Amnon Filippi first honed his poker skills by playing seven-card stud in private clubs, but when no-limit hold'em swept the nation, he made a profitable switch. Filippi's fearlessness at the tables is conducive to success, and that aspect of his game earned him his nickname, "Guts." He hails from New York City but spends a significant amount of time away from home in pursuit of cash games he can crack, and was invited to play in the second season of the GSN cash-game show High Stakes Poker.

This hand comes from Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. The game is no-limit hold'em with $50-$100 blinds. The minimum buy-in for the game is $5,000, but most players have at least $20,000 in front of them, and sometimes much more. On occasion, when Kenny Tran is hosting his regulars, it is not uncommon to find stacks of $100,000 to $500,000 in front of some of the players.

In my last column, I discussed some of my favorite books about gambling. In fact, since writing that column, I reread Playing Off the Rail, and it solidified itself as my favorite book about gambling. In this column, I'll write about my favorite strategy books, although one of them is a bit of a hybrid.

In 2000, there were 23 World Series of Poker events, the smallest of which yielded more prize money than the main event of most competing tournaments. Copying the WSOP's freezeout format, with a $10,000 no-limit hold'em event as the finale, they included Jack Binion's World Poker Open, held during January in Tunica; Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker in February, hosted by various casinos; the Diamond Jim Brady in August at The Bicycle Club in Los Angeles; and the U.S. Poker Championships, mid-September to mid-October at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. National championships were also being held in a dozen European cities, including the Helsinki Freezeout, the Irish Open at the Merrion Club in Dublin, and the Euro Finals of Poker at the Aviation Club on the Champs-Elysees. The Australasian Championship took place in Melbourne, along with smaller events in New Zealand, South Africa, and Costa Rica.

Phil Galfond recently discovered pot-limit Omaha [PLO], yet he already plays in the highest-stakes games on a regular basis. Otherwise known as "OMGClayAiken" online, Galfond first honed his poker skills at the no-limit hold'em tables, but his abilities made for an easy transition. His PLO results attest to the fact that he has an in-depth understanding of the game.

Electronic poker tables have been popping up all over the globe, and it seemed to be just a matter of time before the innovation reached Las Vegas.

Many loyal Card Player readers were upset with Scotty Nguyen's behavior during the recent televised World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship, and they let their opinions be known by flooding our offices and inboxes with correspondence. During the event, which aired on ESPN, Nguyen directed abusive language at the tournament staff and the other players, and, on frequent occasions, violated the written and unwritten rules of tournament conduct.

The one consolation of day four of the World Series of Poker main event was that my starting table was the ESPN featured table; otherwise, the day was a major struggle for me. No, I didn't have K-K vs. A-A (or vice versa) and lose a huge pot. However, during one four- or five-hour stretch, I raised 20 pots and was reraised 19 times, and folded all 19 hands. Could I have moved all in and won a few of those hands?

I wanted to put this unfortunate incident behind me, as I'm tired of telling the story over and over. Therefore, I'm going to relive this nightmare one more time, in my next two columns.