02-28-2002, 05:44 PM
well i just finished this rather amazing book. id like to find others who have read it who would like to talk about some of it's finer points and themes. i liked the book a lot in general, i picked it up again after reading the introduction and being bored by it. i bought it in the first place because tommy said it's his favorite and i thought it might shed some insight into how he plays.
a couple qualms: phillips tends to come a little close to that border of superstition and hoodoo a little too often. subchapters like "when to recognize youre running bad" and "karma" worried me a little.
also interesting but something i couldnt quite agree with was his thoughts on "harmony" and getting respect by playing in "harmony" and not getting "out of line". i think one of the strongest points of my game is my willingness to get out of line and frustrate my better opponents attempts to get a handle on my play. i like to build expectations and then let people down when i play. this requires a sort of osscilation between semi-loose and semi-tight play and passivity and aggression. i think a better example of a player getting out of line would be when tommy posts about open limping on the button and then folding to the bb's raise, or limping utg and folding to a raise in a multiway pot. maybe he and others would disagree, but my guess is that these plays seem very inharmonious to his opponents, although my read is that theyre for him an auto-switch that goes off and immediately attempts to restore harmony.
anyone have anything useful to say about this or other topics in the book? again, i highly recommend this book.
a couple qualms: phillips tends to come a little close to that border of superstition and hoodoo a little too often. subchapters like "when to recognize youre running bad" and "karma" worried me a little.
also interesting but something i couldnt quite agree with was his thoughts on "harmony" and getting respect by playing in "harmony" and not getting "out of line". i think one of the strongest points of my game is my willingness to get out of line and frustrate my better opponents attempts to get a handle on my play. i like to build expectations and then let people down when i play. this requires a sort of osscilation between semi-loose and semi-tight play and passivity and aggression. i think a better example of a player getting out of line would be when tommy posts about open limping on the button and then folding to the bb's raise, or limping utg and folding to a raise in a multiway pot. maybe he and others would disagree, but my guess is that these plays seem very inharmonious to his opponents, although my read is that theyre for him an auto-switch that goes off and immediately attempts to restore harmony.
anyone have anything useful to say about this or other topics in the book? again, i highly recommend this book.