12th October 2007

Welcome to Hold or Fold - The UK's only Poker E-Letter dedicated to
helping YOU become a better player!

In this week's E-Letter -

       *The Six of Diamonds hits everyone !!

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Hiya there and how have you been this week?

Well... Good news to report this week - I managed to stay focussed on my 200 Sit and Go Tournaments - I've played 150 now in one month and my bankroll sits at....

... wait forrit....

$1276 profit !!

I'm learning so much by playing the same format time and time again -

One little tip I'll share with you - I'm playing on a website where you can search for a particular player - so when I sit down at the table - I quickly search all my opponents names and I'm really surprised at how many of them are playing more than one table.

And I don't mean two tables in total - I mean as many as 9 tables at a time -

When you multi-table like this - the discipline is to only play premium hands - so these players will play a very tight game - and that makes them VERY easy to steal from !!

So search for the opponents who are playing loads of tables - and sit on their right!

Lovely... Bring the next 50 tourneys on !!!

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The Six of Diamonds hits everyone !!

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It's the World Series of Poker Main Event 2007 and Jamie Gold (the winner of WSOP 2006) is on the featured table on Day One.

Norman Chad is explaining: "Jamie stretched and broke the rules at last years Main Event - he exposed a Hole Card in one instance - told his opponents what his hand was at other times - other players could have called him on it - if Tournament Officials had seen it they could have penalised him - he's been warned this year and everyone is watching him !"

The Blinds are 50/100 Francois Constantin from Paris, France picks up AD & 7D - he calls the 100 -
 

David Korafman picks up KD & JD - he also calls.
 

Norman Chad: "Limping in is contageous, a couple of people do it and then you do it because you are getting a good price and then the next person is getting a better price - who wouldn't want to see a Flop for cheap - America loves a bargain !"

Action to Eric Been - he also limps in with AS & 4S
 

Action to Jordan Smith who also limps in with KH & JS
 

Two more players fold and action is over to Jamie Gold in the Small Blind - he also limps in with 5S & 2H
 

Michael Rosenthal in the Big Blind has 7H & 5C so he also checks.
 

The pot stands at 600 and the odds are:

Constantin 25%
Been 21%
Smith 15%
Rosenthal 15%
Korafman 14%
Gold 10%

Lon McEachern: "Six to the Flop - everybody needs alot of help to make a hand."

The Flop comes down: 3D 5D 4C
   

That's very provocative - the odds immediately change to:

Constantin 43%
Rosenthal 28%
Gold 11%
Been 8%
Korafman & Smith 5%

Lon McEachern: "Gold and Rosenthal hit top pair with straight draws"

Norman Chad: "Almost everyone got a piece of the pie here."

Jamie Gold is first to act so he puts in 500.

Rosenthal calls the 500.

Lon McEachern: "Gold bets 500, Rosenthal is going to stick around for 500."

Norman: "It's still happy-hour prices."

Constantin calls the 500.

Korafman calls the 500.

Lon McEachern: "Constantin with the Nut Flush draw calls and Korafman with the second nut flush draw also calls!"

The camera moves onto Jamie Gold who laughs at the fact that no-one has passed yet.

Been & Smith both fold though - so it's four players to the Turn with the pot standing at 2,600.

The odds are now:

Constantin 47%
Rosenthal 30%
Gold 13%
Korafman 10%

One of the players say to Jamie: "Your bet is getting alot of respect!" (NOT!!)

Norman Chad: "Respect has been alluding Jamie since he won the Main Event."

Jamie Gold mutters: "What can you do??"

The Turn card comes down: 6D !!


What an AMAZINGLY provocative card !! What I love to see is that every one of those players must have had a big adrenalin jolt inside to see the Turn make their hands and their heart-rates must have jumped at least another 30 beats per minute - yet they look as if they've just found out their house has been repossessed !!

Lon McEachern: "That's an AMAZING card - Jamie has hit his straight - 6-high straight, Constantin with the Ace-High Nut Flush - Korafman with the Second Nut Flush - Rosenthal with a 7-high Straight!!"

Norman Chad: "That's an incredible card - it's like the magic bullet!"

Constantin has the highest hand and cannot be beaten - he can only lose this hand if he folds - which he's not likely to !

Jamie Gold checks and so does Rosenthal.

Action to Constantin and he checks too - he is just lying in wait for someone else to put their chips in.

Korafman obliges and puts in 1,200 - you can't blame him - he's sitting there with the second best possible hand and everyone has checked around to him.

Lon McEachern: "Constantin has the best hand and he checks."

Norman Chad: "Plays it very cagily."

Lon McEachern: "Korafman with the King-High diamond flush and no chance to win bets 1200"

Jamie Gold folds his hand - he suspects someone has a flush and that his straight is no good - very good laydown - not easy.

Jamie Gold does mutter again though: "**** that's sick ! Jesus ******* Christ !!"

Lon McEachern: "And Gold gives up his straight - he saw what was happening."

Norman Chad: "He's not happy about it ! A good read by Jamie - he has a straight on the Turn and it's the Fourth Best Hand !!"

Rosenthal calls the 1200 and so does Constantin.

That is a very good play - with two other players in the hand - you want to keep them sweet and not make a move to frighten them off.

The Pot now stands at 6,200.

The River comes down: 2C - so there is a straight showing on the board.


Rosenthal checks and so does Constantin.

Action to Korafman who puts in 2,000.

The camera moves onto Jamie Gold who has left the table and talking to a friend on the rail and bemoaning his luck - you can just hear him mumble: "**** I'm down to 6,000" - his friend reassures him and tells him to wait and be patient.

Action now on Rosenthal who calls the 2,000 - obviously he has the best straight but he's wary of those diamonds... with good reason.

Now to Constantin who announces: "Raise" and he puts 5,000 chips into the pot.

The camera moves back to Jamie Gold still talking to his friend: "I've got to make sure I don't get unlucky on one hand - It's like ridiculous !"

Norman Chad: "It's like ridiculous when he had 37 million chips last year after one hour !"

Korafman calls the 5,000 and Rosenthal folds.

They show their hands and the chips are pushed towards Francois Constantin.

Norman Chad: "Constantin plays the table to a T - slow plays and sashays his way to a nice pot."

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Post Mortem

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Being able to lay down a good hand is absolutely paramount if you want to really become a good player. When you are dealt a pair of Kings and an Ace comes down on the Flop - you just have to be able to lay your Kings down - you just have to feel disappointed that the Flop didn't help you at all and yet it most probably benefitted your opponent(s) and therefore - you might have been ahead before - but you have to accept that you are not ahead any more and lay your hand down.

We saw it last week with Mike Matusow laying down his KK when he thought Phil Hellmuth had hit Trip 6's - and we see it in this hand where Jamie Gold lay down his straight - knowing it was most likely beaten.

They call it 'getting married to a hand' when you feel that you DESERVE to have won that hand and cannot lay it down - but the more I watch the great players, the experienced pros - the more I realise that laying down a hand is one of the biggest disciplines a Great Poker Player just has to have - and that could be you one day ! (or me !!)

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Well I hope you have a good week - may the cards be with you and I'll see you again next Friday.

All the best

Meg Arana
Hold or Fold