Professional No-Limit Hold 'em Volume 1 Review Thread

[mvdgaag]

Racers: You can't... While your opponent will not be as impressed of bigger preflop bets, having a very large stack himself, you are making a massive overbet to the standards and therefore fighting a tighter range.

That is why top pair hands are so hard to play with deep stacks. The SPR will tell you that you might want to plan to win a small one here unless you hit something big.

[jeffnc]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, here's a thing I can't get around:

If you have 100 BBs, raise to 8 BBs get one caller, you get an SPR about 6. If you scale everything down, 50 BBs and raise to 4 BBs with still one caller you get almsot the same SPR. So from an SPR standpoint, they are similar points in the hand. But really they are not. I would need to tighten my callers range in the first case much more than in the second case. It's like a Catch-22 - I got the SPR I wanted, but in the first case, since range is better, I need a lower SPR to continue. How do you resolve this situation?

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Two answers IMO. First one is, you've already solved it. You don't have the same target SPR in those 2 cases. You've thought it through and decided you need a lower SPR in the first case than in the second. So plan the hands appropriately.

Second answer is that you might have your premise wrong. A deeper stacked player might not have a tighter range just because you raised a little more. In fact he might have a looser range, which is exactly how some deep stacked players play. In a similar vein, many players do not play well against good short stack players. In fact, it's in this situation where they have to tighten somewhat, in the sense that they have to (or should) stop playing small pairs and suited connectors. The implied odds just aren't there. Matt has already said that a lot of people made a lot of money playing with short stacks in bigger games and driving the deep stack players crazy. They didn't adapt quickly enough before losing money to those good short stack players because they didn't tighten their ranges wrt big cards. So it's really not clear what the range will be for different players in those 2 cases.

[Isura]

How many volumes to do you guys plan to release?

[Sunny Mehta]

we're under contract for Volume Two, I guess we'll reassess the situation after that.

[Lawrence Ng]

Ok, I think it's said been said enough times but I will say it again. This book is a great and even though there are some gaps here and there, most people will benefit more from the concepts than not. Like any good subject that is taught, it should raise more questions than it does answer them. This book definitely does that and as avid live game player with bounds of bad players that play horrible post post flop poker, I am really looking forward to volume two.

I have a couple of suggestions for Matt and Sunny.

1. Perhaps you can include a summary matrix that outlines what target SPRs should be for different hands in different positions?

For example, say I have AK with a 100 BB stack in MP. Assuming no limpers and no re=raisers, what should my preflop raise be for me to hit my target SPR.

I know there are lots of variables to account for (style of opponent, different stack sizes), but I think a general matrix could help lazy bums like me. LOL

2. I know this was already mentioned, but I would like to also see more Pokerstove Equity percentages in your examples of hands when narrowing opponents down to their range of hands.

I have a question. Let's say I'm in a pretty loose 10 handed live game and pick up 56 suited UTG. My stack size is about 200 BB. Say one of the loose players raises preflop provided and they have a deep stack as well (150+ BB). Assuming no other players re-raise preflop, would you advocate a limp-reraise here with this hand against this opponent? What if the opponent was a tighter player?

Lawrence

[Sounded Simple]

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we're under contract for Volume Two, I guess we'll reassess the situation after that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe Im stating the obvious but the demand seems to be there for as many volumes as you want!
Go Go Go Vol3 etc.!

[Sunny Mehta]

Hi Lawrence,

Thanks for the post. To answer your question...



[ QUOTE ]


I have a question. Let's say I'm in a pretty loose 10 handed live game and pick up 56 suited UTG. My stack size is about 200 BB. Say one of the loose players raises preflop provided and they have a deep stack as well (150+ BB). Assuming no other players re-raise preflop, would you advocate a limp-reraise here with this hand against this opponent? What if the opponent was a tighter player?

Lawrence

[/ QUOTE ]

You have to decide what the purpose of your reraise is. Are you doing it to get more money in the pot preflop for value? That's not such a good plan for a hand like 65s. Are you doing it for stealing purposes? That could be a good plan, depending on the tendencies of the players. If they're loose, do they tighten up to pf reraises? If so, you might be able to steal the preflop pot often enough to make it profitable. If they're loose with calling reraises, will they tighten up postflop? If so, you might be able to take the pot down on the flop with a c-bet often enough to make it profitable. Those are the kinds of questions you should ask yourself (remember REM and SPR baby!), and usually the best solution will become clear. It's all about planning your hand.

thanks,

Sunny

[jeffnc]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
we're under contract for Volume Two, I guess we'll reassess the situation after that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe Im stating the obvious but the demand seems to be there for as many volumes as you want!
Go Go Go Vol3 etc.!

[/ QUOTE ]

They could probably do 8 volumes. Here's hoping the project is profitable for them and they find themselves motivated to continue beyond 2.... (The ideal situation would be that every poker player in the world buys the books, about 10% of those actually read it, and about 10% of those who read it actually apply it correctly.)

[WarhammerIIC]

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Got my copy a week ago and its great. Its nice to see a poker book that presents some genuinely new ideas and ways of thinking about the game. Thanks to Matt, Sunny and Ed.

[/ QUOTE ]
Is any of this really "new", or is it a lot of concepts that decent players have known for a while that have just been given a label and presented in an organized way? Don't get me wrong, the book is very good and well-written, I just found myself feeling like the book was aimed much more at beginners than I thought. I mean, if you even halfway understand the advantages of short-stacking, SPR theory isn't exactly ground-breaking.

[Sunny Mehta]

WarhammerIIC,

I think the concept of "new" is somewhat in the eye of the beholder, don't ya think? Ideas are rarely ever created in a vacuum.

-S