transition to NL. They think because they will win often with a hand, is is a good hand to play. More on this next time.

On a somewhat more positive note, Dr. Schoonmaker, whose show I have been co-hosting, has agreed to move his show to roundersradio.com. This outfit has more listeners, and should be able to offer a better product. As Dr. Al is writing yet ANOTHER book (the man is a machine), we probably will not be doing the show on a regular basis until after May 1. We may tape a few sporadically between now and then, and these will be announced, here as are all of our shows, on my forum.

Thank you to those who listened to us, and I hope you enjoy the product in the new venue.

“Does anyone know how the caucuses turned out?”

“O’Bama won by 9.”

‘Oh, how did Huckabee do?”

“He covered.”

You can now listen to me (sort of ) every week or so. I have joined Dr. Al Schoonmaker on his Internet Radio Show, “The Psychology of Poker.” and will be co-hosting most weeks. You can find these shows on www.holdemradio.com. Click on the podcasts. Dr. Al announces each show on my forum, which I also urge you to join. Highly informative and affirmative discussion. No one is belittled there for posting a question. And you get some pretty good answers from the members. I chime in when I can.

New Year’s weekend is Las Vegas is always a great time for poker. This year Betty (my beautiful and talented wife) and I broke tradition and stayed home, as we still have some health issues. In years past, we have gone to the Bellagio poker room, and even once ventured out on The Strip. Since the Metro Police close all of the entrances and exits to The Strip at around 6 PM, and re-open them around 3 AM, you need to commit over ten hours to your stay. We were not up to it for the first time.

If you have never been to Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve, I promise it is worth it. The city is even more alive than usual, every resort/casino pulls out all of the stops for parties and entertainment, and the fireworks are amazing as they launch from seven different roof-tops from the Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay. This is a stretch of four miles of fireworks, all beautifully synchronized and amazingly colorful with the crowds in the middle of them.

I did play the three nights leading up to New Year’s eve, and did well two out of three (which, interestingly, is my lifetime average). Having New Year’s Eve on a Monday brought folks in early, and the action was excellent. More people play well these days, but the games are still good. There is a still a big difference between knowing how to play well, and doing it for several hours and days.

I will get back hands and poker specifics very soon. And I promise we will continue some explorations into No-Limit Cash Games. But a few (more) personal notes. I will have my second eye operated on Tomorrow to fix the cataract problems, and this should improve my vision. And the next week, we will be travelling back to Florida to visit my Mother again. She is doing great in her assisted living place.

Everyone take care, be well, stay warm, and have a great 22008!