Quote:
Originally Posted by oh eight
great point. I struggle sometimes with following what the books say vs what I should really be doing. sometimes I scare myself into making sub optimal plays (like betting pot oop with the nuts) because of my lack of experience playing pots oop. I'm going to write that quote on a piece of paper and tape it next to my monitor
Well, everyone comes to a point where they start wondering if the book's suggestion is better vs what's off the normal path. If you ask me, having a clear understanding of fundamentals is key before you do any off the cuff stuff, so don't be afraid to play by the book until you're ready to venture out.
One thing that I think might help you is setting up a game theory chart for certain situations. Let's say you're 3-way and you have this flop. In the column where your opponents will call all bets all the time then you'd mark that down. In the column where they only call small bets or half pot bets, you mark that down. Or in the one where they will only put money in if you check and they bet themselves, you mark the appropriate action for that too. And those decisions sometimes aren't what you'd consider "straightforward" and sometimes they can be deemed suboptimal, or at least non-standard moves. For a learning player until you're willing to reason out each player's motives and trigger points in each street in each hand, it will seem confusing. But the more you figure those things out, the more varied moves you can make and eventually it all comes down to that central question "how do i make my opponent put in as much money as possible?"
And you'll find in big bet games, having the right tool for each situation (whether it's betting big, small, or checking to set something up), allows you to answer that question more accurately each time it comes up.