SSHE starting hands question

[Harv72b]

SSH was written with the B&M game in mind. Typically, even today, small stakes B&M games are a whole lot looser and generally crazier than online ones. This is part of the reason they recommend not raising with ATs from EP, I believe...you are going to be coldcalled too much, and while ATs is a good hand in a multiway pot, it is not a good hand to play for 2+ bets in a multiway pot.

Since the online games are generally much tighter than their B&M counterparts, many players have realized that it's now profitable to raise a wider range of hands from EP, even UTG, because they will not be coldcalled in multiple places--if I'm playing a hand with ATs, I want it to be either shorthanded or for one bet preflop. And, because the online games are generally more aggressive than the B&M games that Ed et al had in mind when writing the book, you cannot often limp ATs from EP because the pot is very likely to be raised behind you. So you get into a raise/fold kind of picture on most online SS tables.

Also, keep in mind that SSH is not meant to be the be all end all of LHE play. The authors point out in the book that not all of the advice they give is good for every situation, and that as you grow more experienced in your play and learn to recognize & take advantage of slight +EV situations, you will start to stray from a good deal of what SSH teaches. The book lays the foundation for the correct way of thinking for a small stakes, limit hold'em player--it is up to all of us to take things to the next level.

What you should be raising from EP should be directly correlated to how tightly the table is playing and how well you feel you stack up against your opponents in the postflop game. If the table is playing so tightly that nobody will enter a raised pot with anything less than a truly premium hand (AA-JJ, AK), then you should be raising quite a few hands from every position (and check/folding a lot of flops when you get 3-bet).