WPH #497: Could YOU Make This Fold???? [Game of Gold]

Hold on to your seats as Asian poker legend Michael Soyza battles it out against Ukraine’s poker powerhouse Olga Iermolcheva in this fascinating poker hand, which sees Soyza put to the test on a horrible river!

In some situations, such as 4-straight boards players will tend to under-bluff and therefore it becomes reasonable to fold out a higher percentage of your bluff-catchers, even if they are very strong.

Michael Soyza is a professional poker player from Malaysia. He has over $15,000,000 in total live earnings, putting him in the top 75 on the all-time money list. His biggest live cash of over $2,200,000 came from the $100,000 Vietnam Triton main event, where he finished second to Talal Shakerchi in 2023. He is the co-owner of the Asian Poker Tour (APT).

Olga Iermolcheva is a professional poker player from Ukraine. She has over $700,000 in live tournament earnings, Her best live cash of $113,580 came from the $2,500 Latin American Poker Tour – LAPT Panama, Panama City, Main Event in 2015.

Filmed in Seoul, South Korea and hosted by experienced poker broadcaster Ali Nejad, Game of Gold combines high stakes poker with survival reality TV. Over the course of the 12 episodes, the sixteen participants compete across various poker formats, including Sit & Go and Heads-Up games, Indian Poker and a standard tournament poker game.

The participants included Daniel Negreanu “KidPoker”, Jason Koon, Fedor Holz “CrownUpGuy”, Kevin Martin, Kyna England, Josh Arieh, Daniel Cates “Jungleman”, Lukas Robinson “RobinPoker”, Nikita Luther, Charlie Carrel “Epiphany77”, Johan Guilbert “YoH ViraL”, Olga Iermolcheva, David Williams, Andy Tsai “Andy Stacks”, Michael Soyza, and Maria Ho.

In Round 1, a four-tier Sit & Go poker format, each team (spades, diamonds, hearts, and clubs) put a poker player into a separate round of four-handed poker action, with Game of Gold coins on offer for finishing first, second, third, or fourth. The rounds increased in amount, until the fourth ‘mystery’ round, where it was unknown how many gold coins were on offer. The team with the least amount of Game of Gold coins at the end of all rounds would be eliminated.

The final six players competed in a winner-take-all format SNG. This was unique as it meant there was no ICM (Independent Chip Model) pressure on any of the poker players.

Game of Gold Results

1st: Maria Ho – U.S.A – $456,000 2nd: Daniel Cates ‘Jungleman’ – U.S.A – $0 3rd: Johan Guilbert ‘Yoh Viral’ – France – $0 4th: Fedor Holz ’CrownUpGuy’ – Germany – $0 5th: Kyna England – U.S.A – $0 6th Josh Arieh – U.S.A – $0

Pre-flop: With A3 of hearts in the cutoff, Olga Iermolcheva kicks off the action with a raise to 70,000. Michael Soyza calls with QJo in the small blind and Nikita Luther calls from the big blind with A4 of spades.

Flop – Kd Qh Jc The flop comes down with all broadway cards, which Soyza and Luther check to Iermolcheva who decides to continuation bet for 80,000 with a backdoor flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. Soyza, with bottom two pair makes the call, while Luther folds, as the two poker players go to the turn heads-up.

Turn – 4d With the second diamond coming on the turn Soyza checks, and Iermolcheva decides to check back, possibly waving the white flag in this hand.

River – Td The river brings the backdoor flush and one card to the straight. Soyza’s two pair has now shrunk in value which causes him to check for a third and final time. Now with the ace-high straight, Iermolcheva fires out a bet of 200,000 for just over half pot. Does Soyza call, fold, or even raise? You will have to watch this poker video to find out!

Jonathan Little analyzes live poker hands from TV poker shows such as Poker After Dark, Hustler Casino Live, The Lodge Poker Club & PokerGO. He also analyzes popular poker vloggers such as Rampage Poker, Brad Owen, Jaman Burton, Ashley Sleeth, Wolfgang Poker and others!

You will also find many poker hands on this channel that contain some of the biggest names in the poker world such as; Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Doug Polk, Garrett Adelstein, Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, Fedor Holz & many more!

#pokerstrategy #gameofgold #ggpoker

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