Is Cold-Calling Too Many Raises Preflop Really A Terrible Mistake?

[PokerProdigy]

I have read alot of the material that Sklansky and Malmuth have written on hold'em and they both stress the point that cold-calling raises preflop with too many hands is a killer to your bankroll. Now I am NOT trying to question Sklansky and Malmuth's strategy or ability, because they seem like great poker players, as well as, great poker writers. Most of their strategy appears to be genius.

But lately I have been wondering if their ideas about not cold-calling raises is really such a big deal. Now don't get me wrong because I am NOT talking about cold-calling with hands like 5-6 suited or jack-seven (which I don't play anyway). But I notice that some of the other successful players/authors tell you to cold-call with hands like ten-jack suited, low pocket pairs, king-queen, etc... Specifically, I am talking about the advice given by Mike Caro (in Caro's Professional Hold'em Report) and Bob Ciaffone & Jim Brier (in their book Middle-Limit Poker).

Now honestly, I have NOT read either one of these books. But I have read Gambling Theory and Other Topics by Mason Malmuth and in Appendix A he gives his opinion on various poker books. He rates both of these books very low because of the frequency to cold-call raises preflop with these types of hands.

Now I have always stuck strictly to the Sklansky and Malmuth advice of NOT cold-calling preflop with these hands (except for the specific situations that they discuss where you've already seen three or more people cold-call and you have a hand like queen-jack suited). But lately I have been wondering if it is really a terrible play? Because if it is such a terrible play why would people like Caro and Ciaffone do it? They are good players who've been winning for a long time. And they are also educated on poker theory, so they've had to think about this before. Yet, they still have NOT concluded that it is a mistake. And even if you are giving up some in EV, maybe you'll make up for it (plus some) because people won't think of you as a "total rock."

Please, feel free to reply with any questions or comments on this topic. Basically, it is just something I have been thinking about lately and I am a little confused on the topic, so I figured I'd post it on the forum and see what everyone else thought. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

And at the very least it should spawn some interesting discussion, maybe even Malmuth or Sklansky will reply???