Hold-em Poker, the best starting hands.

Like everything in Poker, the best starting hand depends. What type game are you playing? Limit, No Limit or a Tournament. What are the stakes? What is the texture of the game? How well do you play? Most important, what is your position?

Obviously American Airlines (AA) is the best possible starting hand, but how good it is depends upon how many opponents you are facing. Against one opponent a pair of Aces will win about 85 percent of the time. Against five opponents it will win only about 18 percent of the time.

If you are playing limit Poker and the stakes are less than $10-20, play, ABC, book poker. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth have written excellent books that rank hands into five categories. They also have good basic playing strategies.

If you are playing limit, $10-20 and higher, no limit or Tournaments things are more complicated.

What is the texture of the game? Is it loose passive, where players rarely raise before the flop and four or five players are in to see the flop? Is it tight aggressive, where the first player to enter the pot raises and gets only one, two or no callers? Or is the table full of maniacs who raise often and several players will put in four bets to see the flop? Each of these games requires different starting hands, but in general Hold-em favors big cards over small ones.

How well do you play? If you are an excellent player, who can control the game, read your opponents, and use a number of strategies you can play more hands than an inferior player.

In Hold-em position is probably the most important consideration. There are three categories of position. If you are under the gun, one of the first three players to act, you need really good hands. If you are in middle position and no one has voluntarily entered the pot you can loosen up your requirements. In late position, if no one has entered the pot, you can play just about any two cards, raise and hope to steal the blinds. If you get called, especially by one of the blinds, you can still steal the pot. Most of the time when there are two players, the flop misses both of them. When that happens and your opponent checks, bet, he will probably fold. In a higher limit, no limit, or tournaments, stealing the blinds is important.

The best way to determine the value of your hand is through experience. Read some books to learn the basics, then play a lot of low limits to hone your skills. As you improve your play, advance to higher limits, and no limit. In learning no limit, tournaments are a good way to get experience. You only risk the buy in, a dollar to ten grand, and if you are good and/or lucky the payoff can be large.

To play good poker is like that old joke, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice."

Yes! Money can buy you happiness.

‘Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you the misery you enjoy most.' It's an old joke, but studies show money can buy happiness, and it's obvious money can rent you love.

As the madam says "What a business. You got it. You sell it. You still got it."

In his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" Abraham Maslow presented a Hierarchy of Needs that affect humans. The first two, psychological and safety, require a modicum of financial resources. Without money you can't afford a place to live, or food to eat. The second step, safety, includes, Physical security, safety from violence, delinquency, aggressions' Security of employment Security of revenues and resources, Moral and physiological security, Family Security, Security of health, Security of personal property against crime. Most of that requires money. Maslow's last three steps, love/belonging, esteem and the ultimate goal, Self-actualization, are not affected by money, only mental growth.

Researchers in England have shown that money can buy you happiness. "We found a strong link between financial windfalls and being happy and having much better psychological health" Professor Andrew Oswald, University of Warwick.

In a study of nine thousand families during the 90's researchers found more money is better than less.Oswald continues, "Overall the more you get, we find, the cheerier you'll become. Large sums are better than small sums." That doesn't mean a small increase is not valuable. "A small amount of money is not going to solve a major health problem or solve a major psychological problem. But it's true, we can detect even quite small windfalls . . . begin to show up in our statistics on our psychological well being."

Money may be ‘the root of all evil' but it is also helps you to achieve happiness. Happy people are more likely to find love, it's hard to love a grump.