Lee Rousso recently threw his hat in the ring for governor of the state of Washington. He will try to win the August primary against current Gov. Christine Gregoire, whom he voted for in 2004. Rousso has decided to try to seize the party's nomination because of the hard stance that Gregoire's taking against online poker.

The European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) was the first major poker tournament of 2008, and it featured a collection of the world's best poker talent. It attracted 1,136 players, making it the largest non-World Series of Poker tournament with a buy-in over $5,000.

Why would an 18th-century parlor game played by a few French and Persian aristocrats take hold and flourish in kingless, democratic America? Why did poque (or poqas, or As Nas) evolve into our national card game, some say our national pastime, instead of piquet or cribbage or whist? How much has poker's popularity had to do with bluffing and risk-management, and with the fact that money is its language, its leverage, its means of keeping score? And why have Vietnamese Americans become so damn good at it?

In this issue, we honor the tournament players who put up the most impressive results in 2007. David Pham, with 11 final tables and $1.8 million in earnings, emerged as the 2007 Player of the Year (POY) after another wire-to-wire contest. This was Pham's second title. During his career, he has won more than $7 million and the respect of all of his tournament peers. You can read a recap of the entire race and top 10 finishers in this issue.

Kenny Tran reports to work at Commerce Casino in California almost every day, but he is not on its payroll. He was introduced to the game of poker about 15 years ago in a bowling alley; at that point, he was working at a fast-food restaurant. Tran progressed rapidly, especially in cash games, and never looked back; he is now a Full Tilt pro. Though Tran has been playing poker for years, the poker-viewing audience was introduced to him following the 2007 World Series of Poker. Tran went deep in both the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event and the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em main event. If you query other players about cash-game players they admire, Tran's name is often one of the first ones to be mentioned.

If you spend enough time in life on one activity - like golf, for example - you're bound to occasionally witness something amazing, like a hole-in-one. I've played a lot of poker in my life, and here's one of those moments, one of the more incredible and more entertaining hands in which I've ever been involved.

As I mentioned in my last column, I placed 15th in the Doyle Brunson Classic, a WPT event held at Bellagio. Not only would it have been great to win my father's tournament, but the first prize was $2.5 million! This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world outside the World Series of Poker. I had to settle for a little less than $100,000 as a consolation prize, unfortunately.

It was New Year's weekend, a jam-up time in Las Vegas. The casinos invite their best customers to town at that time, and many of them find their way into the local poker games.

Being too readable can really hurt your no-limit hold'em game. Winning no-limit hold'em depends on fear and surprise. If your opponents are uncertain about your holding and fear the hands you could have, you can steal a lot of pots. And if they are surprised by what you have when you get all in, you can win some monster pots. If you're too readable, you won't have fear or surprise on your side, and your results will suffer.