ALHS by BarryT

[AlamedaMike]

Great book in my opinion. Of course, I am not an advanced player and I play low limit. However, the opening chapter of his book is quite profound I think:

[ImBetterDude]

I think playing the cards is so much more important than player reading in LH. It's all about your holding and the pot odds presented.

[nsidestrate]

[AlamedaMike]

[AlamedaMike]

Here is a little story for anyone that might be interested. I was playing in a live low limit 3/6 game. I was in seat 10 not that it mattered but I had a good view of the players. I was paying for my drink and I missed a lot of the action which is too bad. When the river card was dealt there were three players left in the hand. Players A, B and C.

C was LP (seat 2), A (seat 4) was in one of the blinds, and B was EP3/MP1 there abouts (seat 7).

The river card was a scare card. It might have paired the top flop card something like 2-5-J-4-J. A checked (he had about 7-8 chips left), B checked, C bet, A went allin, B raised and C mucked his hand.

We got to see his hand - he had 2-4 spades for two pair JJ445, A did not show, and B won the hand with A-Q high - JJAQ5 - C mucked the winner.

Player B won the hand that he was not entitled to. This is a subject covered in ALHS.

Now, in order to make this play at the river Player B needed to determine that C would bet if checked to, would call a bet and would fold for a check raise and that player A could not beat Ace high.

Players A & C were predictable in this sense. Player B might not have forced them to be predictable but he had to recognize the situation.

If player B did this often he would be predictable and would most likely lose a bunch of chips in the process. He is an experienced player that has some advanced plays to be used when the situation dictates (rarely). This might come up once a session or once a year. But, here player B won a pot that he was simply not entitled to.

This was my intended theme of my post. ALHS is well worth a study, in my opinion, and the reader's job is to find the strategies and techniques that apply to the game and setting in which they find themselves.

BTW, whether C should have checked on the river is a different story altogether. There was some 6th street chatter and player B said that he knew that player A did not have anything as he stacked his chips.

I hope that this makes sense and that you can follow my train of thought.

[rsar51]

[rsar51]

[jeffnc]

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[jeffnc]

[AlamedaMike]

Current issue of cardplayer - Roy Cooke said in part

[AlamedaMike]

Here is an example:

On hand one I limped with KQ EP 1st in. Sometime I raise and sometimes I fold and sometimes I call. The flop was an A-4 something. There were 3 players , me and the blinds. The blinds checked and I bet. They called. The turn was a 7 - they checked and I checked. The river was a 4 they checked, I bet and the SB check/raised me and I folded.

I put a note on the SB that he either slowplays or bluffs.

A few hands later I am on the button with and the aforementioned player is MP2 on this hand.

Full Tilt 1/2 Hold'em (9 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: ITH Forums)

Preflop: Mike is Button with , .
2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO calls, Mike calls, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (6 SB) , , (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, CO checks, Mike bets, SB folds, BB folds, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, CO folds.

Checked to me and I bet.

Turn: (4 BB) (2 players)
MP2 checks, Mike bets, MP2 raises, Mike calls.

Okay, here I can check my notes on him. Does he slowplay or bluff. I bet and as expected he raised me.

River: (8 BB) (2 players)
MP2 checks, Mike bets, MP2 calls.

River I got lucky.

Final Pot: 10 BB

Results:
MP2 doesn't show. He had As-Qs
Mike has 9h Jh (full house, jacks full of twos).
Outcome: Mike wins 10 BB.

He slowplays. Well, the first hand was not played well but that is what I did. I learned something about MP2 that might save me some money down the line. It also stretches my mind a little on developing reads.

I like to read anything that Barry T writes. His last article in card player was a critique of a hand that was posted in 'ask an expert'. It was a 30/60 hand here.

He reviewed the hand and he recommended not to post hands until you know something about the player because you need to know something about the player in order to determine how to play the hand.

I'm starting to catch a drift here from Roy and Barry? Oh, yeah, Dr. Al beats that drum as well.

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I'm a computer geek in a manner of speaking - a specialist in the large IBM mainframe systems that is. I am not a people person. I do better interacting with a computer porgam than a person (except my wife).

My weakest area is reads. I have good logic skills since I use to program for a living, but a little rusty since my bypass a few years ago.

This I need to improve.

[AlamedaMike]

[nsidestrate]