[Mason Malmuth]

I think that tells have a small amount of value in limit hold 'em in general, and that amount of value is even less in the games that SSH target. To be specific, here is a quote from Poker Essays, Volume II:

[ QUOTE ]
Tells, in my opinion, have a value of approximately $2 per hour to a highly skilled $20-$40 hold ’em player who is able to make slightly more than $40 per hour. Some of you might disagree with this. And I do concede that there are probably a few players who are able to win this much who might actually make a little more from tells — perhaps as much as $5 per hour.

Part of the reason for this slightly higher figure is that tells can make up for some deficiencies in your game. For example, a top card reader who has a good knowledge of how his opponent plays will often come to the same conclusion that the tell gives you. When this is the case, the tell does not have much value. But if you don’t “read” that well, tells can have more value. Thus, some top players may do a little better from their interpretation of tells than other top players.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was referring to a standard live ring game with about 35 hands per hour being dealt.

That's equivalent to about 0.05 big bets per hour. In the games that SSH is targeted for my best estimate is that tells are worth no more than half this, or 0.025 big bets per hour. This is why I state "books you claim to have read."

There are literally thousands of posts on these forums that are critical of our advice. We have no problem with that and in fact encourage vigorous debate. If that wasn't the case, this site would not have the success and huge volume of traffic that it does. But we do have problems and will not tolerate when another writer questions our integrity in the matter that you did.

It's also our policy to hold other writers to higher standards. We do this because we want to steer our readers to that material which is good and helpful to their game and away from that material which will cause them to lose money. We have stated this policy on many occasions.

As for the other post where the poster said that the essay in Poker Essays contradicts Harrington on Hold 'em I did reply to that and stated that when Harrington on Hold 'em: Volume II: The Endgame is released (hopefully later today -- we are waiting to hear from our printer) he will see that there is no contradiction. This has to do with what Dan calls "Inflection Point Theory." It takes many pages to explain this well and Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie did a much better job of explaining it than I would anyway.

MM