Sky Poker Cash Game, Episode 4

The six-part Sky Poker Cash Game reaches Episode 4 this week on Sky Sports HD2 at 11pm.

The six-part Sky Poker Cash Game reaches Episode 4 this week, but this week's cash-bash will be on Sky Sports HD2 at 11pm. This game continues with James Haskell in Seat 5. James has featured in the current Six Nations Rugby Union Internationals, most recently in this weekend's splendid win over the French chaps. He is pretty combative on the Rugby pitch, but no less so on a poker table, & his verbal sparring with poker entrepreneur Rob Yong was something to behold. You can follow James Haskell on Twitter, @jameshaskell Ex-jockey and now TV star Mick Fitzgerald continues in the game, too, he has a dry wit & a tack-room full of wonderful horse racing anecdotes. Mick, who may be Irish, is currently getting ready for the annual National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham, which is as big in horse racing as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is to us poker players. Mick has fond memories of the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival, where he was leading jockey in both 1999 & 2000, which included riding Cheltenham Gold Cup winner - See More Business in 1999. For those of you who do not follow National Hunt Racing, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is the most important race in the calendar; it is the Derby of jump racing. Many think the biggest jump race is the Grand National, but that is a mere handicap, albeit a tough one to win. In fact, Mick's career came to a premature end in the 2008 Grand National, when he suffered severe injuries in a bad fall on L'Ami. Mick's Twitter moniker is @mickfitzg and he is worth following, as he regularly tips winners at tasty prices. As to the poker pros & regulars, we continue with Neil Channing, Sam Razavi, Rob Yong & Rastafish this week, though at least one of them gets busted. An interesting newcomer to the show is Redmond Lee, who is a professional poker player of many years standing. You may not have heard of Redmond, aka "Reds", but he is a member of the much respected "get-it-quietly" brigade. He has been playing the game, both cash and tournaments, for many years now, and is highly respected. Don't want to give too much away, but Redmond makes a quite splendid fold in this episode.

"A splendid fold"

For those new to No Limit Texas Hold'em Poker, what is a 'splendid fold'? Simply, we get involved in a hand, but we realise that our opponent now has a better hand, so we have to give best, or risk losing more money. We can make this judgement in a number of ways - by the betting pattern or size, by the community cards, by "tells", or just plain good judgement based upon experience. And there's the thing - odd as it may seem, we can become profitable in poker by knowing when to fold them and when to hold them, as the lyrics of the great Kenny Rogers ditty suggested. More money is lost in poker by the inability to fold hands than enough. Poker is full of ego and testosterone, young players don't like to give best, or fold, and this specific skill can be the difference between winning and losing. There is a lot of luck in poker, so much so that anyone can play poker with a modicum of success, but the winners over the long-term will prevail, because they leave the ego at home when playing poker. Interested in learning more about this wonderful game of online poker? Thought so. Just go to SkyPoker.com, there are "Poker Clinics", lots of folks on the Community always ready to help newbies, and you can learn from the Analysts on Sky Poker Channel, which transmits 24/7 on Channel 861. The Sky Poker Analysts include some very experienced pros, some of whom have won fortunes and have great insight in to poker. They also have Tony 'Tikay' Kendall. Can't win them all.