Josh Arieh: "Biggest mistake amateurs make"

[Jedi420]

[ QUOTE ]

Harrington says something similiar in HoH (I think volume I), about how with a hand like AK and position on the table you shouldn't commit your whole stack preflop, because your opponent could come over the top all in and that negates your positional advantage. The more streets the play goes the more your position gives you an edge.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you commited your whole stack preflop, all positional advantages are negated, which is actually preferable if you're low. You have to raise that AK about 5x BB when you get limpers and you're SB. You want to take down the pot right there. If one or two come with you, so be it. My copy of HOH vol. 1 is lent out now, but I'm certain I could pull on example from there about this very thing.

[BruceWayne]

The only problem I have with Josh Arieh's advice is, that it's Josh Arieh's. In the games I've played, I've never had AK in the small blind, however, I don't know of a situation where I'd ever only check. I might fold if I got a read. More likely, I'd raise.

As far as pot size management, I do it by feel for the most part, however, Phil Gordon posted a really great article at FTP available here: http://fulltiltpoker.net/proLessons.php?lesson=29

[snowbank]

I think Ed Miller said this.

whoops. I think I looked at a post of yours right before I posted. My fault.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Bear:

My opinion is that we have yet to see a non-Two Plus Two book, even though some of them also sell well, that is competitive to any of our books in any way. So with that being the case, we are unconcerned that some other books may come out around the same time that No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice does. However, those other authors and publishers probably should be concerned.

A good example of this is Kill Phil by Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson. While it is a very good book (and we have stated that it is a very good good) its sales have had absolutely no effect (as far as we can tell) on the Harrington books.

Best wishes,
Mason

[jonnytone]

That is dumb

[Scillmotte]

hmm, i may be amn idiot but are we just talking about AKo here? if so how would AKS affect things??

[mrh86]

Arieh's theory about calling a raise out of the blinds with AK makes sense, given the right situations. Say you're a good ways into a tournament with deep stacks, and a MP player makes a 3x BB raise. Both the cutoff and the button call, the small blind folds, and you're in the BB. Here, it would make sense to throw in a big reraise. Lets examine another situation which is more likely to happen with good players. An EP player raises to 4x the BB, and it's folded around to you in the BB. You have 30 BB left, and reraising would cost you anywhere between 1/3 and 1/2 your stack. You could push, but since you're a good player, you don't want to increase your volatility here. So you call, and whiff on the flop. You can easily check and fold here. Lets examine the way a worse player might play this. The worse player reraises to 10x the BB, and the EP raiser calls. The worse player whiffs, and either has to make a small continuation bet and determine if his pot odds will allow him to call the EP raiser's push to be a 3:1 underdog, push on a complete bluff and most likely get busted, or check and fold. All three reraising postflop scenarios suck hardcore. If you want to push here, fine, but most good players wouldn't want to unless the blind structure was extremely fast.

[RussianBear]

Thank you Mason, if I may call you Mason, for responding. I'm not familiar with the publishing industry as far as sales go, etc. I, like many others, know the high standards of 2+2, however, there are probably more that do not, so that is why I asked the question. The only book that I have ever read that has had an impact as to how I play NL is Super System and I cannot say that I am disappointed with the results I have had. That being said, I look forward to reading Ed's book, if I can call him Ed, as I'm certain there will be something in it that will help all players.