[ohnonotthat]

Because such a large percentage of MOST forms of poker is rote (I'm putting on my helmet to absorb the more vicious blows from the others but we all know it's true) book learning is both far more efficient and far less EXPENSIVE.

There is alot you can only learn from experience but you're better able to group different situations (that are in reality only slightly different from one another) into categories if you have a sound "academic" foundation.

I know of no books with a billion hand examples because there aren't a billion hands that all play differently from one another.

I start with A-A.

The flop will result in either a set or an overpair for my hand.

With the exception of a very small number of horrendously frightening flops I don't much care what comes down if one of those cards is a 3rd Ace.

If I don't flop a set I am going to proceed based on the texture of the flop but while there are 19,600 distinct flops there are only a handful of distinct TYPES (categories) of flops.

Totally ragged and non threatening: Q-7-2 rainbow, K-8-3 or K-8-2 rainbow (no draws)

Very ragged and virtually non threatening: K-9-4/r, Q-8-2/r, J-4-2/r, 9-5-4/r, etc.

Slightly coordinated: two to a suit with no straight draw or two connecting ranks/rainbow

I could go on, and will if it'll help, but the flavor of your post suggests you are not someone who needs visual aids or remedial assistance.

*

BTW, while I find your approach to teaching a 2nd language to likely be both efficient and overall more successful for SPEAKING; how well do you think your former students are doing with the [English] written word ?

I used to know a man who posessed what I'd guess to be 10,000+ word vocabularies AND a fluid and eloquent style of speech - in Spanish, English, and Tagolog (sp. ck - Philipino). We met many years ago when he stopped me in the street and asked me the destination of the approaching bus. This particular bus was a local and was heading for "Vehicle temporarily out of service".

*

Poker, as is the case with many games, is about concepts - many of which would take an eternity to learn if one's only teacher was experience.

I suppose there is nothing that cannot be learned solely by observing and remembering if you're able to tolerate the snail-like progress such an approach would yield.

I am not that tolerant.

*

Few people are.