Quote:
Originally Posted by callipygian
Villains up to 80/160 are still SSHE-type villains. There's just fewer of them than at 20/40, which in turn has fewer of them than 4/8.
As a fundamental point, I think it's helpful to refrain from calling people "fish." It's helpful to your development as a player because the majority of players nowadays do at least one thing right. If you took the best characteristics from the 10 worst players and cobbled them together to form a strategy, you would be decent.
SSHE is still the best beginner's book, hands down. And this is despite its title (something something Advanced Players). What it skips - how many cards in a deck, whether a flush draw is more likely to hit than a straight draw, etc. - can be filled in by five minutes on Wikipedia.
There are some drawbacks to SSHE. The "Protecting Your Hand" chapter causes more confusion than solves problems, and should just be ignored. The "loose" starting hand charts are really marginal now because rarely do you get that many people in every pot (good games probably average 50% VPIP, which is SSHE-tight). Everyone above the lowest of the lowest levels will raise hands worse than two pair, and sometimes bluff.
You should definitely read the book, go play a session or two, save up any hand that confused you, and if you can't figure out the best line by personal study, post the hand here. Then go read the book again, and repeat.
Yeah Calli basically nailed it.
Just be concerned as a starting point with a TAGgish, raise or fold first in, avoid calling multiple bets cold pre strategy. At the very least, it won't be an expensive learning style. Small stakes hold em is still a very applicable book for beginner training, and definitely worth a read if you're interested.
As far as where to play, I like your idea to play online. Getting to play 4 tables of $0.05/$0.10 could give you up to 400 hands an hour at a relatively low stress level (even being a 12 bet per 100 loser at this stake, which would be impossible if playing a tight strategy barring egregious postflop play, would be $4.80/hour worth of losing). You get more hands with less danger of tilting over money, and you could even track your own stats and conclude things like "hey maybe I shouldn't be open raising KTo 3 off the button".