What would you like to see covered in the upcoming SSNL book?

[Wada]

After your book teaches us how to crush the SSNL games, please add in some documentation on how to transition to bigger NL games. Rather than to take a short stack to the table, play a while until you get comfortable and acquire a big stack. Please add in hands that are the either the same or similiar but explain the difference between Small Stakes and High Stakes. Kinda like what Ed Miller does in GSIH with the difference between short stack and deep stack. Hope that makes sense.

[Isura]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Online 6-MAX
2. A companion book with just problems/examples

[/ QUOTE ]

HOw about adding the problems at the end of the book (or throughout like internet texas holdem)?

[Renton]

I'd like to see specific hands and courses of action, something like the workbook problems in HOH. This was something that NLHE: T & P didn't really address (and explained that it wouldn't address). What makes HOH such a good book IMO is these specific applications of the concepts.

[mack848]

Loads of hand quizes, but with the suggested answers in the back, rather than directly under the questions. I hate accidently seeing FOLD, as I read the question!

[xwillience]

everything in TAP but replace the 10/20 with 2000 stacks with .10/.25 with $25 stacks and remove every use of the phrase "thinking opponent." Im about 2/3 of the way through TAP, its not as easy a read as TOP or SSHE, and this stuff is gold. I am sure whatever you guys decide to put in print will be great though.

[kazana]

[ QUOTE ]
Once you get past the very basics, you find that there are a bunch of common situations that are just hard to handle, and all you can say in general is "it depends."

Example: You have AK, raise PF, get one call. You bet 3/4 pot on a K-high flop in position, and get check-raised. What's your plan?

Obviously this is too general a question as it's very situation dependent, and if you really understood it you'd be very good at poker.

So I think it would be useful to have say 10 example hands which all begin with the situation described above. Some of them could have dry flops, other drawy ones, and be against various different types of opponents. Then good lines could be suggested for each possible case. I think a study of this sort of thing could be really useful -- it would show readers what types of things these decisions depend on, in a practical context.

[/ QUOTE ]
I 2nd that.

And what is it with all the requests for 6-max? I thought this book was aimed at beginners (like me). Telling them to play more marginal EV situations might not be the best advice?
On the other hand, even I have noticed the increased popularity of shorthanded games. I just personally feel that 6-max is a more advanced topic.

[NaobisDad]

[ QUOTE ]
I just personally feel that 6-max is a more advanced topic.

[/ QUOTE ]

And most likely you are right. In shorthanded games you get confronted more frequently with more marginal decisions than in FR. A lot of people therefore consider 6-max to have more to do with 'playing-poker' than FR. Even more extreme, others believe that shorthanded NLHE is the most difficult form of poker to master, with heads up NLHE probably being the hardest (is my guess).

Therefore there is so much to talk about that many (including myself) believe that shorthanded play deserves a much more elaborate treatise than the chapters that are usually devoted to it.

You might also say, that in both FR and SH many of the same principles apply, but that due to the specific circumstance changes these principles are more difficult to apply to SH games, or that these principles are more relevant in SH games. On the basis of that notion you could argue that instead of a elaborate treatise of SH play you could be more elaborate on pokerprinciples in general, and then discuss how these principles are subject to changes like broader handranges, more agression etc., I dunno.

Be as it may, I think that FR players would also benefit from a discussion on SH play and also, that these players would benefit in general from playing SH more often. (for that matter, I think that vice versa is also true).

[Merlin27]

I would be interested in a part dealing with reading hands. To improve this skill is very important in NL, maybe you can do it with a series of tests. I come from chess and the chess-books containing lots of positions to be solved by the readers are very appreciated by chessplayers.
Good Luck and quick writing!
:-)
Merlin

[Melchiades]

When to c-bet? What kind of flop, etc.

When to fire the second barrel?

[jdog1999]

[ QUOTE ]
1) Poker Tracker and Poker Ace Heads up display. You can make a deal with the makers of those two and bundle them on a CD with the book (or a least a link to the free download of the trial versions). Make a chapter on set up, auto-rating rules, and winning styles of play. TAG with the green bag of money is OK. LAG can be ok, but there are down sides - a lot of them. Rocks can make money. Etc. In fact, given a 100K sample size of hands played by winning players with various styles, you could spend a chapter looking at each player's statistics, hand histories, and show "hand reading" examples at how different styles of winning players approach different scenarios - and quantifiably show how at the end of 100K hands that style was +BB/100 hands. There is a real opportunity to focus on on-line play with tools impossible for live-players to use. On the other hand, the concepts learned from such an excercise, including the hand reading examples, would be applicable "live" once you are able to get a read on your opponents as rocks, or LAGs or whatever.

BTW, you could also bundle a 2+2 style hand converter for hand histories with instructions on how to use it and how to make good posts to these forums.

2) Stack sizes and position.

Effective stack size changes everything because of implied odds, or the lack of implied odds. This is the cash game equivalent of HoH's "M" for tournaments. I'd like to see a good approach to changing basic strategies regarding position (especially), raise frequency, looseness/tightness, etc. that correllates to stack depth - especially if some of the players are relatively short-stacked, and others are deep-stacked. For example, folding decent hands preflop due to a lack of implied odd, etc.

3) Others mentioned it, but hand reading examples. For example, floating an obvious continuation bet with 2nd pair or an under pair vs a semi-loose preflop player who ALWAYS continuation bets, but tends to check/fold the turn when he's missed. Or, how to play for a scare card in position. Or, making a big call because villain's play prior to a river push just doesn't add up.


4) It would be great if you could come up with a cash game equivalent to "M" and "Q." They should be simple concepts - like relative stack ratio ("S"), BB:Buy-in ("B"), table $VPIP avg ("V"), etc. - that players can calculate to quickly guage a situation in which to start puting a story together with villain's style of play in order to put him on a range of hands. You could set up hand reading examples like HoH, but with the S, B, V #s, and a "style" for villains including your own "style" in the eyes of players in the hand with you. HoH's hand reading examples are excellent. We need a cash game equivalent.

5) 6-max. What's different, what's the same, and why. In fact, a short-handed cash game book might be interesting. "Short-handed No-Limit Hold'em for Experts" for games of 6 players or less, especially heads up. It could cover tournaments as well as cash games.

6) Pot control with top pair and overpairs on the flop.

7) Setting up a computer system for multi-tabling. I can do 3 or 4 on my one small screen, but others here have set up 8 or more on mulitple screens. A section on the pros, cons, and detailed set up of effective poker workstations - multi-screen for multiple tables, how many tables is too many tables, ergonomics, etc.

8) Maximizing value. How to play a big hand with and without draws on the board. Check-raising vs leading out with a set in and out of position either as the preflop raiser or as a preflop caller. Playing OESFDs and Top pair + nut flush draw, etc. vs preflop raiser. When to value bet at the end, vs when to check/call to induce a final bluff. Etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I second this. Perhaps you could add a section dealing specifically with online play and the tools to use. Let’s face it at the low limits we are mostly talking about online play.