Friday 1st February 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 -

       *I know you are very good but NOT that good!

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Hiya there and how have you been this week??

Well - Woo hooooo - I'm VERY happy to report that I came second in a small tournament last Friday and won £35 - and THEN - I went to the casino on Saturday night and came in second again - this time winning £230 !!

I was actually really unlucky not to win as we were Heads-up and both all-in - I had twice as many chips as my young opponent and turned over a pair of 10's - he sighed and turned over a pair of 6's and then proceeded to hit another 6 on the River....

If it hadn't have been for that bad beat - then I would have won £430 - but hey... ifs and buts etc -

I also tried out wearing an i-pod while I was playing - I found it inspirational - whenever I had an up-tempo track playing - it inspired me to raise and whenever I had a slow ballad playing - it inspired me to fold -

With the help of Enimen and Britney Spears - I made some great steals and I also managed to fold big hands to Foreigner and Take That !!

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I know you are very good but NOT that good!

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This week's hand comes from the Late Night Poker Series which is currently being shown on the telly. Like alot of people - I had read and heard loads about the new Norwegian Sensational 19 year old Annette Obrestad who won £1 million at last years WSOPE.

She also went on for a 2nd place finish at the Dublin EPT and word was - she is absolutely incredible. So when this particular heat of Late Night Poker was due - I sat down to watch it with fascination.

As well as Annette - it featured Marcel Luske, the debonair guy from Holland, Kourosh, the very-macho Iranian-born cash player - as well as Surindar Sunar, John Kalmar and Robert Williamson III from USA - what a line up !!

This particular hand was televised with just Annette's hole cards showing - so I will present it to you as I saw it - and see if you can guess what the other player had... It is fairly early on and there are 7 players on the table - one player goes through to the final and one player goes through to a semi-final play-off -

The Blinds are 25/50 and there really isn't much between the players at this point.

The Internet Qualifier folds - as does Robert Williamson III and John Kalmar -

Kourosh calls.
 

Action moves to Annette who picks up JD & 3D and raises it up 225.
 

Roland De Wolfe is commentating: "This is a common play - you have position - you don't particularly have a very strong hand - you have a reasonable hand - you can connect with the Flop but more likely as people miss the Flop most of the time - you can just take it down with a continuation bet - what you are doing is isolating the raiser."

Surinder Sunar folds in the Small Blind and Marcel Luske calls in the Big Blind.
 

Action is back to Kourosh: "well Annette - is that a Button-raise you just did??"

Simon 'Aces' Trumper is also commentating: "Well Kourosh suspects its a button-raise - he's trying to get a read on Annette - she's not giving anything away."

Annette is absolutely statue-still. She wears shades that are partially tinted and she doesn't move a single muscle. Kourosh looks relaxed and easy-going and he calls.

The Flop comes down: AC 9D 2D
   

Marcel is first to act. He has his head leaning on his hand and he checks.

Simon Trumper: "Well this is a good Flop for Annette - if they check to her, she can represent an Ace when in actual fact she has a Flush-Draw."

Roland De Wolfe: "She can take the Free Card as well - either/or."

Kourosh checks as well.

The Pot is 700 and Annette bets out 425 chips.

Marcel thinks for a moment and then folds.

Action moves to Kouroush: "Well I don't think your 9-10 is any good in there. Well - lets see."

And he calls the bet.

The Pot is now 1,550 The Turn card comes down: AD


Simon Trumper: "Wow what a Turn Card - !"

Kourosh checks. Annette bets out 900 chips and Kourosh immediately calls saying: "Why not!?!"

Both Simon & Roland say: "VERY quick call !"

The pot is now 3,350.

The River comes down: 4D


Simon: "Well - I'm not sure if that's a good card or a bad card."

Kourosh bets out 1,800.

Simon: "Kourosh seems to think it's a good card !"

Roland: "Well that's a horrible card for Annette now - she loses to a King-Flush or a Queen- Flush - there are Full-House possibilities out there. Equally - he could have a bear-ace or a small ace and seeing where he is."

At this point - Annette turns towards Kourosh and smiles - not a nice smile - it's a menacing smile - He looks back at her in almost a fatherly way - his mouth slightly open and he blinks a bit too - It's VERY hard to work out what cards he has.

Roland continues: "He's left himself very short - it would have to be a very strong bluff here."

Kourosh only has 775 chips left.

The two of them continue to look at each other - neither flinching or looking away -

Kourosh says: "You scare me when you look at me. You've got a pretty face."

Annette laughs and sits back in her chair. She mutters something but I've played it back a few times and can't work out what she says.

Kourosh continues; "You were losing all along."

Annette replies: "I doubt that."

After another moment - Annette folds her cards.

Kourosh: "See - you were losing all along darling."

Simon Trumper: "OK - well Kourosh says she was losing So - let's see...."

Before I reveal what Kourosh had - have a think for a moment and decide what you think he had - was he beating Annette??

Before I looked, I had decided that Kouroush had the Full House - when he called the Turn bet very quickly - I thought he had Ace and a 9 or a 2 for the full-boat - but what do you think??

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Well... Kourosh showed his cards - he had QC & 9H !!!
 

Simon Trumper: "WOW - ALL he had was two=pair !!"

Roland De Wolfe: "That's unbelievable - Annette laid down a Flush - he used the 4th diamond to make it seem that he had a bigger Flush or a Full-House - he committed nearly all of his chips - and he bluffed Annette."

Annette smiles, raises her eyebrows for a second - makes a mental note of how she's been had and you can see that she is absolutely determined that this **** Kourosh will never bluff her out of another pot - never ever EVER !!

Kourosh scrapes all the chips in and starts to pile them up - he turns to Annette and says: "I know you are very good - but..."

Annette: "Trust me - I had you on the Turn... Maybe not on the Turn - If you had Ace-High, I had a Flush on the Turn - other than that..."

Kourosh: "You see - I know you are very good but NOT that good!"

Annette laughs... "Not good enough to beat a Full-House."

A bit later on in the programme - they show a bit of Kourosh playing against Devilfish in a previous series - I had to laugh when this fantastic quote came out of the inimitable Devilfish...

"We have a saying in Poker - even the sun shines on a dog's ass sometimes you know - and this time it was Kourosh that it shone on you know."

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Post Mortem

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What I think when I look back at this hand is this - I think Kourosh had decided before the Flop - that Annette was trying it on. I think he knew that he was going to make a big play on her and he was going to go for it no matter what came down on the board.

I think he played on her ego - he used his experience to assume the right body language and also the right play, and even though he was out of position - by checking first on the Flop and Turn - he was, in effect, waiting to see what Annette did.

The fact that she didn't go all-in on the Turn made his mind up - he could represent the fact that he had the Full-House and she wouldn't be able to call his bluff.

The fact also that she had made her Flush made it an extremely risky play - but by not going all-in - by just raising and leaving himself short - raised an alarm bell in Annettes' head and she decided that he wasn't bluffing and folded in the end....

Fantastic play by Kourosh - but I'd like to see him try it again against Annette Obrestad !!

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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