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POCKET ACES

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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

June 17, 2006

Needful Thanks

We don't have to wait until Thanksgiving to pay tribute to the good in our lives -- Rose Perniola

Good bye Dom Perignon, Hello Milwaukee's Best Light, AKA, I suppose, Miller Lite. That's what representatives of Harrah's were saying as they inked the deal with Milwaukee brewing company ... . In what long-time poker players have been dreaming of for decades, the owners of the World Series of Poker have struck a deal that brings corporate sponsorship of the biggest game in town. The kudos here are tempered because I am not one to be impressed by anything alcoholic but for the successful leap into the current century, Harrah's deserves congratulations for this breakthrough. Granted, the World Poker Tour ends its events with a beer toast but that's too subtle. It appears MBL will be plastered everywhere the ESPN camera's eye reaches.

Hello to a new boot camp. It's not too late to sign up for the Phil Gordon/Andy Bloch gangbusters seminar taking place in Las Vegas next Saturday (June 24). Gordon, as most gamblers know, is a world-class poker player, author of a best-selling text (also on CD) on hold'em, author and former co-host of TV's Celebrity Poker Showdown. Bloch, also a super successful poker player was a commander of the MIT blackjack team that took down tons of money from the casinos. Gordon will focus on poker, Bloch on blackjack, then both will conduct a question and answer session. Priced is $199 (tickets are available from the home page at www.gamblersbook.com) this is too good a deal to pass up.

Heaps of appreciation go to Masque Publishing and Wilson Software. Both deserve to be in some kind of Hall of Fame. Bob and Carole Wilson have developed and marketed extraordinary tutorials for the most popular poker games for at least 15 years. While the market for their product was small, the items were priced accordingly. Now that poker has reached near-mania proportions, the price has come down while the quality remains superb. Masque, having created some blackjack tutorials and gambling games for the computer entertainment, including the best-selling World Series of Poker Adventure, recently introduced World Class Poker with T.J. Cloutier, a very nice two-CD tutorial that features one of poker's winningest players on video, giving advice. This very reasonably priced product tutors and plays side games of no limit, pot limit and limit Texas hold'em games as well as limit Omaha, seven-card stud and five-card draw. What a deal for $24.95!

Hallelujah Hilger. Finally someone has produced a book about odds that a math-deprived individual like yours truly can understand. Funny thing about Matthew Hilger's latest book is that when he starts writing about the basic principles (definition of odds, percentages, probabilities), I can faintly hear my lecherous old math teacher's voice saying the same words. Naturally he didn't use poker for any of the examples and maybe that's why the concepts didn't stick around after the final exam. Whatever the case, even if you don't want to know how to figure the math, you can know exactly what the math is by turning to the charts at the back of this book.

Praise has to go to the Los Angeles Times because they got it right, at least from my point of view. In June of 2006, they were quick to call attention to the well-known fact that our government speaks from both sides of its collective mouths. On one side they say okay, okay, we'll agree that online wagering on horses is okay but this other stuff poker and sports the other side says that's got to be illegal! Let it be, they Times editorialized, then regulate and tax it. I could do without the tax part of heck, if it means letting me decide how to spend my money, then I'll go for it.

And finally, a big thank you to www.pokertop10.com> for two reasons, one of them quite personal. First the non-personal. While looking around the web for some really good and informative poker blogs, I stumbled on this site that made the job a snap. The site owner listed his ten favorite poker blog and I decided to check them out quickly, thinking they'd be just another one of those let's-scratch-each-other's-backs things. Wow, was I ever wrong! His favorite poker blogs were terrific and I ended up spending an entire half day reading them. I don't have a clue who does the site but it's clean, to the point, and without clutter. And now for the personal reason why I love the site. The author has a top ten online poker writers list and guess who is on it? How nice to be flattered without solicitation or expectation of reward! I was so taken aback I had to send the URL to my little sister who, by the way, is responsible for the opening quotation this week. She doesn't know much about poker at all, but she knows about giving thanks better than most of us.

Not enough said but enough for now ...