Quote:
Originally Posted by Walternate
I also ordered this book, and I've read half of it by now. I think it is really great for new players struggeling, and it's generally very well explained.
I do have a question about one section though (I hope this is the right thread to ask book specific questions):
On page 115, about Postflop play it is stated that:
"You should only be getting involved with top pair hands most of the time at the micros. There are some exceptions of course but by and large you should be giving up most of the time with all of your middle and bottom pairs."
However then at page 141 about Delayed Cbetting, an example is giving where Hero has:
AsTc on a KcTh6d board, and it says that:
"In both of these situations I may choose not to cbet especially if I am up against one of the aggressive player types. This doesn't mean that I am giving up if they bet though. I will usually just call."
Could someone explain this to me? I've really thought about this situation and tried to understand, why I should check an call a bet here on the flop.
Cause I don't have top pair in this situation, and should we do this because we are drawing for an Ace on the turn to get two pair, and then bet the turn if we hit our Ace?
Assuming that villains range is top pair on the flop, and thus if we hit our Ace on the turn we value bet cause we beat his range, or something like that?
Hi Walternate,
The quote you posted from page 115 was more or less a general statement that at the micros you should only play a big pot with top pair or better type hands. And you should fold bottom and middle pair hands before it becomes a big pot versus most player types. As I discuss many times in the book, players at the micros (especially NL2-NL10) are generally very passive. So if they are barreling you or raising you especially on the big money streets (turn and river) there is a very good chance that your bottom or middle pair is no good.
Regarding the hand example that you posted from page 141, as was already pointed out the biggest thing here is the player type. While most players at the micros are passive, not everyone is. Versus players that are capable of betting or raising with their draws, bottom/middle pairs or complete air on frequent occasion we need to expand our continuance range to include stuff that is not just top pair+. Regarding the delayed cbet in this particular spot versus an aggressive player type it prevents him from putting us in a difficult spot by check/raising us for example. It also adds deception value so that he may bluff off some money to us on later streets.
I hope this helps. Poker is a very situation dependent game. Therefore, it is very difficult to say stuff like do X in all circumstances. But I tried to keep the book as simple as possible because I knew a lot of beginners would be reading it and the main goal is to get them winning now. So in some cases it helped to just make fairly broad statements about what to do in certain spots.