Hi,

I just finished Professional No-Limit Hold'Em Volume 1 by Flynn, Mehta, & Miller.

Have you guys read this book?

It advocates manipulating pre-flop pots to go for "Target SPR's" (stack-to-pot ratios OTF) that vary depending on many factors, and then with low SPR's, get it all in ("commit") with top-pair type hands, steal or draw with middle SPR's, and pure draw or pot control with high SPR's.

It seems to make sense. I'm not used to playing a lot of all-in pots, so it's a different approach to the game for me. I try to play carefully, and would typically never get all-in with one pair. This teaches a bigger, more aggressive strategy. I can see how it might win a lot of money, but perhaps be more swingy.

Would you recommend using the strategy taught by this book, using preflop bets to set up target SPR's and planning hands around commitment? I'd like some community assurance before I go crazy with this new strategy in my local casino!

Many concepts in the book are still applicable such as the basic outs/pot odds stuff but the idea of manipulating preflop raises (sometimes to the point of ridiculousness) to achieve target spr won't work in most deeper games in 2014.

In an interview a while back Matt Flynn pretty much said that approach worked in LA style small cap games circa 2008.

The general awareness of SPR is good though as well as the idea of planning a hand and understanding stack commitment.

The section on hand reading is limited and you will find more in this forum than in that book. If you like the book though and want more on hand reading you might be interested in Millers "how to read hands at whatever" book.

Slim on Holdem. Good content for a great price. I recommend following the strategy in this book.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...stcount=156660

I thought it was a pretty good book and I felt a lot more comfortable with NL after the ideas started to sink in.

A lot of the stuff in the book is helpful and good to be aware of. Personally, I don't go crazy with it though.

I don't think it necessarily promotes a more aggressive strategy (especially preflop), and in fact I think it could actually promote a more passive strategy (i.e. it realizes that just because we are in early position with AK/TT or whatever that this isn't an automatic raise just cuz "Yo, AK/TT!", but instead gets us thinking about the potential SPR we are setting up and whether that is good or bad for us, and in lots of cases, limping or limping to reraise would actually be setting up a better SPR and thus easier-to-play postflop situation).

In a nutshell, this would be my opinion of PNLHE's take on SPR:

- I love it's idea of trying to setup a small target SPR for TP type hands; in general, I typically aim for an SPR of 4 (5 at maximum) with TP type hands (preferably HU, at most 3ways), although I am a conservative player in general; these TP hands then play themselves postflop
- I love it's idea of realizing that TP type hands are ok to play at huge SPRs *if* it is unlikely we are going to narrow the field and setup our small target SPR; which is why I'm often just limping big TP hands in EP at loose/deep tables, cuz the chances of getting a low SPR / narrow the field with a raise are slim and we just get ourselves in very difficult spots postflop OOP
- I don't like it's idea of pot sweetening with speculative hands to setup SPRs where we can create stealing situations postflop; pot sweeteners will not thin the field, thus stealing we be almost impossible postflop; plus, speculative hands love huge SPRs, and so I hate the thought of decimating our implied odds with an unnecessary pot sweetener
- I don't think an SPR of 13 is anything to fear against typical opponents with TP hands, as most typical opponents aren't setting up stealing situations nor are they betting PSBs on each street; I actually think we can work ok with an SPRs as low as 10 with TP hands (bet/folding small amounts on each street against most opponents); I actually think the troublesome SPRs for TP are in the 9-6 range, which require pot control (which is done much more easily in position)

Overall though, PNLHE's main point is to Plan Your Hand, which starts preflop (it actually starts before that with table / seat selection, but whatever). It basically gets you thinking of how preflop relates to postflop, and how you should get thinking right off the bat what type of postflop situation you will put yourself in based on your preflop action, and how you should be planning how you are going to play out the hand in various situations before you even put a chip in the pot.

GNLpokerismuchmuchmuchmorethan"I'sgotTT,Iraise!",a ndPNLHErealizesthatG

I thought it was okay but it probably wasn't the best "First Book" for me to read. I've got a handful of other books on my to-do list so maybe I'll circle back to it in the future.