[AleoMagus]

I highly doubt that strategy will get you a 40-50% return if you aren't already recognizing opportunities to make well-timed steals and handling tricky situations on the flop well. Actually I don't really think I believe a 40-50% return is possible these days for less than a very exceptional player.

The bubble play guidelines in that guide are fast becoming useless in my opinion. That is not to say they are terribly bad, but you could do a lot better just by continuing to read this forum and drawing some conclusions.

As far as comments about other approaches, well, I think that is valid. I tend to play looser than the guide recommends early on and I think as players get better, they naturally and correctly will start to do that. This is especially correct on a site where you get a decent starting stack (like stars).

The thing is, my biggest flaw as a poker player is that I used to be a pretty serious blackjack player [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]. This is to say that I like a very simple system or strategy for play and that guide definitely has elements of that weakness in it.

Surprisingly, it seems that poker can be won this way at low stakes, but it really isn't great poker. I'm thinking about the recent thread where a poster asked about whether to push against an early sizeable raise with AK, or to simply call and try to trap, etc...

My immediate response was - Push. Simple, easy, no trouble. Not much thought involved and I'm positive it's +EV at the stakes I play.

Really great players tend to answer differently. They want to call and see a flop and outplay an opponent. They want to get every ounce out of their skill advantage, and they do.

This is actually a really Sklansky-esque concept

Just because something is +EV, that doesn't mean it's the best move

There are other options, and many of them will produce even better results. That guide is not about 'best' results, it is about easy options.

Still, it's a good start, as many have testified, but you will probably outgrow it somewhat. More likely, if you are getting good results, you are already filling in blanks with previous poker experience or just deal with tricky situations well.

Regards
Brad S