PLACE YOUR BETS

TIME's Scherer and Weisskopf explore the candidates' passion for gambling and what it tells us about the race in this week's mag.

ON MCCAIN: He tends to play for a few thousand dollars at a time -- and recently had to be convinced by aides it was inappropriate to stop by the casinos on a Vegas campaign stop.

ON OBAMA: Poker is his game of choice -- he attended Wednesday night low-dollar games while in the Illinois state senate in a colleague's basement.