No Limit Hold'em by David Sklansky - Brief Remarks

No limit hold’em is exploding in popularity. Before 2000, it could be difficult to find a game. In 2006, it is played everywhere, in casino cardrooms, in backrooms and homes, and on the Internet.

Now anyone can find a game, but few know how to play well. Most players learn by watching television or by listening to dubious advice from their friends. While they may have picked up a valuable tidbit here or there, most players have two options: wise up or go broke.

It is the definitive work on this complex game. It provides you a window into the heads of experts, teaching you in straightforward and enjoyable terms the how’s and why’s of winning play.

It covers critical concepts like manipulating the pot size, adjusting correctly to stack sizes, winning the battle of mistakes, reading hands, and manipulating opponents into playing badly. it teaches you about implied odds and how to size your bets and raise effectively. It even covers many principles of short stacked play that will give you a bid edge in no limit hold’em tournaments.

Never before have so many people played no limit hold’em, and never before has there been so much opportunity to win big.

Comments extracted from the book, they could be right or wrong, you decide for yourself:

• Some of the most important no limit skills are: manipulating the pot size, adjusting correctly to stack sizes, winning the battle of mistakes, reading hands and manipulating opponents into playing badly.
• Big pots and big bets are for big hands.
• Avoid offering your opponents too high implied odds. Make sure that you bet or raise enough with your good hands so they can’t profit by playing for a longshot.
• The more your opponents know about the exact nature of your hand, the more you have to bet inmediatly to avoid offering them too high implied odds.
• Whenever you bet or raise, always have an answer in your head to the question: “Am I planning to pay off a big bet on this hand, or will I fold if it comes to that?”.
• When betting good hands with deep stacks, bet enough to make your opponents’ draws unprofitable, but not so much that they won’t often call.
• If your opponent could hold one of several draws, bet a larger amount than you would if you knew which draw he had.
• Choose your bet size to maximize your overall expectation, even if that sometimes means that your opponent can draw correctly against you.
• The more likely your opponent is to have you beaten, the less likely you should be to bet at all.
• Bet enough to “get the job done”, but not much more. You have to analyze each case separately.
• Save enough on the turn for a credible bluff on the river.
• Bet as much as you can on the turn while still retaining a credible river bluff.
• When your opponent has shown strength, and you’ve made a surprising or unlikely nut hand, consider making an extra-large bet or raise.
• When raising with a speculative “big pot” hand like a small pocket pair, raise enough to brew a big pot, but no more.
• Don’t raise an amount that will leave you unsure of how to respond to a reraise.
• Don’t play your loose opponents for live ones until you see them make at least one major error for a larget bet.
• When in doubt, bet more.
• Don’t give action to tight and trapping players. Know who not to play big pots against.
• Most of your actions should include an inherent randomness against perceptive opponents.
• Sometimes you should bluff to stop a bluff.
• When you first sit down, evaluate your game and decide wether your profit should come more from big pots or small pots.
• Be wary of overcallers.
• If you’re thinking about raising, but you wouldn’t know how to respond to an all-in raise, usually you should either move in yourself or raise a smaller amount.
• Occasionally overbet with moderate hands to disguise your overbets with excellent hands.
• Don’t get trapped with a fourth street top pair in multiway checked pots.
• Don’t call in protected pots without a very good hand.
• Sometimes you can try for a deep check-raise with the nuts.
• Ace-King is a powerful “move-in” hand, and frequently moving in preflop is by far the best play with it.
• The button is the true bread and butter position in no limit. In many games you can play an extremely wide range of hands from the button, even for a raise.
• It’s ok to make small raises to build the pot or to set up future plays.
• Your implied odds with any draw will be better the less obvious the draw is.
• Be more apt to slowplay very good hands that aren’t quite the nuts than the nuts itself.
• Don’t just think about what you put your opponents on. Think about what they put you on also.
• If it’s clear your opponent has a hand at least worth a call, but he raises instead, it’s almost never a bluff.
• If someone makes a big bet on the flop into multiple players, typically he will have a good, but not great, hand.
• Limping first in on the button is frequently correct.
• Don’t be fooled by players who have giant amounts of cash in front of them.
• Don’t help your opponents play correctly.
• If someone bets into several players, amd you have a hand that is somewhat likely to be best, but unlikely to improve, you often have to fold.

Related links:

• Amazon.
• Torrent.
• The Theory of Poker.

Tough book with many many concepts some of which i have only started to understand. Recommended book.

raul

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