What is a hand?

[Scuba Chuck]

After reading (halfway so far) HOHE, there's a piece that would be very useful tool to many posters here on the forum. I highly recommend the book so far, and in particular, the piece I'm talking about is on pages 16-23.

Essentially, it sums up like this. An amateur is asking a pro for advice on a hand. The amateur, from memory, recounts what he remembers of the hand, which basicly comes down to an egocentric point of view - his cards, and his stack.

To the amateur, "his hand was the cards he held, and what the players immediately before and after him did. To the 'pro,' a 'hand' was a lot more than that. It's an entire situation, fulll of different elements, which has to be seen as a whole before good plays can be made."

So what does that mean to a regular Sit n Go poster on the forum here? (much of this has been taken right from HOHE)

Well, to me, the info that I would need to help give NL advice - in order - would be the following.

1. What limit are you playing?
2. What are the blinds (and beginning chip structure)?
3. How many players remaining?
4. What is your stack?
5. What are the stacks of the remaining players and their position?
6. Where do you sit in relation to the blinds?
7. Do you have any table reads?
8. What has been the action before you?
9. How many players remaining to act behind you?
10. Are there any relevant pot odds?
11. Will you have position after the flop?
12. Finally, what are your cards?

Without all this information, advice can vary greatly between posters. Without all this information, you are not considering the situation as a whole. Sit N Gos are not just about the cards.