Re: question about hepfap/ml
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sshe is beat to crap from studying so I've been spending more time with hepfap ("Misc/Playing..." "Fourth St concepts" and short-handed stuff). I know this book was written for higher limits but there's a lot of general stuff I think is useful. My problem is I don't know how much can be used in ml - if a topic seems generic and doesn't say "intelligent opponent" am I pretty safe in applying it to ml? How else can I recognize what is and isn't applicable to games like $1/2 6m for instance? Anyone ever done an overview from a ml standpoint?
Mike
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Any concept is worth considering at any game. Every action (bet, raise, call, check, and fold) should all have some amount of consideration every hand. Sometimes it's a fairly obvious choice (raise AA preflop). Sometimes it's not so clear (semi-bluff the draw HU on the turn?). The mark of a solid poker player is the ability to analyze each play and determine which one is best. The more factors you have in your consideration, the better chance you have of making the right choice.
The choice to apply it depends on the value that you think it has in that spot. To do this, you must at learn how your opponents play (better: how a specific opponent plays).
The AA example in the 4th street section (bet-fold the turn on a flush card) is generally correct against a passive player. Passive players don't check-raise weak hands (and certainly don't check-raise-bluff). But if you've got an aggressive or tricky player, you don't want to fold to that check-raise, because now there's a reasonable chance he's bluffing or maybe even value-check-raising his top pair (which loses to your AA).
The next comments (inducing bluffs with a paired board by checking through on 4th) don't apply if villain is passive enough that he's not going to bluff the river. In that case, there's no value in trying to get him to do something because he simply won't do it. Bet it for value.
You shouldn't be focusing on the play. You should be focusing on the series of cause-and-effect that lead to the success of the play. Most of these play require some knowledge of how villain plays. Which is why reads are important...
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