Review, Advanced Limit Holdem Strategy (Tanenbaum)

[jeffnc]

I'm halfway through the book. A couple points.

This discussion on "Illusion of Action" is getting too much attention. Basically what he is saying is that you shouldn't be too predictable.

Keep in mind, the book is about "tough games". There is only a little overlap between this and Stox's book. That's primarily because, although the titles are similar, Stox is about short-handed primarily and Tanenbaum is about full ring. Theoretically full ring ought to play like short-handed once the first 3 or 4 people fold, but we know this isn't precisely true in practice.

Tanenbaum addresses issues where you are playing the same opponents for long enough to know their styles and they to know yours. Unpredictability is important and in fact, he claims, is one of the major things that distinguishes good higher limit players from low-mid limit players who merely play solid. He is not talking about playing "wild" or anything of that nature really.

I think a good analogy is counting cards in Blackjack. There is a game theoretical optimum strategy. However in practice you can't employ it because you'll get knocked out for counting cards. So, you have to hide your intentions, while actually still playing as close as you can to correct game theory. You give up a little in theory to gain compared to getting detected by the casino.

And so it is against good poker players. You have to conceal what you're doing to a certain extent, while still playing good poker overall.

We might ask again, why play in "tough" games to begin with, if game selection is so important? Because you can make more winning 1 BB/hr in a $30/60 game than you can winning 3 BB/hr in an $8/16 game.

I like the book so far.

[fraac]

If it's for full ring and known opponents, does it even apply that much online?

[jeffnc]

[ QUOTE ]
If it's for full ring and known opponents, does it even apply that much online?

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, my thinking was that it applied a little less for online. Unless, obviously, you're playing at the same site against the same players a lot, which is actually what would happen if you were playing the higher limits like $30/60. But there really isn't much going on in terms of full ring games at those limits. I will occasionally get in a $10/20 full game online. I used to play in a full game occasionally at $30/60 at Ultimate Bet, but that was over a year ago.