Cooke's column

Roy Cooke's new column describes a situation where a good stud player with little HE experience is playing badly. RC makes the necessary adjustments against the stud player and saves a few bets in the process.


My question is: when do you know that you're adjustments are not effective anymore. I think it's safe to assume that the stud player is over his head, since he doesn't know a thing about HE, but the fact remains that he is a good player (as defined by the opening paragraph). wouldn't it be also safe to assume that he could improve his play throughout the course of the session, or after a few sessions? Essentially, the once bad player can improve to a point where your adjustments are actually costing you money.


As a side note, I think the same thing can be applied to any bad player. If you see a fish, don't assume that he/she will always be a fish. Especially if he's a new player, the fish may, a few weeks/months down the road turn into a competant or winning player. If you just use your initial read, you could be in trouble.

2D,


Here's my 2 cents on a very thought-provoking post (well done BTW).


1) I'm of the impression that the "making adjustments" you are talking about are actions to be done in the future against a certain opponent. If this assumption is correct, then I have to respectfully disagree with the concept of your middle paragraph. HE, like golf, is a game that has to be played in the present to be successful. In golf, players need to focus on the shot at hand. It does them no good to have them think "hey, if I hit two good shots, I'll be putting for birdie." So many things can happen that can influence their play.


That, too, rings true in HE. You need to concentrate on the hand that you're playing at that moment. It does you no good to think about what you're going to do against a specific weak opponent, for example when it's his blind, because of the nature of uncertainty of your own cards. I just don't think you can generalize making adjustments against a single opponent on the basis of what cards you see him/her playing. You have 7-8 other people at the table who are your opponents as well. By adjusting your play against a single opponent, you are actually indirectly adjusting against all opponents.


I don't know if anyone will agree with me on this point, but I think subconsciously, when we see a weak player or a player not experienced in HE, we tend to play more hands than usual because we "feel" we can outplay them. Or maybe closer to the truth, we "should" outplay them. Adjustments like these can be self-destructive.


The decisions that I think are most important to concentrate on are your choice of starting hands based on the texture of the game and how well you play your starting hand post-flop on the hand you are playing. Just like golf, HE is a game where you must play one hand at a time.


2) I do agree whole-heartedly with the concept of a "fish" improving over time. With books, technology, simulations, and practice at their disposal, the "fishes" have plenty of opportunities to eventually improve to strong players. However, just because a "fish" is playing "well" at present by definition doesn't mean that he will play well 10 minutes from now. Again there are too many outside variables that can change his/her play. Why open yourself up to these same variables? Keep your game plan as simple as possible and remember that solid play gets the money. You can't play their cards, you can only play yours.


2D, I congratulate you again on a thought-provoking thread. Look forward to what others think about this subject.


Best wishes,

Mike