The holidays are upon us, so 'tis the season to suggest some gift ideas for the poker player.

We'll start the wish list by visiting the bookshelves. There are as many poker books out there as there are poker hands, and like your down cards they range widely in quality. A book that brings a combination of usefulness and intrigue is Read 'Em and Reap ($12.89 at Amazon.com).

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Although the book is ballyhooed as a "Phil Hellmuth Presents" offering, the real star is Joe Navarro, a former FBI special agent who takes his training in reading non-verbal behavior and applies it at the poker table. It's impossible to gauge how useful Navarro's advice can be to the average poker player, but the mere fact that the book encourages players to make decisions based on the opponent as well as the cards they hold is a benefit in itself.

If your loved one likes to host the poker game in the rec room, you can ease the burden of running the show by getting them Poker Tournament Manager ($49.95 regular edition, $79.95 deluxe edition at pokertournamentmanager.com), a computer program that tracks time and blind levels, calculates winnings and even arranges the seating for your single- or multi-table game.

And for those who are seeking a unique poker gift, I have received several e-mails from people hoping to get a personalized card protector. For those of you who have no idea what a card protector is, a brief explanation: It's an item - typically small, but with a little weight to it - that a player sits atop his cards when he or she is involved in a hand. Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, used small fossils as a card protector, thus the origin of his nickname.

After doing a decent amount of searching, the best place for getting a quality, personalized card protector is at pokerguard.com, where you can get a pure silver coin custom-engraved on both sides ($47.00) with an image that you can send to them via e-mail.

Hope you found a winning gift out of those suggestions.

Source: DelcoTimes