Currently Im reading Matthew Jandas Applications of No Limit, which I picked up per Ryan Fees recommendation on upswing. Im about 1/4 of the way through and Im pondering if I should continue or not.

I looked up the book on this forum yesterday and found that several 2+2 threads have compiled a list of the mistakes in this books, equations, and language. Obviously the last thing anyone wants to worry about when studying theory is the equations and the authors basic understanding of the concepts himself. Lots of the theory is based on very specific presuppositions about bet sizing/frequency. Before I devote myself to this book anymore (spending hours hanging on jandas every word) I want to figure out if the theory is even legitimate and ask this forum if anyone had read this book.

On a 2+2 thread OTB redbaron commented that he was disappointed by this book and he believes the theory is not sound or practical.

There are many people in the poker community that swear by jandas book, so I wanted to ask if anyone has read this book and if they believe it is valuable?

Another thing I want to add: I have watched a couple podcasts with Matthew Janda and he seems really put together and knowledgable. In his interview with JNandez he commented that certain portions of this book 'aged well'. There is certainly value in this book, but i am concerned that the 'core concepts' which relate to optimal strategy may not be right.

Ryan fee is definitely a great player and his opinion is worth a lot to me, he says this is his favorite theory book. I dont understand why there are such polarized opinions about this book.

The idea about "minimum defence frequencies" (which is a phrase that doesn't actually appear in the book IIRC, but was one of the revolutionary ideas it promoted), which seemed like a good guess at the time, turned out to be a bit wrong. Some of the suggested sizes, maths and equations in the book are also out of date, irrelevant or just plain wrong (due to typos etc). Most of the theoretical concepts about how to build ranges (and indeed the reasons for "balancing" ranges) are pretty useful, though.
Janda's second book is more readable and generally more accurate about "optimal" strategy, but I think the first one is still useful if you don't get too heavy into the maths. Just the idea that you should think in terms of ranges instead of your actual hand is a very powerful and important concept, and I think 'Applications' got that message across well. Some of the concepts might be beyond you if you're fairly new to poker, however. The Upswing articles tend to explain the themes/concepts in a clearer manner imo, but it's been a while since I read the book. I remember it being heavy going, but it was still what I considered to be the "best" poker theory book until Janda's second one came out.

FWIW, I think I learned just as much about poker from the 2+2 thread about the book as the book itself. There is some good stuff in there, but it will take a very long time to read it all. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/3...cepts-1332337/

Thank you for the help, I was hoping somebody would say something like this.