Texas Holdem Strategy

nukeduke · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 7:47 am Post subject: Professional NL Hold'em: Volume I

Anyone have a copy yet?

This book by Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta, and Ed Miller has been much anticipated. Let's have some discussion here.

I'll post a poll soon.

Link to the store

bpgui · 2K Club Joined: 17 Oct 2005 Posts: 2380 Location: Illinois

Tagging this!

I just got mine in the mail the other day... I haven't had time to read it yet, but I am very excited about it

ebo8b · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:08 pm Post subject:

I found this book absolutely amazing from the perspective of a limit player trying to improve my NL game. It's definitely a must read for beginning and intermediate players. Much of the book revolves around helping you plan your hands, and I think the concept of SPR (stack to pot ratio on the flop) is going to become ubiquitous in the coming months. But also keep in mind that it's part one of a multi part set - this first book does not cover postflop play in depth.

jeffnc · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:31 am Post subject:

I would say this is the best book ever written on cash NL Holdem, but that could be damning with faint praise. After all, there are only a handful of NL books out there. Among the list are:

Largay - NLTH: Complete Course
Sklansky/Miller - NLTAP
O'Connor - How To Dominate $1/2 NL

and now Flynn/Mehta/Miller - PNL

There are a couple lesser known books, and then there are some that are popular but are not strictly NL Cash. These include:

Brunson - Super System (mostly other forms of poker)
Gordon - Green and Blue books (mostly tournament but some applicable to cash)
Harrington - VOl 1 (all tournament, but somewhat applicable to cash)
Hilger - Odds and Probabilities (about half NL applicable to cash)

Sklansky/Miller tell you what you should be thinking about, but don't give you practical advice about what you should actually do (the basic theme of the book is essentially "maximize your EV", but you are left on your own to make the choices that do that). Largay gives you useful practical advice about what to do, but only with rather ad hoc examples and no real fuandamental theory to guide you, other than "who is more likely to go broke in this hand, you or your opponent?" O'Connor gives a lot of bang for the buck in terms of volume, an interesting writing style, and some practical hand examples, but his assumptions, goals and style of play will not appeal to all NL cash players.

PNL goes to the top of that small heap because it does it all - it tells you what you should be thinking about, it tells you what you should do, and it provides plenty of practical examples to put the ideas into play. It's very well explained and organized framework and theory for playing your hands. I think it's groundbreaking.

The overall theme of the book is "plan your hand". In other words, think about all the things you already know you should be thinking about (cards, position, opponent types, reads, table history, stack sizes, pot size, etc) and then make decisions that will allow you to blend preflop play and postflop play into a cohesive strategy for the hand. Why is this so important? One reason is that amateur players tend to think in separate steps, and get themselves into binds they could have avoided if they knew how to plan better. "I have AK, so I'll raise 3-4BB, because that's what you're supposed to do. <flop comes> OK, reset. Now where am I?" If you plan your hand better, you'll already know the places you might be, the size of the pot and your effective stack when you get there, and have a plan B if things don't go your way.

The first part of the book contains some basics, but does nicely communicate the sorts of things experts think about. Nothing mind blowing in this section - putting your opponent on a range of hands, understanding your equity, and maximizing your EV (which the authors call REM). But it does give you confidence to know that most good players aren't doing something mystical you can't do - they are actually doing this stuff all the time.

The meat of the book is the new strategic concepts introduced. A lot of NL profit comes from winning the really big pots. Good players are always looking for opportunities to get their entire stack in with an edge. This books shows you how to probe for those opportunities based on some new ideas - commitment thresholds and stack-to-pot ratios (SPRs). To my knowledge this stuff has never appeared in print. And it's good stuff. Think of something about as important as Harrington's M, but related to cash games instead of tournaments.

One example where this approach can really help some players is maximizing profit and avoiding huge losses with good top pair hands, which can be one of the more frustrating hands for decent NL players to play, especially when the pot gets big.

But of course the book shows how to use SPRs for all types of hands. And how to achieve good SPRs for yourself and give your opponents bad ones. Bluffing based on position and uncomfortable SPRs for your opponents is included.

I was impressed with how well SPR strategy holds up in a wide variety of scenarios. I think that's a good test of a theory - does it match with what we already know to be true? In fact, the authors have not really invented good poker play. What they've done is organize the ideas, describe them, give them names, and provide numbers you can use in practice to guide you. This is no small feat. (Hey, Einstein didn't invent the universe or physical laws, he just explained them.)

But some of this will not match conventional wisdom. There were some plays that I used to think were just donkey plays, but I'm opening my eyes to new possibilities. Min-REraising with AQ? The logic seemed pretty sound in the situation they describe, though.

A litmus test I use for poker strategy books is: after reading this book, can I sit down at the table and know how to play? ITH succeeds. SSHE succeeds. HOH succeeds. (NLHTAP and HPFAP both fail by the way.) And PNL succeeds. A big part of the reason these books succeed is the numerous hand examples that demonstrate the strategy theory. The examples in PNL are an integral part of the book, and help get the points across very well.

The book isn't perfect. While the book is generally a very good example of lucid writing and a well organized outline, it hiccups when it comes to Commitment Thresholds. This is unfortunate because it's one of the most important concepts in the book. It's not that the ideas are wrong, it's that they're presented in a confused fashion. There are actually 2 sections in the book both with the exact same title - "The Commitment Threshold" - yet each section is talking about a different thing. The section titled "The Commitment Threshold" is about when you get 1/3 of your effective starting stack in the pot. The section titled "The Commitment Threshold" is about when you put 10% of your stack in. The second Commitment Threshold is a pre-threshold to the first Commitment Threshold. Confused? Yeah, that could have been done better. You will figure out what they mean, but it takes a little more effort than it should. Basically what it means is that you shouldn't get a third of your stack in the pot (with some obvious exceptions) if you're not willing to go all the way. Think of a home run wall. There's a warning track that you should pay attention to before you get there. You hit the warning track when you've got 10% of your stack in. At that point you know one more big step (a pot sized bet) and you'll hit the wall.

SPR theory also isn't perfect. (Einstein didn't create a unified theory of physics either, so the authors can be excused.) It becomes pretty weak in multiway pots. There are different ways to reach your target SPRs, depending on preflop raises and the number of players who see the flop. You might reach an SPR you wanted, and hit the flop you wanted, but with too many opponents in the hand to commit, because you simply don't like the probability that one of so many opponents has you beat. Your planning and commitment decision can be nullified. (They provide many other exceptions to SPR commitment decisions, and explain them well, but I don't consider those a breakdown of SPR.) Overall my impression is that SPR strategy is strongest with 1 or 2 opponents, and weaker as the number of opponents increase, in many cases. (In some cases it doesn't breakdown, but those are usually cases where your hand is very strong, and you have wiggle room in your target SPRs anyway. For example, playing a small pair for a set.)

Another example that either is a breakdown of SPR, or simply wasn't explained, is situations where you might be commited on the flop but not on the turn, merely because of the changed probabilities with 2 cards remaining vs. 1 card remaining. For example, holding Kh Qh on a flop of Jh Th X, you will probably be willing to commit, but only if you can get all your chips in on the flop. If you miss that opportunity, and a dud comes on the turn, now things have changed significantly. I'm not sure what SPR and Commitment Thresholds have to say about situations like this.

There has been some other criticism of some ideas in the book, but I don't believe they are well founded. For example, some players have complained that they can't reach their target SPRs because their larger preflop raises aren't getting called, especially online. Newsflash! Other players are allowed to be good too! Good players are not going to roll over and let you exploit them if they can help it, just because you read a book. That is not a failure of the book. There are no books that guarantee you can beat Kasparov at chess in 10 easy steps, and there are no magic bullet poker books. But this book does teach you what you should be attempting to do. It also provides some alternatives, such as playing with a stack size that matches the raises you *are* able to get away with.

Another interesting comment I heard was that it seems like there are some things missing, almost like it's half a book. Another newsflash! It's Volume 1 - it IS half a book! So we can probably give the authors the benefit of the doubt on those things and assume they will be covered nicely in Volume II. If not, well then we can wait until then to trash the second book Smile

Anyway, enough with the nitpicking. This book is highly recommended. It's a must read for any NL cash game player. Will it turn you into a professional player? Not necessarily. But you better know this stuff. In math, we would call reading this book a necessary but not sufficient condition. This might not be all you need to know to become a professional, but if you're not doing most of the stuff in this book, you probably can't play at the professional level.

Disclaimers:
- I'm acquainted with one of the authors, and my name appears in the Acknowledgements. However I have no financial interest in the success of this book.
- I have not played very much yet using the strategies in this book, so I'm not speaking from profitable poker experience when I say the book is good. I have reviewed some hand histories, and hands where I've tended to do well tended to follow the advice in this book, and vice versa.

jaydreb · Joined: 29 Apr 2004 Posts: 546

I note that the title is Professional No Limit Holdem. How is its application to my standard online $.50NL game? I'm not a professional by any means and I found Miller's previous book, NL Theory, to be way over my head.

jeffnc · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:30 am Post subject:

LuckyLiam · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:57 pm Post subject:

Superb review Jeff - many thanks for this.

The fact that you have some connection with the book in no way leads me to question your objectivity as I have respected your opinions and views for many years due to the quality of your postings here.

I am going to order this book now.

I'd also highly recommend NLHTAP - great book. I can't name a poor book that Miller has been involved with. He's class and not a pontificating, smart @rse like Malmuth and Sklansky (to a lesser extent) appear to be. Not to say these guys haven't produced some quality stuff - they have.

I just can't bring myself to play limit anymore - and I played limit for many, many years. It is like being told you can make love to Helena Christensen but always have to use the same position. Fun - yes, certainly - but NL gives you the same opportunity and tells you you can run wild... :O)

Matt Flynn · Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 14

hello everyone,

thanks for the comments. jeff thanks for the in-depth review. commitment threshold is when pot is 1/4 of remaining money. it's proxy is when 10% of the smaller stack goes in. that's your warning that you're about to play a big pot.

PNL1 is directed at beginners, intermediate players, and those transitioning from limit to nl. it's mainly how-to-think with dozens of examples, then more examples. it ends with SPR, which shows how to plan hands around commitment and think about implied odds over the course of a hand. not a cure-all but can help you avoid some big mistakes and unnecessary pain. we'll have more to say about planning hands in volume 2, including playing for smallball.

i'll be participating in review threads on 2+2 and here next week. thanks for having me here!

Silvershade · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 365

I was looking forward to reading this anyway, Jeff's review has heightened that anticipation, yet I rarely play cash so I'm really hoping this stuff translates well to the deeper stages of tournament play too. Who knows though, maybe i'll try cash again after reading this.

Frankk_003 · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 60 Location: Los Angeles, CA

Frankk_003 · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 60 Location: Los Angeles, CA

Ok, just to clarify, because that previous post rambled a bit. Specifically, what threw me off was the concept that,

the lower the SPR, the better and more likely it is that you commit to the hand postflop. So you should therefore get the lower SPR.

for instance, let's say I have JJ. Ok, so an SPR of 13 is really bad, right? An SPR of 30 is fine, but totally non-commital. So, if I raise, I want to get SPR of let's say 5. But then, therefore, SPR of 2, or 1 must be even better, right?

So, it's almost like, if I have a very good, but not great, hand like JJ, then postflop if I have SPR of 13 I have "tough decisions", but if I already just made those decisions blindly pre-flop, then now I have an SPR of 4 so now I have an easy decision and am just post committed.

I mean, I recognize the value of thinking in these terms... but it just seems somewhat paradoxical to me, that if the situation postflop is bad, that it would somehow be good if I had just bet way more pre-flop and then just start pushing all in postflop, because I have low SPR and can easily commit.

I mean, like I said, it works. I'm just trying to understand it more deeply... and actually just writing this email is clarifying it a lot for me. And I do get it about the increased folding equity and not being vulnerable to bluffs etc against really good players. I want to read more of this book.

also, somebody mentioned the NL theory and practice book... I went back to that book, specifically to the chapter on preflop bet sizing, to research the SPR stuff, and, yep, there it is, the SPR concepts are consistent with the optimal preflop strategy described there. These two books actually go together super well... looking at the NLTAP book really clarified for me, and vice versa. btw, I am somewhat of newbie, started playing less than one year ago

jfletcher · Will work for food Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 3164

I know there was a thread just for discussion of this book, and not the review, but I can't find it. Anyway...

Everythign was going well and I was udnerstanding it all very well until I got the part on the SPRs. (I am not all the way through it.) It seems to me that it's saying pretty much the opposite of what I had held to be true.

Don't go broke with one pair.

That's somethign I try to live by in NL, but what the whole SPR thing seems to be endorsing is the idea that you should build such a huge pot preflop that you are too committed to lay down one pair. Sure, you make the decisions easier, but that doesn't mean you are going to win. You are still going to get stacked.

Is the logic that the big-pair-cracking hands aren't even going to come along with you if you raise more preflop, because they wont' have the odds? By that logic, you might as well just push preflop everytime with AA, KK or AK. Then you take all the decisions out of it. Unfortunately you end up winning tiny pots most of the time.

Is that the message I should be happy trying to win lots of little pots with my big pair hands, and just hope to win big pots with suited connectors and small pps?

Holgininho · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 468 Location: Essen

You can find the discussion thread here:

http://www.internettexasholdem.com/phpbb2/3-vt53896.html?start=30

I don't like the whole SPR concept either. In practice it seems to come down to "if you want to commit with top pair, play a shorter stack" most of the time. But I'm going to have to ask more questions, too. Wink

Willem · Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 6:06 am Post subject:

I'm almost done with the book now and it's easily one of the best books I've ever read. One drawback with the SPR strategy is that 20 buy-ins is probably not enough for a bankroll. Also, even if you can't make your SPR targets, it's still a very good thing if you realize that you may be in a very tricky situation.

Frankk_003 · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 60 Location: Los Angeles, CA

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