Q&a With Harry Demetriou @ 7pm Friday 6/2/06

[HarryDemetriou 0]

I hope you can improve on that 18th place at the '06 series!

With so many more players expected this year I would imagine 50th place would be a significant improvement;-)

[bengy3 0]

Thanks Harry. You're a class act all the way.

[acesfull333 0]

Sorry I missed this when it happened, but it's a great read!!!GL Harry!

[yergan 0]

Thanks Harry for doing this, and Steve for organising it.Really appreciated.

[yourboygsarida 0]

quite impressed by you harry i liked you before but even more after reading this thread. good luck tournament wise this weekend.

[HarryDemetriou 0]

Thanks for the good wishes everyone but as an example of how amateurish I played yesterday at Mandalay Bay here is a CLEAR example of a MASSIVE mistake.Blinds are 50/100 1st level and I have 19k and an opponent has 21kI am in early position and raise to 350.Mid position makes it 1500Comes back to me I make it 5500Opponent goes all in.What do you need to have to call in this spot?Obviously your opponent whom you have not played with previously (had you played with the player before and had an indication that he was very loose or aggressive it could be different) has nothing other than Aces so you too must have aces to call as the VERY minimum he can have in this spot is KK which is extremely unlikely as you have the other two kings.What does this idiot do?You guessed it I called for my last 13.5k with KKHow do I justify this?I CANNOT but of course I go on to spike a King on the turn to double up.The moral of this story.........When it is CLEAR CUT that you are behind and NOT getting pot odds then you FOLD.Here endeth the self humiliation lesson.

[nutzbuster 7]

I've been there soooo many times.I'll fold about half of the time. It's so hard to lay Kings down!Nice spike you luck box!

[HangukMiguk 8]

Thanks for the good wishes everyone but as an example of how amateurish I played yesterday at Mandalay Bay here is a CLEAR example of a MASSIVE mistake.Blinds are 50/100 1st level and I have 19k and an opponent has 21kI am in early position and raise to 350.Mid position makes it 1500Comes back to me I make it 5500Opponent goes all in.What do you need to have to call in this spot?Obviously your opponent whom you have not played with previously (had you played with the player before and had an indication that he was very loose or aggressive it could be different) has nothing other than Aces so you too must have aces to call as the VERY minimum he can have in this spot is KK which is extremely unlikely as you have the other two kings.What does this idiot do?You guessed it I called for my last 13.5k with KKHow do I justify this?I CANNOT but of course I go on to spike a King on the turn to double up.The moral of this story.........When it is CLEAR CUT that you are behind and NOT getting pot odds then you FOLD.Here endeth the self humiliation lesson.

That's hard to laydown for anyone Harry. Yeah, pretty obvious what he had, but still hard to laydown. Don't beat yourself up over it, and go deep again this time.

[Canary3 1]

at the stakes i play, it would be completely idiotic to fold kings preflop.... im sure it is a valuable skill to have though

[Lasombra 0]

Hi Harry, I saw you recommended Holland for Soccer world championship to 6:1 on the money. Guess the Swedish betting site for 12:1 must be a pretty good bet then.Im a bit worried about the thier group as its seems to be the hardest one, also 3 injuries, Wesley Sneijder, Philip Cocu and Giovanni van Bronckhorst in thier last game against Australia that ended 1-1 so doesnt look good at the moment.

[HarryDemetriou 0]

Hi Harry, I saw you recommended Holland for Soccer world championship to 6:1 on the money. Guess the Swedish betting site for 12:1 must be a pretty good bet then.Im a bit worried about the thier group as its seems to be the hardest one, also 3 injuries, Wesley Sneijder, Philip Cocu and Giovanni van Bronckhorst in thier last game against Australia that ended 1-1 so doesnt look good at the moment.

Sorry must have been a typo on my part...recommended them at 16/1. and yes their draw doesn't look great as they are on the tough looking half but i'll stick with them at these odds.

[gkunit20 1]

Getting an early jump, and this probably isn't the best question, but what is your oppinion on the whole David Williams thing?

[HarryDemetriou 0]

Getting an early jump, and this probably isn't the best question, but what is your oppinion on the whole David Williams thing?

Not sure what you mean????If it is about referring to him as "Porn Star" then I reckon there is absolutely no truth to the rumours whatsoever and probably stens from him having done an interview for Playboy magazine in a poker article a while back.If it is concerning his playing abilities then I think he is a very good aggressive player who will get even better over the course of time and is a long way from the finished article (which is scary as he is already very good).If it is as a person I find him very personable, likeable and intelligent and a credit to the poker community.I wish him well and expect to see him around for years to come.

[Legsarelikebutter 0]

Hello Mr. Harry. I think you are an excellent player. I just have one question. Is it true that Jerry is your new protege?? Everyone here at this forum has wondered what happened to him. I salute you, my sir.

[yergan 0]

Hello Mr. Harry. I think you are an excellent player. I just have one question. Is it true that Jerry is your new protege?? Everyone here at this forum has wondered what happened to him. I salute you, my sir.

He goes out of his way to answer our questions, and you do **** like this.Grow up.

[Legsarelikebutter 0]

He goes out of his way to answer our questions, and you do **** like this.Grow up.

I never disrespected him. If that is what you mean?? I just asked a question. I am sorry it bothered you. If he wants to not answer it, then he wont. I didn't see anywhere on this thread where I had to clear questions with you. Mr.

[offset 0]

Harry, how often do you lay down KK preflop, and do you believe that it should be part of a good player's game? To me, that hand seemed like an automatic call as an unknown could have easily had QQ or even AK in that spot. Percentage-wise, how often do you think an unknown (don't choose this player, since you've already played against him, but any random unknown with whom you have never played) will have QQ in this spot? What about AK? What about any other random hand (AQ, 99, 72, etc.)?

[nutzbuster 7]

Hello Mr. Harry. I think you are an excellent player. I just have one question. Is it true that Jerry is your new protege?? Everyone here at this forum has wondered what happened to him. I salute you, my sir.

Legs!...take you meds and get back in bed Legs. (How did you get out of your straps again anyway?)No one appreiciates your lunacy, especially, I dare say, Harry. All this does is insult him. Way to crap on an excellent thread. Nice job.

[HarryDemetriou 0]

I never disrespected him. If that is what you mean?? I just asked a question. I am sorry it bothered you. If he wants to not answer it, then he wont. I didn't see anywhere on this thread where I had to clear questions with you. Mr.

Pretty tough for me to take offence at anything as I am particularly thick skinned.As for my having any protoge's....currently there are absolutely none...Jerry or otherwise.

[HarryDemetriou 0]

Harry, how often do you lay down KK preflop, and do you believe that it should be part of a good player's game? It is a VERY rare occurrence and would only happen when the stak sizes are very deep and when you are out of position with the KK relative to the AA.Remember there are several levels of raising here and it it is hard for anyone to have this much brovado to go all in on a re-re-re raise without holding AA.To be honest you do not have to be a good player to know your opponent has aces in this spot. Only a poor player would contemplate going all in in this spot with less than AA and it is extremely difficult even then for someone to go all in without holding Aces (imho). Betting speaks as I said in an interview earlier today. A Bet is someone talking to you whilst a raise is them shouting and a re raise screaming with the re re re raise being hitting you over the head wioth a sledgehammer.Had we both had 2000 in chips it would be a different story. I would go 300 opponent 900 and i would be all in. Less chips = less raises = less information so it's much easier to go all in."To me, that hand seemed like an automatic call as an unknown could have easily had QQ or even AK in that spot."IMO You can only call here if you have clear evidence to suggest that your opponent is capable of making plays like this with things like middle or small pairs or AK etc etc. Without such evidence it is much better to exercise some caution and lay down. Remeber also that your opponent has to also fear that you are holding Aces and that if he hasn't got them that you are also good enough to lay down Kings in this spot if he hasn't got the Aces. The key is the amount of chips and the several levels of betting that have taken place."Percentage-wise, how often do you think an unknown (don't choose this player, since you've already played against him, but any random unknown with whom you have never played) will have QQ in this spot? What about AK? What about any other random hand (AQ, 99, 72, etc.)?

Personally I think an unknown player in this spot has les than a 10% chance of having anything other than AA and as such makes this a clear fold. Of course if your getting good pot odds you could call but in this example you are not.

[nutzbuster 7]

Just finished listening to your circuit interview. Very entertaining. Didn't think you were too tough on Sebock really, just very honest. I'll take honest criticism over butt kissing BS any day.That vomit story...wow. Good times! For what it's worth, congrats on your small stack finish. Nothing worse than a cold deck.

[HarryDemetriou 0]

Just finished listening to your circuit interview. Very entertaining. Didn't think you were too tough on Sebock really, just very honest. I'll take honest criticism over butt kissing BS any day.That vomit story...wow. Good times! For what it's worth, congrats on your small stack finish. Nothing worse than a cold deck.

Personally having had no chips for the best part of two days am pleased that I managed to eek out a finish but am disappointed with the way I played the final hand. I actually overcomplicated a simple situation.I could call fold or raise.By not going all in I gave up any fold equity I had (remember he doesn't have to have Aces pre flop). Folding would have been a better option but I like taking chances against large stacks so I can double up and have a real shot at winning the whole tournament but my stack size of 145k was a little on the short side for me to be putting in 25k before the flop.In hindsight (a luxury we haven't got at the time when in the heat of battle) I would have said the two best options would have been to fold or go all in and in that order but there were a couple of other things to consider like a couple of hands I played against Mike Landers in the 2500 event where he raised and I reraised over the top (when deep in the tournament) causing him to fold.Nonetheless it was very satisfying to have fought so hard with no chips on day 2 and come back today in 50/56 place and surpass my personal target of finishing higher thasn 40th which I thought would have been a realistic finishing spot given my position at the start of the day.All in all then a sarisfactory 29h place finish which really should have been a day 1 first level exit.

[LadyGrey 6]

Hey Harry I have two questions for you:1 - I heard you on The Circuit and I thought you sounded Australian. What was up with that? 2 - Where do you play in England? I live in Oxford so I don't have any casinos or poker rooms nearby, but I'm thinking of trekking it to London at some point. Incidentally, anytime you want to meet up and tutor me is a-ok.

[HarryDemetriou 0]

Hey Harry I have two questions for you:1 - I heard you on The Circuit and I thought you sounded Australian. What was up with that? Many people here in the US confuse my accent with that of someone from from either Australia or South Africa. I would have to say that I personally believe I have a very specific London accent but maybe because I have spent so much time travelling around the world the way I speak has been affected by the various places I have visited. Australia is a wonderful country which I visit annually in January and occaisionally at other times of the year too so it is possible my accent has been affected. I alos spend a fair amount of time here in the USA so that too could afffect my accent.2 - Where do you play in England? I live in Oxford so I don't have any casinos or poker rooms nearby, but I'm thinking of trekking it to London at some point. Incidentally, anytime you want to meet up and tutor me is a-ok.

Oddly enough I rarely play in the UK as there are far too many big events in the USA but I do intend to play more after the wsop and particularly in the EPT (European Poker Tour) events of which one takes place at The Grosvenor Casino Edgeware Road, London. So far this year I have been travelling so extensively that I have only spent one night in the UK since leacving on Jan 1st. I will be returning tomorrow however for the soccer World Cup and will not return until around the 23rd June.

Hey Harry I have two questions for you:1 - I heard you on The Circuit and I thought you sounded Australian. What was up with that? 2 - Where do you play in England? I live in Oxford so I don't have any casinos or poker rooms nearby, but I'm thinking of trekking it to London at some point. Incidentally, anytime you want to meet up and tutor me is a-ok.

PS there is a card room called the Gutshot at Farringdon Road London which I think would be best for you to visit. Along with The Grosvenor Casino in London these are the main two locations for playing poker but other Casino's like The Palm Beach in Mayfair also have poker.A couple of card clubs are now opening up but the law is a little fuzzy or grey and the legality of the clubs outside of the casinos is being challenged but between them all you should find something that suits you whether it be tournaments or cash games.

[LadyGrey 6]

Oddly enough I rarely play in the UK as there are far too many big events in the USA but I do intend to play more after the wsop and particularly in the EPT (European Poker Tour) events of which one takes place at The Grosvenor Casino Edgeware Road, London. So far this year I have been travelling so extensively that I have only spent one night in the UK since leacving on Jan 1st. I will be returning tomorrow however for the soccer World Cup and will not return until around the 23rd June.

What's your view on the 'super casino' legislation that's been talked about in England? I guess you might not have heard much about it while you've been out of the country, but if these super casinos did pop up across the UK we could get more major events going here.