The object of poker is to win maximum money. Poker is not a card game; poker is a game of deception, manipulation and money management. Cards are merely the tools for manipulating opponents and money. From the smallest penny-ante game to the largest table stake game, all money eventually goes to the good player. His key weapons are his mind and a license to use unlimited deception.

Poker is unique among money-making situations. In business, for example, opportunities to apply the proper business concepts are limited in number. The financial outcome, therefore, cannot be certain. But, in poker, while chance may influence each separate hand, the opportunities (hands) are so numerous that chance or “luck” becomes insignificant and success becomes certain. Application of the proper poker concepts assures financial success.

Poker concepts are best illustrated by players in actual game situations. The following players are the nucleus of a weekly Monday night game:

Sid Bennett
Ted Fehr
John Finn
Quintin Merck
Scotty Nichols

Although other men play in this game from time to time, most of the poker situations in this course are illustrated with these five players.

“Four in the morning,” Quintin Merck grunts at the dark-whiskered men still sitting around the rectangular poker table. It is not a real poker table, not the kind with trays for money and a green felt top … it is the dining room table at Scotty Nichols’ house. They have played here every Monday night for the past six years.

Layers of gray smoke mushroom around the overhead cluster of electric bulbs that light a leather table mat covered with $10 and $20 bills. The largest pile of money is in front of John Finn, a twenty-eightyear-old social worker — so everyone thought.

In the sticky summer heat, the men slouch in squeaking wooden chairs. Only John Finn appears alert. The tall black-haired man slips on his glasses and hooks the gold rims around his ears. His dark eyes move from player to player.

On his left sits Sid Bennett, a thirty-five-year-old paving contractor. His large smiling head flops in a semicircle as straight yellow hair falls over his forehead and nearly touches his faded blue eyes. He’s in a daze, John says to himself. Look at him grin.

On John’s right sits Ted Fehr, a thirty-year-old gambler and restaurant owner. He coils a $50 bill around his skinny fingers while waiting for the next hand. Beneath a knotted mat of red hair, his freckled face wrinkles. Then his bloodshot eyes sag as he watches John Finn’s arm hook around the huge pot. “The biggest pot of the night,” he moans, “and look who wins it. You . . .”

John interrupts. “Wake up, Professor, it’s your deal.”

With a growling noise, Professor Merck deals. John watches the deck and sees the bottom card plus two other cards flash. He then studies Quintin Merck’s green eyes … they are watering from the cigarette smoke curling over his mustache and into his leathery face. Wearing a sweaty beret and an opened polo shirt, the wiry fifty-five-year-old college professor hunches over the table. Suddenly he looks up and frowns at John Finn.

Without flinching, John refocuses his eyes and looks into the kitchen. Then his eyes return to the game .. . he studies Scotty Nichols. The plump fortytwo-year-old stockbroker slumps half dozing in his chair. His mouth droops to expose a cluster of goldcapped teeth. His thick glasses magnify his eyes into brown globes that float in circles between each squeezing blink. A tie droops from the frayed collar of his scorched white shirt.

They’re all valuable to me, John Finn tells himself as his dark eyes draw into slits.

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^{4 The 120 Advanced Concepts of Poker are listed in order by numbers in parentheses following each concept heading.}