Gus Hansen and Doyle Brunson have spent countless hours beating each other up in the "big game," but leave it to Card Player to get them on the same team. Hansen and Brunson are two of the most recent poker pros to join the Card Player roster of regular poker bloggers.

For some players, it is not a question of if, it's a question of when.

Unlike Truman, Roosevelt, Harding, and the other White House residents who played poker to relax with advisors and friends, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon seldom if ever competed for even minimal stakes while in office. And the men who shared the Republican ticket in 1952 and 1956 certainly never mentioned the game while campaigning, even though both of them had played for life-changing stakes while serving in their country's armed forces.

We're nearly a quarter of the way through the year and the Card Player 2008 Player of the Year leader board is taking shape. Familiar names such as Men Nguyen, Gavin Griffin, David Pham, Michael Binger, Erik Seidel, and Lee Watkinson all have started strongly on the tournament circuit this year, but one player - namely, Phil Ivey - recently made a mad dash to near the top.

Gabe Thaler chose to specialize in no-limit hold'em cash games long before the game became wildly popular. He first learned to play in Northern California, but soon moved to Los Angeles and then Las Vegas. Thaler's reputation preceded him; cash-game players know that when he sits down at the table, he is there to win and is alarmingly consistent. Thaler does not play many tournaments, because he realizes that his skills are more profitable when utilized in cash games.

Recently, I watched a rerun of Poker After Dark from 2007, featuring Barry Greenstein, Eli Elezra, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, and David Benyamine. Usually, the players buy in for $20,000, with a first-place prize of $120,000; but in this case, it was a $60,000 buy-in, with a $360,000 first-place prize. I love watching Poker After Dark. It reminds me of the old days when I used to play primarily with great players - the same ones who regularly play on Poker After Dark now. These days, I'm not around the poker tour as much - until the World Series of Poker events begin - and I miss the guys and gals. I miss the witty banter, the big mood swings (OK, that's just me!), the intelligent conversations, the side bets, the high-stakes poker, and just the feel of competing against the best. Poker After Dark runs six days a week on NBC at 2 a.m.

When I concluded my last column, I was broke, stuck, and steaming from the main event in Tunica, Mississippi. I couldn't get a flight out that day, so I was going to get a ticket for the following day; however, no first-class seats were available. I'm far too big and rich to sit in economy, and inasmuch as my good friend Hoyt Corkins was still in the tournament, and we did travel down there together, I decided to stay another day.

We all had just sat down to start a $30-$60 limit hold'em game. The lineup looked terribly tough, with many top local players taking a seat. It was a must-move game. I couldn't change tables quickly, but with three other games going, I knew that eventually we would spread out, as nobody was looking to stay in this game! That said, both life and poker are about adapting to realities and making the best of the hand that you're dealt. So I bore down, intent on playing my best game against an ugly field.

As I kick off the "On the Draw" column, I suppose I should introduce myself and tell you what this column is about. Some of you might know me from my work as an investment analyst writing about investing in general and gaming industry stocks in particular for the Motley Fool at Fool.com; others are more familiar with my book Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy, which was published at the beginning of the year. That said, the primary focus of this column will be on pot-limit Omaha (PLO), which may very well be the fastest-growing game in poker, while representing poker's next big trend.