Studying Othmer (stud high)

[BlueSmurf]

Hello all

So I finally coughed up the required GDP of Kazakhstan for Othmer's book, and although I had been warned that there might be a graph or two in it, I'm still in shock and I get a headache just thinking about reading it.

The author suggests reading the whole thing once, then jotting down interesting hands you play and delve into the relevant sections to further understand the statistics of common situations. In other words, using the book as a reference.

Has anybody succesfully used this dense work differently? And while we're at it, except for using twodimes and posting here, what tools (in a broad sense) do you use to improve your game? Thanks in advance [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Cheers,

Smurf

[TS Clark]

I found the Othmer book interesting and helpful, but it's "interface" is pretty unfriendly. It did really help me think about the math of stud games in a more concrete way, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it over SCSFAP or Reese's section in Super/System. All in all, though, I thought it was a worthwhile and thought-provoking read.

[Bill Murphy]

Prolly the most helpful thing I ever did was, after reading about the famous hand between Johnny Chan & Frenchy, I tried to figure out the 5th St %'s by hand. This was long before the days of twodimes, and it took me about three hours to do.

Chan had something like K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]/xxx, and Frenchy had something like A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]/T [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

It had been capped on 3rd & 4th, and Chan raises him on 5th, saying "He's a 2-1 dog so I gotta bet my hand for value". Chan was actually about a 1.6-1 dog.

It's been awhile, so I may have some of the above wrong. There is a thread on this hand buried deep in the archives.

[Andy B]

I have tried to read Othmer several times and failed.

I've read 7CS4AP 20+ times, and some of it is starting to sink in. Chip's section in S/S is also very good. And I post here some.

[Micturition Man]

I hadn't heard of this book until this thread.

What I find interesting is that it sounds like this book is explicitly based on showdown sims.

This is actually the same approach that 7CSFAP takes, except for some reason S&M decided to hide their work in 7CSFAP by simply stating their conclusions and expecting you to take them on faith.

All of those lines like about how you should play to eliminate with hand X and you should reraise 3rd with draw Y if you have 2 or maybe one overcards, and so forth, are based on simple computer sims of showdown equity.

It's this underlying rigor that makes 7CSFAP a lot more reliable than HFAP, for example.