GSIH vs SSH

[Sinnister]

I recently made a post in the small stakes forum about the differences between SSH and GSIH starting hand requirements. In general SSH is a bit looser, probably due to the greater post flop advice. However, GSIH is tighter but way more aggressive preflop. It teaches that if a hand is worth playing, RERAISE. This includes hands like AJs and AQ suited even kq suited. I prefer to call with AQ suited and call with aj suited only against many opptsreraise if everyone is in maybe, but definately not everytime since its worth playing. Anyways, no one answered this post I made and since I had loaned my SSH book to a friend I was going off memory and just gave up. With SSH back in my hands I am very curious as to what the reasoning is behind this difference of preflop play and if it is sound advice in GSIH. After all this is coming from Ed Miller, who I am no one to argue with. I just seriously wonder why the big diff in strategy. Could it be GSIH deals with higher stakes play?

[Fantam]

Its difficult for me to answer this question, because I havent read GSIH yet.

My guess is that if you are likely to get the hand HU, that it may be a good idea to reraise with AQs,AJs or KQs, especially if this is against a middle or late position raiser. As the range of the initial raiser's hands could be quite large.

However, if the raise has come from EP and there are a lot of callers, then I would imagine that it might be best to just call with these hands. Thats because they play well in multiway pots if you have a chance to make your straight or flush draws, but they are more likely to be dominated by the PF raiser if you make top pair.

[HollywoodDB]

What is GSIH? Who wrote it?

[minttea]

Getting Started in Hold'em, Ed Miller.

A lot of books people talk about here are on this page:
http://www.twoplustwo.com/books.html

[Ed Miller]

I wish I had a copy on me so I could quote it, but I address this concern in the text of GSIH. I argue that beginners should raise more often before the flop than experts.

When you raise preflop with a good hand, you are letting the power of the hand earn money for you. When you limp preflop with a good hand, you are relying on your postflop skills to earn money for you. (Obviously, this is greatly simplified.) Beginners should tend to rely on the strength of their hands more than the strength of their postflop play.

Furthermore, I wanted to make it clear to beginners that cold-calling raises is generally bad. I don't think I recommend making any cold-calls at all in GSIH. In SSH I say that cold-calling is bad, but then make exceptions to the rule. Beginners get rules, not exceptions.

So basically, the answer to any question along the lines of, "Why does GSIH recommend something different from SSH?" will be:

GSIH is written with beginners in mind. SSH is written with experienced players in mind.