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 Some of the suggested sizes, maths and equations in the book are also out of date, irrelevant or just plain wrong (due to typos etc).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/
Last edited by ArtyMcFly; 06-10-2018 at 06:52 PM.