Small Stakes Hold'em (Skalnsky, Miller & co)

[DonBaron]

Hi all

I'm a long time player and started playing online a little while ago. So to get the feeling for online Poker I thought I'd start with small stake tables until I know my way out and then play my usual game at 10/20.

After a short while I realized that small stakes table are just horrible to play and that I need to adapt my game to the new situation. I went and buy the book of Sklansky about how to play small stakes... after reading the book carefully and trying to follow most of his strategies I must say that I'd better have lost my money at a table than for the book. My new experiences would have been more valuable.

What Sklansky suggests is actually to play loose against loose players! I've been playing for many years now and my tracks show that I'm pretty tight, solid and aggresive but since this strategy doesn't seem to work very well at small stakes online tables, I thought being open minded and reading about new ways would pay out. I know now that playing my usual way doesn't pay out as much as I'm used to, but I also know that the way they explain you to play doesn't pay out at all but makes you even loosing...

What are your experiences or opinions re this book?

Cheers Don

[Shafty78]

WOW! Are you sure you've been reading SSHE? Sklansky and Miller advocate a tight but aggressive policy throughout the book, not a loose one.

I'm pretty new to limit HE but have found the book to be a revelation - giving me some new ways of thinking about how to play on every street, and ways to push every edge in terms of playing weaker players, pot odds/implied odds and pot equity.

Reread it, and you might find that now you've been playing on these small stakes tables for a while against bad, loose players you'll be playing a lot tighter, and better than them.

[James.]

it's a good book for beginners. it's also still accurate for live play.

honestly, i think Stoxtrader's semi-new book(despite being directed at High Stakes play) is more pertinent to the online environment.

[Wolfram]

I think SSHE advocates loosening your starting hand requirements in loose and passive games. The reason for that being that in those games you'll often get to see cheap multiway flops, you'll get great overlay on your draws because everybody is calling, and you often get to draw cheaply since people arent betting and raising enough.

K5s is the quintessential loose/passive game hand for me. Once you get 2-3 limpers ahead of you it's fine to overlimp with that hand.

This is much more common in live games than online. Online today plays much more loose/aggressive (bordering on maniacal) than loose/passive. Especially 6max.

[jesse8888]

I don't play limit online any more (SNGs are just so much more fun). That said, SSHE is a completely accurate guidebook for crushing most live games I have seen up to and including 10/20.

[TheCount212]

What a great, concise method for SSHE you've expressed here, Wolf! I myself have a certain fondness for Q8s, but I sure do love those suited Kings as well =]

[PorkchopDJG]

SSHE is perfect for live games up to 10/20 at least. Just see if the table is playing passive or aggressive and loosen or tighten your starting hands accordingly.

I would choose HPFAP or the Stox book for live 15/30 or higher, shorthanded and all online games.

[dpaul333]

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I would choose HPFAP or the Stox book for live 15/30 or higher, shorthanded and all online games.

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What is the name of the Stox book and where do you get it?

[James.]

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I would choose HPFAP or the Stox book for live 15/30 or higher, shorthanded and all online games.

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What is the name of the Stox book and where do you get it?

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"Winning in Tough Hold Em Games"

[Xhad]

-You don't know as much about poker as you think you do
-It is possible that SSH introduced you to some new leaks but you are still probably better off for having read the book
-Loose play is more correct in bigger pots. Fish make the pots bigger.