****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is a must read book; read it after reading this author's other book "How to Read hands at NL Holdem"There is a Zen to tagging players and this book will help you learn the basics. After reading this book, I realized NLHE is all about playing the player. Here is what happened this last sunday; I was playing at venetian poker room 2/5 NL. UTG (a donkey, let us call him V) opened with 4BB. One MP caller, and I called behind with pocket 6s. Flop came 444. V bet 50, MP folded. I put V on: all PP, AK, AQ, AJ, AT, KQ. Total of 146 hand combos and 48 of those beat me. He had ~750 behind and I had ~700. I thought of raising to find out, but just called him thinking I could outplay him later. Turn came an As. Now, 80% his range was ahead of my hand and I was either done putting anymore money into the pot or going All-in either on turn or on river. V checked and I checked back. River was another 4! So the board was 444A4. V checked and I kept a poker face and said All-in. Dealer threw an All-in red button towards me. Everyone at the table was shocked!! V thought for a while and mucked his hand!! HE MUCKED HIS HAND!! If I had not read this book, I would have split this pot.This book teaches many unconventional lines that are very helpful. Many of you already know about CBet, barreling, float play, squeeze play, range merging, range balancing, line balancing, etc. This book will teach you when to use which tool. Against a calling station, it is useless to float the flop and raise the turn, might as well stack your chips and light them on fire.Once you read this book, it changes your outlook and YOU will get creative. The move I discussed above is a very silly one and is not discussed in this book. However, I would not have done that if I had not read this book!
