Finding the positives

Having finished 52nd in the WSOP Event #45 with ParadisePoker, you'd think Didier Erb would be a man on a hot streak, but the Frenchman admitted to feeling frustrated at the break.

His chip count reduced to around 7,000 after running into a set, Didier was still bemused by the hand, yet grateful he had lost the minimum.

"I had a couple of bad reads that cost me a few thousand chips," he said, "But to be honest I could easily have lost a lot more in one of them.

"Two players limp-called after I raised with KQs; I c-bet the flop and got one caller and hit my King on the turn, only for him to lead into me on the turn and river.

"He had flopped a set of threes, but he only bet small and my value bets probably would have been bigger, so calling him down cost me less!"

Another player down on his starting stack was Portuguese Hugo Almeira (pictured), but he was keeping a more positive perspective after making a big fold with 10s.

"I lost a few chips but I'm still in the tournament!" he smiled, "It was a good fold on a 622-7-x board as I read my opponents for big hands and got shown KK and A2.

"I'm just glad nobody c-bet the flop because I probably would have raised and been out right now."

His 6,500 stack still gives him over 30bbs to work with; a similar situation to the one facing compatriot Joao Costa.

Luidgi to his friends, Joao made two exceptional lay downs with big pocket pairs, spotting two pair or better in the eyes of his opponent when he had KK on a positively soaking wet Q-10-8 flop, before getting away from QQ when it ran into a set of 7s.