Hello i play live 1/2 Texas Hold’em andI have found that a lot of poker resources I’ve tried to learn from are very example heavy. Both johnathan little and crush live poker video titles make it sound like the content will be general but they are mostly specific situations and without a better foundation I don’t feel like I can apply the lessons.

I wonder about reading a book but I’ve heard bad things about what pros have put out and I’m not sure if the old classics are applicable in today’s game. From what I understand current pros had to adapt a lot to stay good.

An example is I’ve noticed that small blind 3 bets a lot in RFI ranges. I’ve noticed this and I can guess why but is there a training source that talks about these things. I’d like to learn concepts to play generally then eventually learn the nuance from examples. In a lot of training type videos they say we are always betting here, never folding, etc but don’t say why in a conceptual level.

Thank you

If you're playing 1/2 live, I'd suggest Ed Miller's The Course.

But be advised, that there is very little value in "general" rules for poker. The game is highly situation dependent.

Thank you for the suggestion I will check it out. I definitely understand poker is very situation dependent. I just feel that those situations must start somewhere then many variables are adjusted for. For example the idea of a cbet. When deciding to cbet or not there are many variables that make us situation dependent but I think the generalization that you don’t want to cbet bluff out of position into a bunch of preflop callers would be fairly applicable.

Red Chip Poker CORE
imo by far the best beginner's course out there, especially for live players
it also has Ed Miller's The Course

You seek a foundation for poker strategy. GTO is now considered to be the way forward. It’s underlying strategy is that every move be the one that maximizes expected value, EV. Therefore, I think that a complete understanding of EV is essential.

In the broadest sense, EV = Pr(W)*$win + Pr(L)*$lose

where

Pr(W) is the probability you win and the amount you win is $win

Pr(L) is the probability you lose and the amount you lose is $lose

Example: The pot is $100. Villain makes an all-in bet of $60. Should you call? You estimate your winning chances to be 30%.

EV = 0.30*(100+60) – 0.70 * 60 = 48 – 42 = 6

Since EV is positive, a call is reasonable given no other factors. Naturally, things are usually more complicated than this simple example but IMO having a good knowledge of the EV concept and its associated math is important.

You might find my free blog site Hold’em Mathology a good start toward achieving such knowledge.

https://holdemmathology.tumblr.com/post/181437891075