Why can no one write a truly advanced poker book ?

[Matt Flynn]

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in the case of no-limit hold 'em:

1. there's a ton of "basic" stuff that isn't in print


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Matt - I hear people say this all the time. I'm hoping your book will address these issues, and I'm planning on purchasing it asap. Could you just give even a brief generic of one such concept? I'm always curious as to what people mean when they make a statement like this. Thanks, and looking forward to the book.

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sure. in PNL we really had to start from the beginning. bet sizing, stack sizes, commitment, position, pot control. all are basic concepts that you can't build a good pro game without.

take commitment = willing to get all in. how many players actually ask, on every street, "Am I committed?" or better "Under what conditions will I commit here?" there is no more important question, but how many people ACTUALLY think about that at the start of every betting round? if you want to be a strong MSNL player you should hardwire that question into your game.

take pot control. the main concept has two parts. first if you're happily committed do what it takes to build a big pot. default is make a big bet, and you modify from there as the situation dictates. the other half is when you aren't committed but want to see a showdown, keep the pot small UNLESS you have reason to do otherwise. we detail some of those potential reasons, and discuss that checking and making smaller bets are the main strategy for keeping pots small. also, we define what a big pot is: that's key. i have seen a great many hands similar to "the pot is $30. we have $60 left on the flop. i check the flop for pot control." no you don't. not with a stack-to-pot ratio of 2. the pot is already too big for keeping the pot small.

these aren't new but we lay them out with examples as simply as we could.

getting more into it, we discuss range / equity / maximize (REM). that's how you should think. what range does my opponent potentially have? what does he think of my range? what's my equity against his range? how do I maximize against his range? raise? check? bet small? what line should i take? etc.

again, this is all basic, but it's not sufficiently covered in print imo. keep in mind i haven't read most of the nl books including much of Largay, How to Dominate, etc.

there are so many such topics it's astonishing that there aren't more books out. plenty of low-lying fruit to pick.