Strategy Adjustments for playing against SSH disciples

[MicroBob]

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I have a regular home game where about half of the players study the literature

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how I anticipate my home game changing as others learn the material, and consequently what I'll need to do to counteract their new style of play

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how much will their style of play be changing??

my point is....if they've been studious about the game in the past i don't think it will be changing THAT much. maybe some refinements in there....but they were either decent tight-aggressive players before or they weren't.


the advice on how to counteract a WLLHE type player stems from the fact that lee basically advocates a rather weak-tight post-flop philosophy.
if he's going to say 'fold unless the flop REALLY hits you' then you can keep betting away at this type of player with ANY piece of the flop knowing there is a good chance they will get out of the way. additionally, if they DON'T get out of the way you then know that you are probably behind unless you have a very strong hand yourself.



as for your example before...i think a true SSHE-disciple would hopefully not peg you as a fish if you are a solid tight-aggressive player.

i play in online games all the time where a couple players are pretty tight and the rest are somewhere between awful to mediocre. i respect the EP raises of the tighties A LOT more...and try not to get too tangled up with them.

SOMETIMES (and not terribly frequently) if it's a scary flop i'll make a determination whether to take a stab at it if i think there's a chance the flop missed him AND if i think there's a chance that he will think the flop probably hit me if i bet.
if my bet just looks like a plain old steal-try then i have to factor in the possiblity that he will recognize it as a steal-attempt and come right back at me while i'm holding next to nothing.


but again.....i don't do this too much.
usually, i'll avoid a huge psychological confrontation with him and will let the pot-odds be the determining factor as to how i should proceed.

[djack]

Someone who can fully apply them won't be at 3/6 at the local card room too long.

[12AX7]

You bring up an interesting question with this post that I'll generalize to, "How do you beat a good player?"

Granted the usual theory is select a table without good player?

But at least two authors have given this Idea some thought.

Saw a book on Conjelco the other tilted "How to beat good Holdem Players at Thier Own Game" or something similar. Have yet to see a copy or a review yet. But the title does highlight an interesting issue.

The other s the Author that wrote the essay on this site, "Why Learn to Beat the ougher Games?"

Anyway, I know I don't have the answer but will propose a generic idea for discussion..

Play slightly better starting hands than your opponents on average AND build larger pots than you opponents.

The idea bein to make your EV greater than thiers and thus make yu more profitable.

Perhaps some fuzzy thinking there, but sounds esentially correct.

As part of the Building Bigger Pots" pat I would guess comes the topics of, "When can the be bluffed out of a better hand?" AND "How can I get them to put too much money in the pot?" An analysis of the playing patterns suggested in SSH might yield some answers there?

[jdl22]

HPFAP is about playing versus decent players. Most poker books are aimed at beginners or are written for high level players. To my knowledge this is the first book written for reasonably good players where the goal is to teach them how to win against bad players.

On the original topic I would say that if you're in a hand with a good, studious player the concepts in HPFAP should apply. I don't have SSHE so there could certainly be some specific plays that it advocates that could be exploited but I obviously am not familiar with them.

[Foo King]

Ed, thanks for your contributions to this site and to the poker community. I hope your book exceeds all expections and you make tons of money and garner all the respect you are due. Thanks.

I don't think your book will be a WMD to SSH, at least I hope not. Plenty of information has been available for years to the poker community and yet good games thrive. I think most of the average readers of your book will not improve to a degree that it will hurt a good player's EV. Again, at least I hope not.

Thanks again, Ed.