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Friday 25th January 2008
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 -
*Going into the Tank !
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Hiya there and how have you been this week??
Well I've had an up and down sort of week - I managed to just scrape
into the money in last Sundays big tournament plus $50 profit but
got busted fairly soon after that - I also played in a H.O.R.S.E.
freeroll and out of 7,300 players - the Top 88 qualified for a weekly
$2,000 tournament and I am very proud to report that I came in 24th
place !!
I've got my Regional Finals of my local Poker League this Sunday
so that should be good too - I'm really enjoying my Poker at the
moment - It's good fun and although I've not managed to have a HUGE
win - I'm regularly making the money and winning enough to enable
me not to have to dip into my bankroll.
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Going into the Tank !
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Last week - I discussed how Kate O'Neill completely gave away her
hand by her body language -
Well this week highlights how two amazing players should be nominated
for Oscars by the way they acted when faced with the Nuts...
This particular hand is taken from the infamous Late Night Poker
series which is being shown on telly at the moment. It's not a very
spectacular hand apart from the fact I've never seen anything like
it before on the box - but the reason why I wanted to tell you about
it is that ... well - have a look first and I'll discuss it at the
Post Mortem.
It's fairly early on in the single-table-tournament -
There are 6 players and only about 1,000 chips separating them with
a starting stack of 5,000 and the blinds are 25/50.
First to act under the gun is Julian Thew - he picks up AH & KS.
 
He raises it up 4x the Big Blind to 200.
Jac Arama, who has a bit of a reputation of playing fast and loose
folds.
Robert Wiliamson III from the US of A is commentating: "I
like that raise - 3 or 4 times the Big Blind with Jac Arama behind
you probably 4 times the big blind is the proper raise otherwiseyou're
going to get action almost every time."
Simon 'Aces' Trumper agrees: "Yes - anything else and
Jac will call."
Maria Demetriou also folds.
The next two players both fold and action moves to Eddy Scharf sitting
in the Big Blind. He picks up AD & KH.
 
Simon Trumper: "Haven't seen much of Eddy Scharf yet."
Robert pipes up: "Well - I think we might hear
from him finally."
Eddy covers his mouth with his hand and tries to decide what to
do.
Simon: "Now - how do you play Ace/King when you're faced
with an initial raise?"
Eddy Scharf re-raises to 600.
Robert: "Well you re-raise, according to Eddy Scharf that
is - I sometimes raise - sometimes I flat-call - I try to mix it
up - depending on my opponent. But against an opponent like Thew,
as sharp as he is and as hot as he is right now, I'm probably going
to flat- call - I think he's going to be a bit over-confident -
he might play back at me."
Julian Thew smiles, carries on chewing his toffee and looks at his
cards again. His head is resting on his hand with his elbow on the
table and he has a small smile on his face. He doesn't look like
he's afraid of anything right now.
Simon Trumper continues: "Well the problem Julian's got
here is that he knows that Eddy Scharf is probably the tightest
player on this table."
Robert Williamson: "He might be the tightest player in
this whole town - you know - he's pretty snug. Real nice guy - great
guy - but does play Hold 'em a little tighter than I would normally
play - well - ok - alot tighter!"
Simon: "One advantage of course Julian's got is that he
has position - so he can make this call and if Eddy misses the Flop
- well they would both miss the flop as they both have the same
hand - if Eddy then checks it then Julian could steal it with the
same hand."
Julian calls the bet and there's 1,325 chips in the pot.
The Flop comes down: JC 10D QH !!
 
Robert: "OOOHHHH LOok at this Flop !! I got a feeling
we're going to see our first really big pot !!"
Simon laughs: "Well it's exciting stuff - these two
guys don't realise it but they've BOTH flopped the NUTS !! I've
never seen this before."
While both the commentators are laughing and joking in the commentary
box - both Eddy and Julian look like there's been a death in their
families. I really wish I could show you the clip of this hand because
Eddy just looks sooooo grim as he's first to bet - he bets out 400
chips.
Action moves to Julian who has both his hands over his ears with
a totally hang-dog expression and looks like he's about to cry.
The smile has totally disappeared from his face.
He re-raises to 1,000 chips and stares hard at Eddy.
Action is now back on Eddy - he wipes his mouth with his hand and
massages his lips - hand - he looks at Julian - he looks sad - he
tries to work out how he can get Julian to put all his chips in
the pot.
Robert Williamson III laughs: "After he bet 600 before
the Flop - now he only bets 400, That's the first sign of 'I smell
something a bit fishy here' and of course he's going to go into
the tank"
**'Going into the tank' means to spend a long
time trying to decide what to do next**
Simon replies: "Yeah - we're going to see a little bit
of acting here - "
Robert: "This is going to be Drama-Filled but at the very
end it's not going to be nearly as exciting"
Simon: "It's a rainbow-Flop meaning there are three different
suits so it's impossible for either player to hit a runner- runner-Flush
so they can do all the acting they like - eventually there's a chance
that all the chips are going to go in and they're going to end up
splitting the pot but it's great fun for us to watch."
Robert laughs: "If they only knew what we knew right now
!!"
Eddy continues to massage his lips then he sits up and sighs very
heavily. I think it's hilarious to watch the performance. Eddy is
just so sad - he looks like a basset-hound with heavy- set eyelids
and a down-turned mouth -
Meanwhile Julian still has his head in his hands - looking a bit
challenging but also a bit defensive - they are both trying to get
the other to put all their chips in.
Eddy's expression doesn't change and he whispers: "All
in"
Instantly Julian replies: "call"
Eddy turns his cards over - Julian sees them and breaks out into
a big grin as he turns his cards over too. Eddy also smiles reluctantly
- obviously they are both a bit gutted that they didn't win the
hand out-right.
Robert sighs: "So anti-climatic - can't we at least see
a Turn- Card first?? Pair the board and give us some excitement!!??"
The Turn and River cards are academic.
Simon: "A wry smile there from Eddy Scharf - well we don't
often see that - two players - both played the hand perfectly -
both flopped the Nuts."
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Post Mortem
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As I explained in the introduction to this week's hand - it is the
stellar opposite of last week's hand. Last week - Kate O'Neill was
smiling, looked smug and as Shannon Elizabeth commented:
Shannon: "Kate looks really comfortable right now - if
you're reading body language, she's smiling, she's moving around
- she's like - 'go ahead and call me' - she's looking very comfortable
which tells me she's got it - I mean - I think she'd be better off
being a statue."
Compare that to this week's hand where both Julian Thew and Eddy
Scharf looked like they had been to see the doctor an hour earlier
and had been given the news that they only had a limited time to
live.
Personally - I think the answer is to ALWAYS act the same - okay
- if you're going to smile and look smug when you have the Nuts
- then smile and look smug when you're bluffing your socks off -
Likewise - if you look sad and hang-dog when you have the Nuts -
then look exactly the same when you're bluffing - The secret is
to always look the same so that your opponents have absolutely NO
idea what kind of hand you have -
Advice - same as last week - is to put a mirror up next to your
computer screen and try different expressions as you're playing
- until you're comfortable with an expression that you can hold
and that will not give your opponents any clues whatsoever.
Let me know how you get on !
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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
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