Writing this pre-Super Bowl, but that is not the topic today. First, some quick book news. My book, Advanced Limit Hold’em Strategy, is now available on PokerStars for Frequent Player Points. For those of you who play on Stars as I do (no compensation, I just play there), getting books with FPPs is a great deal.

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.

I was born in New York City and lived there for 21 years. Then I moved to Boston and vicinity for another 20. So this Super Bowl features the first team I followed, and the second. Congratulations to the Giants and Patriots for making it to the finals. I will be rooting for the Patriots, as I have for many years, during most of which the “Patsies” could not even make the agate type on the West Coast.

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.

First, my apologies to the dozens if not hundreds of you who turned out to meet our plane as it landed in Florida. We were not on it, as health issues forced us to cancel the trip. We will try again soon, I think.

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.

Holdemradio.com is, at least temporarily, out of business. The owner has run out of money, and the site is closed. Thus, all of the podcasts and other previous broadcasts are no longer available. This is really a bad beat, as I listened to some, but never downloaded any (I still live in the dark ages of the internet). If anyone has any of these recorded (like the ones I did, or co-hosted with Dr. Al), please let me know. I would like to have them.

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.