Posted by Johnnymac 7:35 AM
So the book I was reading yesterday (and have been slowly getting through for a couple of weeks now) is TJ Cloutier's Championship No Limit book. I know that they were trying to make it seem "authentic" by writing the book to match the vernacular of his folksy Dallas, Texas personality, but it's really hard to read in places ("You ain't gonna win with two ladies in the whole against a drowned dog" etc etc) and would benefit greatly from just a little bit of editing. Geesh.

But I digress. It's actually a very good book when you understand what he's trying to say.

Specifically, I think he points out some very specific differences between No Limit and Limit Holdem and some points of strategy that are slightly different than some other authors like Doyle Brunson or David Sklansky would typically offer (although in fairness Sklansky has hardly written anything about No Limit). For instance, where Brunson advises to see just about every flop from every position if it can be done cheaply (see Fro and Junell, 2003-2004), TJ's advice is to be much more selective with starting hands, especially from early position. Brunson also advises a lot of bluffs and semi-bluffs with aggressive raises while TJ says to be much more selective about picking spots to bluff, if you even bluff at all.

TJ also has some different thoughts on starting hands, the most interesting being (at least to me) his thoughts on Ace-King and that, consistent with his advice that "No Limit is not a drawing game", AK (or any AX) is just another drawing hand and is therefore very expensive to make, especially after the flop. He says that playing AK is one of those big differences between Limit and No Limit holdem - many players will overplay AK before the flop in NL and get stuck in an expensive situation when they miss it and are already committed for a big portion of their stacks.

Really, the summary of TJ's advice is this:

1.) Play very tightly before the flop, especially from early position (most other authors cite increased implied odds as an excuse to loosen up)

2.) Play much more aggressively, especially from late position, as the game gets shorthanded

3.) Stay away from most drawing hands and never chase if you miss the flop.

4.) Try and get a read on the other players in the game, and then once you do it's OK to make exceptions to these rules when making one-off decisions in shorthanded and heads-up situations.

So where does this lead? Last night I went and played for the first time in a few weeks in Junell's semi-regular NL game and had this information in mind. I tightened up from my usual NL starting hands and was especially careful with hands like AK, AQ, and AXs. I did OK and saw a lot of the things that TJ said to watch for (like how other players played AK) and felt much better prepared.

Whereas Doyle Brunson advocates a fast and loose style with NL, TJ says many times that, "No Limit is a game of patience." I can see the benefits of both styles and that brings me to one more point - TJ also advises his readers to "play your own style and do what you're more comfortable with." Some players like to play loose and fast and some players like to play tight and slow and there's no wrong way to play if you're comfortable with your strategy and know how to produce winning results. So in that vein, I recommend the book. It offers a significantly different perspective on NLHE than does Super System and it's a lot faster read than Ciaffone's NL book (that I mentioned in yesterday's post), which can be rather dry and slow going at times.

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