Comment on Greenstein Rating

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Barry:

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I think I achieved this, but it left some poker players hungering for more intensive poker

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Volume II can fix this.

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On the other hand, editors at the different publishing houses that I rejected said the poker in the play lessons was too sophisticated and was limiting my audience.

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You should have talked first to me. I would have told you the opposite. To see that this is true, just look at the sales ranks of the Harrington books.

Best wishes,
Mason

[JasonP530]

Barry,

The book contains much important information about how to approach with a proper mindset and to make sure you are involved in situations where you can focus and play your best. I think it is an excellent book that was well written and gets your message across clearly. I applaud you.

In addition, I want to say thanks for taking the time to respond to me. The way you carry yourself is extremely professional and you should be a role model for other players.

Best,
Jason

[David Sklansky]

People in the game I play in would likely be able to beat the games most people play in without looking at their cards until after the flop (if their opponents didn't know).

Barry

For the record, I dispute that as long as we are talking ring games 15-30 or above.

[barryg1]

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People in the game I play in would likely be able to beat the games most people play in without looking at their cards until after the flop (if their opponents didn't know).

Barry

For the record, I dispute that as long as we are talking ring games 15-30 or above.

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Actually, if the right crew of big game players will play straight hold'em with Jennifer, she will promise to take every flop. She calls it Jen hold'em. I don't think she's had a losing session at it.

Many years ago, on evenings when the big no limit hold'em game in Northern California wasn't available, I used to do this in the second biggest game. It forced me to take flops and feel out what people were doing. Actually, if I sensed my opponent was weak, I wouldn't look at my cards until the unlikely event that I was called on the river. I had no problem beating the game. It used to look like a magic trick when I would check raise my opponent on the turn or river and show my goofy hand.

Phil Ivey plays pot limit Omaha intending to play almost every flop. This last WSOP, check the hand records: he told me his missed out on ten flops then entire final table and won the event. These occasional folds only happened because it was raised and reraised in front of him.

One of Phil's training techniques is to play low limit and try to win every hand. He feels it teaches him how to bluff more effectively. (When his book comes out, that should be interesting!)

The point is, part of playing at the next level is playing poker without regard to your cards. I haven't had a chance to look at Dan's books yet, but he played poker when he raised with 6-2 offsuit last year knowing that his opponents would fold. I have occasionally been in situations where I knew I could raise the correct amount to make my opponents fold, but I had to check to see if my hand was strong enough that I had to do something to make them call instead.

Barry

[bobdibble]

[MicroBob]

This post is as fascinating as some of the best stuff in your book.
I find some of this stuff truly incredible....yet I actually believe it of course.

THIS truly drives home the idea of a 'next level' of play (or in my case...about 23 levels higher) that is out there.

[Ryan Beal]

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This post is as fascinating as some of the best stuff in your book.

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I agree. That was a very interesting post, Greenstein. It reminds me of why I ultimately enjoyed your book. Perhaps someone can con you into writing more in the future.

[AceHigh]

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Actually, if the right crew of big game players will play straight hold'em with Jennifer, she will promise to take every flop. She calls it Jen hold'em. I don't think she's had a losing session at it.

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Well, I'd like to invite Jen to play "Jen Hold 'em" in the Party 30/60 games. If she got these mad poker skillz, let us all see them. Then we'd have documented proof of how good she is. Personally, I think she'd get killed trying to do that.

[AceHigh]

"Sigh"

What I'm saying is - the author, the title of the book and some of Doyle's comments led us to believe you wanted to write a book unlike any other, telling us from a perspective few poker players or writers could. And you did it in some ways, just not the ways I expected.

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We don't play much hold'em in the big game, so I ended up using tournament examples, mainly against relatively weak opponents.

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Except, there are already of ton of books that talk about that.

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I thought of discussing how we play Omaha eight-or-better or how we play pot limit Omaha and how you cope with someone who plays almost every hand, but even the mention of these games is over most readers head.

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But the book is labeled "Advanced", won't people expect it too be hard to understand?

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There is no question that one of the drawbacks for two plus two'ers is that I wanted to make the book readable by a mainstream audience

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Fair enough. But I still contend intentionally or uninitenially a lot of your comments, and comments of others, pre-publication, mislead 2+2'ers about the type of book you would be writing.

The book is a good book, but the poker instruction parts aren't something that hasn't been written before or that can't be found in other poker books.

PS- if there is an 2nd printing can you add captions to more of your photos?

[MicroBob]

I was just perusing through some of the interesting articles in the July edition of the 2+2 internet-magazine (upper-left corner on the green bar) and then was thinking about Barry's post about 'Jen Holdem' and 'Ivey aggression' and it occured to me, "Wouldn't it be great if Barry wrote regular articles around here?"


Not sure if Barry has the interest to do that. He already has his blog afterall (and I hear that he plays occasioally too!!)
But I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one who would absolutely love it if ideas and stories like those from his last post or 'tales from the "big" game' appeared in a regular article in the 2+2 mag.


On top of that, 2+2 is paying $200 per article!!
So in a little over 4 years of writing an article every month Barry will have earned an extra BB for the big-game at the Bellagio (by which time, the 'big' game might be 'bigger' than 4k/8k anyway for all we know).


Obviously the $200/article part isn't an incentive for Barry.
But if he is interested in posting his thoughts around here in article form every once in awhile there would most certainly be a crowd of 2+2'ers happily taking in every word.


(speaking of the internet-mag...Mason's 80/160 diamond-flush hand made for very interesting reading imo. NH!! haven't read David's 2-7 lowball article yet)