trumpman84
11-12-2004, 02:22 AM
I've never read or bought any poker books and have become a winning limit hold em player just by reading online articles, interviews and of course posting on here(up $1400 in my first month playing limit $1/$2 about 23,000 hands after playing mostly as a NL tournament player..looking to build a bankroll and move up)
Anyway, I'm at my friends house and I see he has a book called "A Winner's Guide to Texas Hold 'Em" (or something like that) laying around...It dealt with low limit games mostly. We were waiting to go play a live cash game, so I passed the time by reading parts of it. I was just blown away by some of the bad advice this book seemed to be giving away. Other than the basic chapters on starting hands and managing a bankroll, etc. , I didn't read one thing I thought was good advice.
There was one chapter on "Raising pre-flop" The book explains that raising pre-flop is pointless most of the time because most low limit players have no respect for raises and will call with any two cards. It then says that because low-limit players are so bad and will literally call with any two cards that some experts (I don't know which ones) convey never raising before the flop with any hand of any strength.
Then, in a later chapter, it says you should never bet after the flop if unless you have a very strong hand because most low-limit players will call you down with any part of the flop or call you with nothing. Well, I don't know how many times in these same low-limit games that I've bet on every street and shown Ace high as the best hand against 1-2 opponents, or how many times I'm sure I've gotten them to lay down 2nd or 3rd pair just by conveying strength on every street (I play on Poker Stars which I hear is somewhat tighter than Party Poker, but the play there is mixed loose-passive and tight-passive as opposed to Party's mostly loose-passive.)
This book seems to just preach a weak-tight strategy of not losing your money as opposed to tight-aggresive strategy of winning money.
Am I just way off base here by thinking this is terrible advice or are books like this the reason why winning low limit hold em is so easy for most players?
Also, I do eventually plan on buying some hold 'em books if I continue to win at a rate like this, maybe a couple of low-limit books and some tournament books, but I hope they are not all like this one.
Anyway, I'm at my friends house and I see he has a book called "A Winner's Guide to Texas Hold 'Em" (or something like that) laying around...It dealt with low limit games mostly. We were waiting to go play a live cash game, so I passed the time by reading parts of it. I was just blown away by some of the bad advice this book seemed to be giving away. Other than the basic chapters on starting hands and managing a bankroll, etc. , I didn't read one thing I thought was good advice.
There was one chapter on "Raising pre-flop" The book explains that raising pre-flop is pointless most of the time because most low limit players have no respect for raises and will call with any two cards. It then says that because low-limit players are so bad and will literally call with any two cards that some experts (I don't know which ones) convey never raising before the flop with any hand of any strength.
Then, in a later chapter, it says you should never bet after the flop if unless you have a very strong hand because most low-limit players will call you down with any part of the flop or call you with nothing. Well, I don't know how many times in these same low-limit games that I've bet on every street and shown Ace high as the best hand against 1-2 opponents, or how many times I'm sure I've gotten them to lay down 2nd or 3rd pair just by conveying strength on every street (I play on Poker Stars which I hear is somewhat tighter than Party Poker, but the play there is mixed loose-passive and tight-passive as opposed to Party's mostly loose-passive.)
This book seems to just preach a weak-tight strategy of not losing your money as opposed to tight-aggresive strategy of winning money.
Am I just way off base here by thinking this is terrible advice or are books like this the reason why winning low limit hold em is so easy for most players?
Also, I do eventually plan on buying some hold 'em books if I continue to win at a rate like this, maybe a couple of low-limit books and some tournament books, but I hope they are not all like this one.