Articles and Books and how to use them

Hi all

After an experience of writing about an element of my play which I titled "Pot building versus Pot Commitment" whereby a reader seemed to get quite emotianal over his results, I may be wrong here.

I would like to write something about Poker books, articles etc and how they should be consumed and utilised.

I have read tonnes of poker books and continue to buy more the reasons are many

1. They may add something to my game.
2. they may explain to me why others are playing the way they are.
3. I am just interested in poker.

I have also read many articles and post on forums and am continually learning, in fact I started this forum as a learning tool so I could post my poker thoughts and think them through and get other peoples opinions on them as well as help others who are learning as well.

Now to get to the point any article or book you read should be seen as part of the whole, Poker is a complicated game and has many nuances, some tactics work with different styles at different levels and in different conditions- however they will get torn apart in a different environment.

To explain further do not use a tactic unless you fully understand why and when you are using it, if you like the sound of a play and don't quite understand when to use it ask.

If you like try it out with money you can afford to lose, you are adding something new to your game, it may not work for you.

For example to name a player which we all have heard off Gus Hansen plays loose because his post flop play is good, if you loosen up and start to lose to much you can either tighten back up or improve your post flop play, But learn, evolve, improve understand why you are playing bad not what results you are getting in the short run- this is difficult and is why you should post hand histories etc and ask others.

If you have patience a willingness to learn and a bankroll poker is an excellent hobby/income source but please keep in mind that all articles and poker methods are ways of helping you improve not guaranteed ways of winning.

Peter

Pot Building v Pot Commitment

This is the first of my articles, as you will soon see I am not a writer by nature so I may go off track a lot. A project manager once said of me that reading a report was like reading a brain dump, so buckle up as I try to get this very simple concept on paper and make it sound very complicated.

Anyway to get to the point when you play poker the aim of the game is to win money not pots ( so how do we do this? ), we win the big pots.
That is to say it is not the number of pots we win that counts it is the size of the pots that we win. Leave competing for every little pot to the fish, they will fight over them and not notice the sharks waiting to spring on the shoal.

Well that was obvious so how does it relate to the title of the article well when we see a flop which we will do between 25 and 40 percent of the time we will look at the flop and make a decision.

That decision will let us know one the following 3 things
1. I am likely best at the moment so I should protect.
2. I am no way gonna win this so I will get out.
3. I have a good chance of being best on the river so I will pot build.

Now a lot of people will disagree with me about this but I believe that option 3 is where the money comes from (for me anyway). Maybe in tougher games than micro limit the money comes from option 1 above but in the soft world of microlimits the money comes from option 3.

What am I getting at you ask?
Well it is simple when we have a strong draw such as an (OESD) Open ended straight draw, (FD) Flush draw or both we should bet as if we had the nuts,

WHY you ask what if we miss?
We will miss 2 out of 3 times but that should not deter us this is a soft micro limit game and we are getting the odds to do this. we are getting many callers plus the implied odds of the river bets. (please read up on implied odds or ask me about them if you don't already know).
We only need to win by the river 1 out of every 3 times for this to be a very profitable bet.

To add to the above we should take into account many draws such as a gut shot draw and back door straight or back door flush draw will be a profitable bet if there is enough already in the pot and enough callers, I will let you do the maths.

The above approach is a profitable bet as we will win enough times to make it so however we also have the added benefits of being the aggressor.

Which gives us the following.
1. Experience for when we move up a limit (we will not play weak tight).
2. The possibility of bluffing the river when we miss (only against a weak tight caller with a high win percentage at showdown)
3. Amongst any players who are paying attention we are seen as a bluffer by either folding out after being aggressive or showing down with what was a draw.

I imagine that the above info was fairly obvious to any experienced player and was an eye opener to other less experienced but at micro limit this is where the money is. The game of top pair top kicker is for tougher and NL games, you will at my level lose a lot if you rely on them as you will get outdrawn by atm's all the time.

Now you have this weapon we will get to the other side of the equation, like all weapons it is a double edged sword, it has a downside and that is pot commitment. You and all the other players are now pot committed (especially if it is 4 bet (capped) which it often is at this level). That is that they are playing correctly on the turn and river or near to correctly to call with any draw as they are also getting the odds, and poker is about making people make the wrong decisions.

What does this mean you ask? or you think what terrible writing style lol. well it means that if you miss your draw you may still be correct to call or bet the river with only a mediocre hand (WHAT YOU ASK). This negates the benefits of implied odds surely, well yes it does but you must remember that the pot is large and you will only have to win occasionally to make this final bet or call a winning one. Please note though use this final method with caution as if abused it will knock your results way off. most times fold. BET if you sense weakness and call if you have a pair else fold.

Well to sum up this article although very badly written attempted to let you know about the concept of pot building and pot commitment- It gave no examples ( as I am lazy lol ). It let you know that betting without the best hand is a very profitable way to play at micro limits if you have a decent draw and also warned you about the dangers of pot commitment which is result of a missed draw when you have aggressively pursued your draw, as a final note I will dispel a myth which is you have to mix it up - NO YOU DON'T - not at this level. they aren't watching and if they are then you move tables. This is a profitable bet every time and should not be missed +EV is +EV and there is very little +EV in mixing it up at the micro levels.

I hope this has been useful and would love to discuss the concept with anyone who wishes to post there opinion.

Peter

Poker Book Store

Hi all I have added a link to Amazon Bookstore below.

Really cool maintains similar design to my own site.

My Amazon BookStore

I have at the moment just filtered on Poker books but I will be adding books that I rate highly and reviewing them soon.

Let me know what you think of the design etc.

It is linked to amazon.co.uk so I would only reccomend using it if you are in britain, however feel free to read my reviews then buy locally.

Quitting Smoking and Allen Car

This post has nothing to do with Poker

After being congratulated in my new year post by Elaine Vigneault I would like to state that my reasons for quitting smoking were many but the one thing that inspired me to finally do it, was Allen Car dieing.

I have read his book a few times and although I never quit it always made me want to, I guess I always fooled myself that there was plenty of time I am still a young man.

However this man who had been free and healing for over 20 years was struck down with Lung cancer after helping so many others to quit.

I will not pretend that he did it for any other reason but good business sense as I do not know but I do know that millions of people have quit because of him.

In his book it constantly repeats will the next cigarette be the one to kill me, to spark of cancer or some other disease, well it scared me that a man who had been quit for that long had already had that cigarette and I just hope I have not had mine yet.

Anyway any smokers out there who wish to quit or ex smokers who have any advice for me please feel free to leave a comment here-even if you don't play poker.

Peter - Free and Healing for Thirteen Days, 22 Hours and 4 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 1 Day and 22 Hours, by avoiding the use of 557 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me £133.71.I will not smoke again today.