Holiday gifts that can help polish a gambler’s game
San Jose’s Bay 101, for example, has daily no-limit hold’em tournaments, starting at $125. (www.bay101.com) Petaluma’s 101 Casino has tourneys with entry fees as low as $60. (http://the101casino.com).
The investment could turn into a gift worth thousands, but no matter how skilled the recipient is, odds are that the gift will vanish.
McManus told me he honed his game by reading Dan Harrington’s books: “Harrington on Cash Games” (a two-volume set) and Harrington on Hold ’em:
Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments (three volumes).
Harrington’s texts cover topics such as pot odds, value bets and bluffing.
If you play poker and haven’t read Harrington’s books, you’re costing yourself money.
If you love Vegas, why not hang a Kurt Adler glass ornament on your tree?.
Some players use one of their chips to protect their cards, but many prefer a distinctive card cover.
sells dozens of card protectors featuring logos of popular bands (Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Phish), superheroes (Wonder Woman, Batman) and sports teams (though no Bay Area squads).
Michael Shapiro (www.michaelshapiro.net) is a travel writer and author of “A Sense of Place.”