You're mostly asking exploitative questions.

The rake is huge. If you think you can +EV play speculative but relatively weak hands in multiway pots, then that's great. Those are the games you should be playing in so you can beat the rake. I'm all for good exploitative play so if you think you've found the spots to do it you should of course go for it.

If you are unbalanced in a spot that calls for a mixed strategy (for example, you 3-bet too much preflop with AQs in a spot where 3-betting and calling with AQs are both the same EV), then it won't matter against a GTO opponent but you will lose EV against a nemesis opponent. Against a real actual player, whether or not the 3-bet or call will be more +EV will depend on how he plays and realistically you'll just have to make your best guess based on player tendencies and/or your HUD.

Is applications a prerequisite for Advanced? If not should i bother reading Applications?

Not in the slightest. The book does make occasional references to Applications, but only in respect to correcting previous poor advice.

NLHEFAP is much easier to read and while it assumes you have some prior poker knowledge, this book should immediately improve your game in contrast to how Applications might *potentially* mess up your game.

Both are excellent books, but Applications is much more geared to advanced play. An NL2 player would benefit from this book. In hindsight TP2 probably got the naming of these titles the wrong way round

Thanks for the great response! So it sounds like I should probably actually read advanced before applications. Is that what you would recommend?

Matthew Janda you're a hard person to find on the internet. My name is Johnnie Moreno. I go by JohnnieVIBES on the internet. I've purchased 5 copies of your book and given them as gifts. The only poker book I've ever read and endorse. You did a really great job with it.

I want to buy 100 copies and give them to my community as a gift, if we can work out a bulk price. Email me by clicking on the contact me on my website if this is something you're interested in discussing. Thank you for your time.

Johnnie

Hi Matthew

I only play 6 max cash game online. I heard your book covered a lot of MTT situation and less cash game. Do you think it is suitable for a cash game player?

Thank you

Just in case Matthew takes some time to respond to this, it's mostly a cash game book. I'd definitely recommend it.

Hey sorry for all the late responses

No applications is not a prerequisite for Advanced.

I tend to think Advanced is better and more updated than Applications but I think there are more readers that really like Applications than Advanced. If I were you I'd start with Advanced then if you want more info go back to Applications, and where the books disagree trust Advanced more than applications.

TY for your purchases and kind words.

Regarding the 100 books, this is something you'd have to talk about with 2+2 publishing.

Yeah it's good for cash. It's more of just a "poker" book than really cash/tourney/HU/6-max/FR etc, though all the examples are in NLHE but pretty much all the concepts apply to omaha etc too.

Convinced me thank you!

Buying the book now! So many good reviews...

I used to watch your videos on CR a while ago, would you say they still relevant? I know they are not out there, just want to get a feel of what has changed in the past few years, if so, how much.

Also, do you think your 1st book is still relevant? If you could direct me, what would be the best path for someone that has quite some time to learn?

Go straight for the second book, or it is better to read the old one first? If one could watch your videos one more time, would you have any kind of advice of "where not to go" or about something that has changed, or it is math and it should still be good?

Sorry about the confusing questions, I'm really not experienced with the theory part and am a little lost trying to find the "right" way to start and go about it.

Thanks in advance, love your work!

I tend to think 2nd book > 1st book, but I think a lot of readers think the opposite.

I think old CR videos are still relevant, but would not feel confident saying they are worth your time when new, better content almost certainly exists. I'm pretty far removed from poker presently so while I wish I could point you in the right direction regarding other content I'm really not the best guy for it, though imagine other people in this thread can help and chime in. I definitely wouldn't seek my old videos out unless there's a few in particular that you think would be high value to you.

I have a very hard time get this. I understand the concept and in your specific example play 97%bet 3%check guarantees no exploitation.
However I cannot grasp how, in practice, we shouldn't round up to 100%

Hi Janda, first of all, thanks to you for your great books, back then they are true eyeopeners to me and they helped me not just in poker, but also in reallife situations where knowlegde about game theory helps a lot. Playing these days I wonder if I could still use your suggest preflop ranges? E.g. I saw some players using no coldcalling range in mp or sb and just 3bet-fold to an openraise. There are also players that dont openraise from sb and use a limp/call/raise strategy. So, what is the current state-of-the-art for preflop play? Can you suggest any solvers, maybe simple preflop holdem?

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Haven't done any solver work myself in probably 2 years.

For pre-flop ranges, I would guess the "optimal" ranges are going to change a lot based on rake (i.e. if you were playing 6-max against 5 GTO opponents, what the optimal ranges are change quite a bit based on cash game with high rake vs tourney with no rake). Also, stack depth will alter them.

If I were to start grinding again, I imagine I'd put much more emphasis on what the general trends are for the games I'm playing and try to make exploitative default ranges (so, I'd probably raise the button too much for example) than worry about the optimal ranges. That's especially because all the pre-flop hands that's aren't a close decision pre-flop are probably going to be kind of obvious, and the non-obvious, close decisions are probably going to be super based on opponent's tendencies for your limit and rake.

Hi Matt, I've found this in your book

Question No.1: What is the most important factor for determining if a player can profitably bet any two cards?

Answer: Having the stronger range. At the end of the day, that’s what allows a player to be able to profitably bet any two cards. Remember, it’s the previous action that lets us determine whose range is stronger, not the previous action itself which allows a player to profitably bet any two cards on the next street


Can you explain better the last phrase? Because or it has an error in it, or I'm missing something.

People used to think the there was an inherent, near magical power the pre-flop aggressor had that let him bet any two cards profitably on the flop. No such magic exist, it's all just about whose range is stronger. However, since the preflop opening range is much stronger than the big blind calling range, the preflop raiser can nearly always profitably bet any two cards on the flop.

Wrong.It depends of the flop community cards.It usually polarisation of the range is that magic which makes betting any 2 profitable.

Of course equity distribution matters, which is why I say "the stronger range" and not "the range with more equity."

Why would the button range be considered stronger when he opens 80% of his hands when it´s folded to him?

What's the big blind calling range?

Let´s say it´s also 80%.....if he calls 70% the BB would have the range advantage no? Isn´t the BB´s advantage mainly due to position and not necessarily because he has a stronger range, which in many btn-bb confrontations he in fact does not have?

If button opened 80% and BB called 70%, the button would still have the stronger range, as the button's range would have all the premium stuff (99+/AQ/AK) that the big blind would have 3-bet.

Also the big blind calling range is usually much wider than the button opening range under most conditions (big blind gets way too good of price to fold most hands pre-flop). People used to get this wrong (opening button crazy wide and calling very tight in the big blind), but that's not GTO and most really good players figured that out or learned that long ago.