Thom Forbes

There's a profile of poker champ and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Annie Duke in USA Today today, replete with advice on how to use her poker playing learnings  in your endeavors as a big-shot business executive or, as the case may be, a layabout like your faithful correspondent and most of the rest of us Cronies, this week's host (see above right) excepted.

Here are a few of Ms. Duke's tips used in a sentence to prove that I understand them, just as Sister Mary Clarita of the Blue Chips taught me to do in second grade.

Too much bluffing makes you untrustworthy. Learn to predict others' behavior in key situations.

When Peter the Wolf so quickly says "up 45" in a mano-a-mano situation that his tongue gets twisted around his pretzel stick, he is acting untrustworthily and needs to be called.

You don't need to win them all. Take a risk when the pot is huge.

Alternatively, as the Jay Man is fond of saying, "But if the pot ain't huge, fer chistssake (pardon us, Sister Clarita) pump it up."

Business, like poker, is not always fair. Don't get upset about what you can't control.

Or, as Art is fond of saying, "You can say that again, brother. Or sister. Or Energy Force of the Universe, or whoever or whatever the hell is dealing me these trainwreck hands that I can't do ANYTHING with ... sorry ... are the Yankees losing yet?"

Long-term self-interest and short-term greed are not the same thing.

Amen to that, says Prof. Arno, who is testing the theorem that short-term communism and long-term paltry profits are, indeed, the very same thing. (And, believe it or not, that's a good thing.)

Watch your ego. Successes, not just failures, are often dumb luck.

So those four natural Aces I pulled on the first hand two weeks ago had nothing to do with my ego?

Women, when underestimated by men, should use that to their advantage.

But all the female readers of this blog already know that, and it's a darn good thing they don't play.