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Jamie Gold

August 10, 2006

The finish line at the World Series of Poker is in site. The Golden Boy Jamie Gold is in the lead. Everyone is wondering how long he will be there for.

Jamie Gold proved again to any doubting Thomases of the pocker establishment and especially young Turk braggarts, that he alone is the King of the Pocker World. As you get seated in the game of your choice, ask the brush person to assist you in attaining whatever you need for your own comfort. The event is too large for either hotel to manage individually and so it is run as a collaborative effort. I recently encountered such a situation where I was able to save money on a hand that I never should have.

He will take on all 666 comers, the largest field of entrants in the history of the World Pocker Tour. I had picked up AQs in the big blind and would've immediately called him had he pushed all in again. The only aces you're likely to run into are A-K, A-Q, A-J, and A-10, and the players with A-J and A-10 aren't going to give you much action if an ace flops. Remember to ask questions and don't be intimidated.

This is especially true in the California cardrooms where the dealers do not sell chips to the players, except to make small change. Dolly can have his pick among the emerging management companies, agents and publicists that plead for his bones, with promises to make him yet richer and more famous, but he can also afford to ignore them and still remain an icon, relying strictly on the mind-boggling skills he brings to the table. As this column is aimed at the very newest of players, my comments about game opportunities will be aimed at the lowest-limit games that you likely will encounter. I don't like whomsoever perpetrated this unspeakable sneak attack on America (I've been saying Bin Laden and of course that's not been proved yet).

For an event of this magnitude, you want the very best, and a lot of the very best dealers are in Las Vegas. The cardroom you are visiting may differ. This doesn't cause any problems for the players because, as Lambert told me, the two buildings are so close that you'd have to walk really slow to get wet if it were raining. For those of you interested in less colloquial measures of distance, it's about 50 yards. If so, and if you want one, now is the time to ask. In live ring games, I probably play hold 'em 90% of the time.

Focus on playing good pocker, and don't get technical with someone unless it's necessary to protect your money. If you go on tilt or play badly, you're not doing it in front of people you know and whose respect you might want. Well, second-coolest, after the 5-foot high rhymes with pong that a friend of mine had). This is still something you must be careful with, but if you've generally been playing tight, the raiser will almost certainly have to lay his hand down as you've given pots up to him in the past.