[Albert Moulton]

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I don't identify with the pre-flop raising chapter at all. There is nothing wrong with raising similar amounts with various hands, because you do want action, it has a higher expectation than taking the blind because you "defined" your hand with a 20x bb raise. A pot sweetener bet can be inviting disaster, especially at a small stakes full ring game.


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Both NLHETAP as well as PNLHE advocate raising different amounts to achieve different objectives from different positions and different hands vs different opponents.

Standardizing your raises is less useful than raising a wide variety of different amounts to manipulate the pot to be the size you want it with the number of players you want in it.

In short, I think you would make more money mixing up your pf raise sizes than always making them the same size artificially. And pot-sweetners with good hands OOP are only disasters if you can't find the fold button when you know (or at least should know) that you're beaten.

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There is little need for deception in poker, attempting to randomize your play at the beginning, you will be opening yourself to mistakes. The biggest problem with the book is that you would be attempting to play randomly, but in a total vacuum. There isn't enough consideration to how your opponent plays, and how they react to your bet.


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This really isn't true at all, especially the bold part. It just isn't. Maybe you play with enough random, on-line fish where you can bet good hands fast and get called by worse ones, but most tough games have good players who won't give up much money unless you mix up your play enough to trick them into making big mistakes in big pots. But you need deception in your game to do that.

Moreover, NLHETAP is very careful to consider what range of hands your opponent might have, and what range of hands your opponent might think you have.

And I bet you will occasionally open raise with a hand like 89s. That is a raise for deception, not for value. So, you have deception mixed into your game already.

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I have AJ...

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In many games you should fold this preflop. In others, this is a reraising hand or even a push. It depends on a lot of factors, and your hand with your factors aren't specifically covered in the examples, nor were they meant to be.

No book will tell you every thing about every thing.

Moreover, the section you quoted about drawing is not the only relevant section of the book. There is also a section that vs. aggressive opponents when you have a 1-pair hand with deep stacks that sometimes it's better to risk a free card for pot control and to induce a bluff than bet and risk getting raised or c/r'ed. And there are other relevant sections, as well. Once again, each section illustrates one concept. In a real hand, you may have to consider several concepts and alternatives before finding a play that you conser to be max-EV. Don't blindly say, "Opponent drawing = me c/r'ing." That wasn't what the authors meant. That's not how readers should interpret it.