dog playing poker painting

Would it be illegal to remake or alter a famous painting?

im working on a colored pencil drawing and im recreating the famous "a friend in need" painting from the dogs playing poker collection, but im putting famous cartoon dogs in the place of the original dogs. Am I allowed to do that or is it illegal against some copyright infringement law? I would be making the drawing my own, but it would be based off of a famous piece of work. Plus, ive seen hundreds of variations of famous paintings like the mona lisa so other people have recreated paintings.

Is this a prelude to a screenplay or a real question?

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The Horror of Aq

The two hands which seem to cause players the most consternation in Texas Hold'em play are Ace-Queen and pocket Jacks, each for opposite reasons.

Two players have lost the final hand of the WSOP Main Event holding AQ: TJ Cloutier lost in 2000 and just this past year Tuan Lam went belly up holding AQ of Diamonds - they were even suited! More players lose more money overplaying AQ then just about any poker hand in Hold'em. And while every situation is different, here are some guidelines for playing with AQ.

First of all, do not call a re-raise with AQ unless you are last to act and have poker chips that you don't know what to do with. It is always a sticky proposition to get involved with a pot that has been raised and re-raised with anything less than serious pocket paint, much less with a hand that is behind any pair and slaughtered by Aces, Kings, Queens, and AK. Remember that to really hit the flop with AQ, you are not necessarily looking for an Ace to hit, rather a Queen. One of the worst things that can happen is to be up against AK and hit an Ace on the flop as you are then at least a 9 to 1 dog.

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Another all too common situation is slow playing with AQ from the big blind. The idea of slow play is to already have a monster and to sucker people in with feigned weakness. Say you check with AQ from the big blind, the flop comes 3 7 10 and the small blind bets out. Now where are you? Are you really going over the top when the small blind could have flopped anything under the sun? If only you had raised pre-flop and taken the pot when you had the best hand... Even if the flop comes 5 9 Q, top pair top kicker is beat by a measly 2 pair. Certainly worth a call of a standard raise or pushing out an opening raise, AQ is far from a strong enough hand to warrant slow playing or re-raise calling without position.

On the other side of the poker spectrum is Jacks (for the record, no one has ever lost the final hand of the WSOP main event with Jacks.) Smart players fold Jacks pre-flop way too often. From early position, a healthy raise of 5 times the big blind should let the table know you mean business. If someone comes over the top of you for less than all your chips, it's almost always a good idea to call rather than re-raise -- that way, when the flop comes, you get to bet at it first, and bet you will. Even if the flop comes with 2 overcards, something like 4 Q A, your opponent will have to have AK, AQ or a set to call. And someone holding Kings, who had you slaughtered pre-flop, is now in a position where it's awfully tough to call.

Paradoxically, you can end up snookered if you merely call with Jacks when you are in position. If someone in early position bets out with something marginal like a KQ or even a small pocket pair, by calling with Jacks, you are inviting a difficult situation on the flop. Flop comes 2 A 10 and the bettor gets first crack. It can be excruciating to call any bet on the flop when there are ovecards, much less when an Ace pops up after the pot has been raised. By re-raising pre-flop you are really taking the onus off yourself after the flop hits.

Are Jacks strong enough to slow play with? Well, that is a tough question. Again, even into an unraised pot it can be difficult to call a bet when the flop comes with a Queen or a King. On the other hand, if you get lucky and hit a set, trip Jacks can be one of the hardest hands to identify, making it a lot easier to milk some extra chips off of your opponent with them. It is probably best to err on the side of caution and speed up when you pull Jacks in the blind.

The simplest way to look at it is like this. Jacks are the fourth best starting hand in Hold'em - they are a favorite against all other hands but Aces, Kings, and Queens. They can never be worse than a 4 to 1 dog pre-flop and in all but 3 cases they are the favorite. AQ is the fifteenth best hand in Hold'em and about a 9 to 1 dog to Aces, just about the worst pre-flop odds in the game. Let that sink in - by playing AQ you could be subjecting yourself to a shade under the worst odds in all of Texas Hold'em (A-9 is about 1% worse). If you disagree because in your experience you find AQ to be a stronger hand than Jacks, then please find me in a poker room and try to prove your point.

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