9th November 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 -

       *It's no sin to lie at the poker table

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Hiya there and how have you been this week?

I've still lost a bit of focus in playing my sit-and-go tournaments, I've now played 223 of them and I'm $745 in profit - so I'm down on where I was before - but I'm happy because...

... My heart really lies in the Multi-Table tournaments - I really love playing them - and yesterday I came 2nd out of 180 players winning $860 for a $44 stake !

Yes it's a higher risk-factor but it's where I enjoy playing the most and I just play the Single-Table Tournaments when I'm short on time.

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It's no sin to lie at the poker table

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This week's hand is taken from the PartyPoker 2007 Open.

The format is a series of single-table tournaments of six players - the top player going through to the semi- finals and the second player going through to a play-off.

There are four players left and the blinds are 5,000/10,000.

Marty Smith is first to act and he folds 9D & 10D.
 

Uli Richard is next to act and he folds 5C & 4S.
 

Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot is in the Small Blind and he just calls with AH & 5H.
 

Darren Woods in the Big Blind checks his cards which are KC & 3H.
 

The Pot stands at 20,000.

The Flop comes down: 7C KH & 5D.
   

The odds are 76% in Darren's favour.

Devilfish checks and so does Darren.

Darren is obviously trying to slowplay but this is extremely dangerous especially as he's up against a very experienced and aggressive player.

Jesse May commentating: "Darren's going to have a go here, trapping with top pair - Good luck to him!"

The Turn is AD.


Jesse May: "Uh oh - "

Padraig Parkinson also commentating: "Setting that bear trap - it's pretty difficult to keep your feet out of it !"

Devilfish eyeballs Darren and knocks the table to indicate that he's checking.

Darren smiles at him and instantly checks too.

Devilfish says: "I'm going to bet whatever comes on the River - I don't care what comes - I'm going to bet 10,000."

Both the commentators burst out laughing at this.

The smile on Darren's face looks slightly strained now.

The River is JS


Devilfish already has his 10,000 chips on the table so the pot is now 30,000.

Darren looks a bit bemused.

Jesse May: "It'd be great if Darren could make a laydown here."

Devilfish looks at him behind his Devilfish shades and says: "Did you just catch the Jack?"

Darren laughs and says: "No"

Devilfish replies: "Oh - thank God for that!"

Darren asks back: "Did you catch the Ace??"

Devilfish instantly replies: "No"

Darren then says: "OK - I'll call you then."

He puts his 10,000 in the middle and Devilfish says "Ace !"

Darren sits back and laughs !

Both the commentators laugh loudly !

Padraig Parkinson: "Well at least one of them was telling the truth!"

Devilfish looks at Darren's cards and says: "Oh - you caught the King on the Flop - WOW - then the Ace came - things are looking good I tell you - Ace-Suited and I didn't raise - did you see that? But if you had raised - I was going to stick it right up don't you worry about that."

Jesse May: "The Devilfish quick with a response and showing that it's no sin to lie at the poker table - you're supposed to !"

Dave Ulliot says later: "Alot of people are uneasy when they play against me cos I'm sort of a no-nerves when I play the game - I mean - someone just asked me if I was a bit nervous when I came in and I just laughed - I've played in so many poker events in my life - it's like my friend boxing tonight in London - he won't be nervous because he's had 150 fights you know - you get used to this sort of thing - it's just another day's work."

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Post Mortem

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Devilfish was obviously playing on the fact that Darren Woods is an inexperienced player - he might be very experienced on the internet but playing in front of the cameras with the TV lights on him - he froze up and was just a little piece of bait on the Devilfish's hook.

Dave induced the call by blatantly lying - and maybe that's one of the attractions of the game - it's not only absolutely ok to lie and bluff but it is applauded when you can induce a call when you have the nuts or to get someone to lay the hand down when you don't like in last week's e-letter with Jerry Yang.

It's frowned upon if someone lies anywhere else - but on the poker table - "it's no sin" as Padraig Parkinson eloquently put it !

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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