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Old 08-24-2007, 10:17 AM
Deadpool_AZ Deadpool_AZ is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 32
Default Question about Harrington\'s books...

I just finished my first read through Vol 1. Seemed like a great book; it's already helped my tournament play. One question I have is this: in tournament play are the pot odds the most important consideration?

Mr. Harrington often talks about making bets where you want to entice a person to make a statistical mistake by calling, but implying that you actually want that call.

While I understand how this works well over time and makes perfect sense in cash games, it seems in tournaments, I don't just want the draws to make a small mistake by calling--I want them to make a big mistake by calling. In fact, I often don't really want them to call at all. For example, by offering someone, 3 - 1 odds on their flush draw, the odds are so close that they might be making a small mistake by calling, but their small mistake could cost me enough of my stack to put my tournament at risk.

I seem to remember reading one book (I have so many I can't remember which it was in) that if your opponent is on a draw and you think he may call a bet even though the pot odds aren't right, you should decline to value bet, accept the danger of the free card, then reevaluate on the turn.

I think the gist of it was that if the danger card hits on the turn, you can more easily get away from the hand, and if it doesn't, your opponent may be less likely to call with only one card to come. You may not be getting full value, but you are protecting your stack.

Can anyone discuss this a bit?

Thanks!
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