] GOD MAY PLAY DICE with the universe, as Einstein once
] feared, but serious gamblers, scorning metaphysical
] crapshoots and the casino's house edge, prefer no-limit
] Texas hold'em poker. Light years removed from the
] alcohol-soaked nickel-dime-quarter games of kitchen and
] dorm room, where the most you can lose is your beer money
] and who walks away with it depends less on skill than on
] luck, no-limit tournament action is always a ruthlessly
] disciplined fight to the death. The beverage of choice at
] these tables is mineral water, and the aces primly
] quaffing it have worked long and hard to make luck as
] tiny a factor as possible.
]
]
] In limit poker, where the size of each bet is strictly
] determined in advance, the winner is almost always
] determined by the dealer: Whoever gets dealt the best
] hand takes the money. No-limit poker, however, gives
] stronger players the leverage to win pots with cunning
] and force while holding unpromising hands. In the famous
] words of Crandall Addington, a Texas oilman of majestic
] hold'em facility, ''Limit poker is a science, but
] no-limit is an art. In limit, you are shooting at a
] target. In no-limit, the target comes alive and shoots
] back.''
]
] The shooting isn't always a metaphor. In the early years
] of the Cold War, the study of poker helped give rise to
] game theory, an unplayful branch of mathematics with
] powerfu

Boston Globe Online / Sunday | Focus / The poker of war