Brier on SSH, Part II

[uuDevil]

Thanks for the link.

Brier is making good counterarguments to the book advice in these articles. However, he doesn't actually advise the contrary position.

In this 3rd article, where SSH advises calling with a flush draw when the turn card pairs the top flop card and an opponent who had called the flop now raises, he says the decision is close. When the board is double paired on the end and you are again bet into, SSH advises calling, but Brier does not actually use the f-word.

In the 2nd article, in hand 1 (where you flop top pr 9's, no kicker in the BB and are bet into by the SB, the pot is small, and there are players to act after you), he gives arguments for raising rather than folding (book advice). This is interesting since he is frequently accused of folding too much. In hand 2 (where the pot is big and you do not raise the flop in order to protect your pocket pr. of K's on the turn), he says the advice is "interesting," but does not say it is wrong.

He finishes the 2nd article by saying "The authors have not shown that the increased likelihood of winning the pot compensates for not raising on the flop. Where is the dividing line here?" Well, he doesn't tell you where it is either.

A prior question is "How do you draw the line?" Brier doesn't completely answer this question either, but he does do a good job of pointing out things to consider. Among these is what you think of your opponents. The general assumption in SSH is that a typical opponent is loose and plays poorly. If you change this assumption, then you have to move the line too. Telling us where it should be against any possible opponent may be more than we can expect from a book (or article).