Poker mathematics limit a player, while patience is always the key and controlling the flame of greed is the essence.  You have to enjoy the fun and excitement of the game, the thrill of winning.  Or you will never be a real poker player. 

Old Poker is one of my favorite games where 5 cards are distributed to each player, where you could draw up to 4 cards and the merit and winning strategy lay in your hand and not in the 5 community cards & the 2 in your hand like modern day Hold Em. 

Rumor has it that poker actually started from a Persian game called As-Nas, brought to America viva Columbus.  The French claim they they started the game, with the players being diplomats, administrators, key officials and sea merchants.  But today it is mostly viewed as a  American sport, if you will.  It did not take off with any vigor in England until after World War II. 

The best part of poker is the joining in and not in the watching.  The toughest poker players are found in Nevada where I think those who say they are from there seem to have the right of an edge on the rest of us.  Poker is a mental game.  Where geeks and the "professionals' have just as good a chance of winning and loosing together  - all in the same game and maybe in setting next to each other.  This is a game where body language gives away more than the eyes. 

Poker is the only place where fashion sense means nothing and how you set, how you move, your smile, your laugh means everything.   Your color, where you were born, how much money your daddy or your mommy have, what religion you are or aren't and how much beer, how much food and how and what you smoke makes no difference at all.  And while you don't have to take a shower - your fellow players would really appreciate it if you do - or they may be happy to introduce you to one and throw in a free bar of soap and towel if you are really bad - even all that doesn't realy count - unless you smell.................

Mr. Berry Binion, a previous owner of the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas once commented - "Trusting everyone is not the problem, better to shuffle the cards so there are no mistakes."  In poker you need patience, sometimes it is a waiting game for the right cards to come along and sometimes you blow it by waiting too long or letting a bluffer steal your pot.  These people with their all in's all the time remind me of the bully in the play yard.  When enough is enough they usually go down without much a fight.

I personally hate it when someone says, "You played with that?"  Uttered with much contempt as they roll their chips over to you.  "Why they shouldn't have even been in the hand!', is another possible cry.  Well to all that I can say any card can win preflop and the best hand can loose after the flop. 

People talk about the poker "Gods" like there were many deciding their fate.  I lean my fate on one God and my acquired skills at the poker table.  To blame many Gods for your failing - is nothing short of a cop out.  I like to play the cards on the table, the people and my hand.  If I see 3's popping up left and right at nearly every flop - you betcha I'm going to play them.  Only a fool throws away a possible winner - because a 3 is not normally held.

A wise man told me once to mix up my game, after you play with prople for awhile them get use to your tells.  Time to switch tactics.Not being a pro I like changing my way of playing, I may play the same way several hands but when someone gets a read on me - I switch to another way.    Just like the fox who wants to avoid being a fur coat, I wish to escape with the ultimate tournament prize and to do that I must confuse my opponents, baffling them, keep them off their toes and when they get angry - I know I have succeeded.  There is nothing like an opponent on full tilt.

The WORLD SERIES OF POKER is a must for everyone that enjoys poker - I think perhaps I would like to do it someday when I'm better - but I really think it boils down to the $10,000 price tage to get in.  This big event started in 1970 as a casual get together between friends and just like Ebay exploded from there. 

People bet on the weather, they bet on how much money over you they have, they bet they can out race you.  When was the last time you were driving and the kids were yelling and screaming and fighting and you said, "I bet you a dollar you can't be quite for 5 minutes."  The kids took up the challenge and they may have won, but they didn't collect.  Welcome to the world of betting and welching on your bet.

If you play with the pros you must play their style.  Life is a gamble but when you play poker, if you play recklessly you will loose.  In life you never stop learning and in poker you'd better not stop either!  I am not a professional and never will be.  Not so much the luck of the cards or the crazy river, but who I am in this crazy world.   Sometimes the odds and the river combine gracefully with the flop and other times you must be a crafty bluffer to pull down the hand.  I am not a bluffer - crafty or otherwise.  The few times I have attempted it I've not only been called but beaten!  I don't bluff and when I win I show, I find somehow that this gives me an extra edge.

I began playing this game on July 21st, 2005 with a club called WIN YOUR WAY IN,  where the hands are free but the rewards are real money if you are the top 2 or 3 people.  With escalating gas prices and no hope of them ever being less than $2.00 I was doomed not to be able to do the necessary travel, as I am on a limited income.  Not limited by my imagination, as I could image myself with tons of money till I opened the wallet.  LOL

    The club started a group online, I found this challenging but missed the social hour and even the chat sessions that went on while playing did not make up for being able to see and occassionally touch a live person.  I couldn't hear the mumbling's and for that matter the swearing and I found that I missed them.

I played at the local casino - $3-$6.00 and dropped $150 in 15 minutes, this was clearly not working.  I joined a few local tournaments at other places and while I came out the winner 1/2 of the times I played, I found that I really missed the old buddy social hour.

That's when a friend asked if I collected, I said yes but it was mostly dust.  She giggled, then it was "no silly", she said she meant poker items.  Did I know what was rare and what wasn't and to tell you the truth I never thought about it.

Okay I'm now a poker collector with a modest collection, it doesn't fill the social hour but, it does fill the need - don't ask me how.

Okay here is a short list of collectibles in the relm of POKER.  As usual to get these prices everything must be pristine, looks like it was new.  Postcards are the exception, they must be looking new but they must also have the meter stamp with the date on them.

Fastest Boat on the Mississippi Poker chips - value $245 each

Mid 10th century ivory poker chips - valued up to $51.00 each

Mid 19th century hand-scrimshaws poker chip - value $357 each

Mid 19th century poker players photographs - black and white with no tinting - $84.00 each - even though rare for the period there hasn't been much interest in them.

Late 19th century Will and Finck sleeve card - holdout for cheaters - value up to $243.00

Early 20th century poker chips - valued up to $13.00 each

As - Nas deck of cards - value up to $3,633.00 - deck must be complete. 

Florentine Cards - complete deck in like new condition - $424.00 per deck

Draw Poker deck of Cards - $95 per deck

1844 Book - Thirty years Passed among the Players in England and America by Cowell - valued at $534

1868 Book - How Gamblers Win or the Secrets of Advantage Playing - value $275.00

1887 Book - Poker - Prescott Schenck - up to $115

1870 Hand - Scrimshawed ivory poker chips - value up to $212 each

1888 - Three Little Queens Trading Cards - value $41 each

1890 - or thereabouts - Schencks Rules of Poker - value up to $31.00

1890 Sterling Silver Matchsafe with gambling devices on front - $400

1890 Steamboat Deck of Cards - 7-11 - value  up to $70

1891 Book - W.J. Florence - Handbook on Poker - valued up to $70.00

1895 Book - Brelesford & Dimick - It's All in The Draw - valued at $400.00

1897 - Steamboat Playing Cards - complete - value $81

1900 Cartoons on gambling - value up to $68.00 each

1900 - Steamboat Playing Cards - complete as new - value $39

1900 Photographs of Poker Players - up to $957 each

1906 Book - Shakespeare on Poker - was not written by Shakespeare but some of his lines from some of his works were used to describe some hands in poker.  Valued at up to $306.00

1906 Book - Stand Pat or Poker Stories from the Mississippi - valued at $472

1909 Photographs of Poker players by Charles Morris are tinted and valued up to $63.00 each

1910 Postcards - Only by S. Solomon - value from $6.00 to $16.00 each

1913 Book - The Poker Primer or How to Play Poker - value from $6.00 to  $46.00

1916 Wild Bill Hickok playing cards painting by Wyeth - value - $1,569

1957 Book - Herbert . Yardley's - The Education of the Poker Player - valued $7.00 - but great reading.

1970 original photograph of the 1st WORLD SERIES OF POKER game at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, Black & white no reproductions or touch ups - valued at $1,732.00

Cover #450 of the magazine Tip Top Weekly - value depending on condition to $44.00

1972 pictures of Amarillo Slim can bring up to $444 each.

The major thing I have learned from all this playing and collecting is NEVER and I mean NEVER till your mom, unless she's setting next to you, that you play poker regularly.  This will save you from THE LOOK.  You know the one, the eyes roll and look at heaven, she says in a demur voice - "What have I done wrong?" - then appearing to hear divine intervention she looks at you, lifts and eyebrow and there is  a growl forming on her face.  The guilt trip is complete and you will slink off to play poker as though you were an 8 year old naughty child that doesn't want to be caught and get THE LOOK!

Updated June 9, 2008 at1:45 pm Pacific time