Two Plus Two Newer Archives - Is there any book that addresses the typical 1/2 NL game?

First off, thanks Nick for your detailed response to my question regarding the Full Tilt book. Being that it is yet another poker book, I'll probably end up buying and reading it regardless of its value, but I definitely appreciate you giving me such a comprehensive preview.

To reciprocate, I'll tell you a bit about Angel Largay's "No Limit Texas Hold 'Em: A Complete Course."

The book deals with what Largay calls Low-Limit No Limit, or LLNL, meaning a small stakes NL game with a maximum buy-in. The strategic implications of this structure are many, according to Largay, but initally he deals with pretty standard material like outs, reading the board, and poker math. His treatment of Pot Equity was more understandable and exemplified than any other author I've come across. He provides a quiz at the end of each section that can be of some use.

Toward the beginning he also provides an interesting section called Raise, Call, or Fold? that touches on the hierarchy of actions and which action gives you the most opportuninty to win a given hand. You know, if you just call, you have to have the best hand, but if you raise, you give yourself more ways to win. Obviously not revolutionary, but still a good discussion of a subject every poker player should understand.

His section on player types is very good. He draws a lot from The Psychology of Poker, but adds his own personal philosophy and some keen anecdotal evidence that really gives you an idea of what to look for and how to best interact with these people, even off the felt.

Largay's next chapter is entitled Reading is Fun, and in the first part, "Reading the Players" he basically talks about general tells and what sort of reactions to be cognizant of at key points in a hand. He points out the importance of observation and taking notes after a session. In "Reading the Cards," he goes through three good, detailed examples of how to put someone on a hand, and again has a ten question quiz.

In his preflop chapter he goes over ten criteria that impact the strength of your hand, including: your cards, your position, your relative position, your stack size, table image, number of players in the hand, etc.

When he gets to specific starting hands, then things get a little strange. He claims that LLNL requires a lot more limping up front with big hands for the purposes of deception. "Because of the huge implied odds in NL...deception is much more valuable than in limit. It's worth significantly more to maintain deception that to pick up an extra $5-15 from a caller." He never raises with a big pair in EP solely on the strength of his hand. A very weird comment he makes in his section about playing "other pairs" (not AA or KK), is that he will limp with them "...almost always, except perhaps in late position if i'm the first one in and the blinds are very tight." Why would you prefer to raise against tight players who require a huge hand to re-raise or even play? A raise on the button might invite a light re-raise from a LAG in the blinds, but not a rock. I realize that a rock won't pay you off post-flop without a big hand, but why not limp and let a tight player make something he might be willing to bet?

Later he's discussing trouble hands and cites the fact that many LLNL players undervalue the worth of deception. He goes on to say since they will always raise with AK it's not hard to get away from a trouble hand like KQ, AJ, etc. However, if you limp with KQ and are not raised, you can generally be confident you have the best King. Therefore, it's usually not terribly difficult to know out where you stand preflop. Players at LLNL can't fathom a limp with AK, for example, so if they limp with something like A10 and an Ace hits, they're probably going to pay you off. Also, if you raise pre-flop when the max-buy in is $40, you don't really allow yourself the room to outplay opponents post-flop.

His discussion of suited connectors is pretty standard.

Largay's 6th section, "Post-Flop; Who is more likely to go broke?" is really quite good. He rehashes Sklansky's "eight mistakes in poker" but gives some solid examples and discusses how to avoid such mistakes. Later he talks about "Parlaying Decisions" based on the quality of your play vs. your opponent's play. Essentially if you can consistently make better decisions than your opponent at every stage of the hand, then you should take pains to get your money into the pot slowly. If, on the other hand, your opponent is much better than you, you should get it all in before you have an opportunity to make several bad decisions that will reduce your chance of having the best hand.

Largay talks about how to play certain stack sizes and how to build a stack at LLNL, overcards, the double paired board, nuts with a free-roll redraw, and many other things in this 6th section.

The 7th section has three great four-way examples where he illustrates what he would probably do in a given situation against the four different player types.

All things considered, the book is worth buying and studying. It's a niche book for sure, and some of the advice is strange, but for the most part it gets the money. Hope this helps.