[m3dude]

so i bought the book yesterday and read it cover to cover. there are solid basics and fundamentals. spr is solid in regards to giving a sense of how much to commit in general with each type of hand, however the methods the authors suggest in applying it will likely only work against bad players. v tough players it will make u very exploitable.

for example:

page 229 - hand example 8 they recommend limp folding ace queen against a loose player whos playing loose because he isnt being punished for it because you cant get a low spr. this is just passing on a likely profitable situation and allows this player to continue his free reign over the table.

page 224 - hand 4 they recommend limping kjs on the button after 2 limpers. while the footnote says u can raise if u have steal equity, you should raise because you have position on 2 limpers with a hand that plays well post flop and is ahead of their range. you will win more in this spot over 100000 hands by raising than by limping assuming you play well postflop. choosing to limp because you cant create your target spr just costs you money.

page 132 - minreraising aq. this strikes me as very bad advice because you give villain great odds to call with anything reasonable and play in position against you. whats usually going to happen is you get it all in v a huge draw and ur a small favorite, or you get it in crushed. villain is correct to call here with a wide range of hands getting 3 to 1 immediate odds and almost 20 to 1 implied. u also allow him to 4 bet over you and push u off the hand. while u might do this with aa too making him hesitant, the odds you offer your opponent to break your aa are too good to make this reraise with aa. so he can likely profitably 4 bet if he knows your not a weak player. you then get yourself into the situation where your playing high variance aggro wars with a tough player because you know he might be 4 betting light and you do have a decent hand.

the understanding i take away from the overall spr message you guys are conveying is that when possible build bigger preflop pots with 1 pair type hands to cut down on villains implied odds, or dont build them at all. i feel you can accomplish the same thing without becoming exploitable/sacrificing value by just widening your raising range.

i realize playing the way this book teaches helps prevent you from being outmaneuvered in big pots by tough players, but it also prevents you from winning big pots against them. you basically relegate yourself to being a winner in only the easiest games