This is my first post at this forum. I've been playing .05/.10 limit hold 'em at pokerstars for about 3 months. About a week ago I started using Pokertracker. After 800 or so hands I auto-rated myself and discovered that I'm the quintessential fish: loose and very passive on all levels. However, I'm winning 14.9 BB/100 hands.

I know this is a very small sample and this win rate won't last, so I'm trying to understand Miller/Sklanskys' Small Stakes Hold 'em and transform myself into some sort of land animal.

Early in the book Miller talks about being guided by positive expectation. This all makes sense in the abstract, but I get lost when applying it. Here is an example from Miller:

Experts evaluate the expectation of calling and raising independently, and they
choose the option with the highest value. Say you have 5 opponents, and you
estimate that on average your AK will win 1 in four hands. To simplify the math,
assume your raise puts you all in. Therefore, raising risks one bet to win 5 (since
you have 5 opponents who must call if you raise). The EV for raising is =.5 bets.
Even though you are the underdog, raising earns more than calling.

I don't understand why my raise will be called by all 5 opponents. If only 3 call my EV is down to 0, and if only 2 call I now have a negative expectation. Actually, this is one major reason I have become a fish. Too many times if I bet, almost everyone folds. I usually check and hope someone else bets and I can call.

I understand expectation when I'm drawing: count outs-convert to odds- compare to pot odds- do the appropriate thing. But what if I'm holding AK and the flop is K72. I have top pair with top kicker. Probably the best hand so far. Do pot odds still dictate my actions?
If so, do I estimate the odds of KK holding up unimproved or do I fudge in some additional possibility of improving?

The more I think about all this the more confused I get! I really need someone to sit behind me for a few hours and slap me when I do something dumb. But that isn't going to happen, so I hope someone at this forum will take pity on me and try to help me understand what I'm missing. Thanks and good fishing.

George

I appreciate your comments. Seems simple enough. I just need to play fewer hands and bet/raise when I have something decent. .05/.10 limit at pokerstars is probably full of fish and I have some good habits like tightening up in early position or in a raised pot and folding when the flop misses me that gives me an edge over the other fishes.

I aspire to move up to .50/1.00 limit in a few months so I have a lot to learn. I'm currently reading Miller/Sklansky. Is Matt Hilgers' book a better read for a beginner?

George

This stuff does bind the brain so I hope a few thoughts help.

I think the other thing worth noting with your raise is that it is an overt form of aggression. When you raise anyone who has already limped will relook at their hands and anyone behind now need a lot better hand to call that raise. Obviously there are idiots who do whatever whenever but then this just means you are getting more money from them when you are favourite preflop.

Betting the flop then puts them in the same situation. This is especially so in limit when you could have any range of hands from some complete tosh to AA. The other players will generally need to feel a lot better about their holding to continue. Aggression is key in these skirmishes since having the best hand isn't the only way to win. This is something where you constantly have to judge things but its where the start of getting that aggression will come from.

Its one thing to get caught up in the maths that imply smaller pots are better but you also need to remember you should be playing the players. Whats the effect on you when a raise occurs ahead? Suddenly hands like AJo or KQo don't look so hot you might muck'em. You should remember that part of being a complete player is playing the players as well as the cards, otherwise how would you know when is good to bluff?

Also remember you want to win bigger pots when you have good hands, smaller pots when you haven't so you betting with your better hands is building that pot that you will be fav to take down. I found this stuff complicated when I started playing as to a degree it contradicts itself since surely smaller pots don't give out the pot odds for people to chase. You just have to remember that most of the time people chasing will miss and those times you will be scoping a big pot. It just might never seem that way...

I started off by reading Jones as I found that very easy to get into. I think the Miller/Sklansky stuff is good but you need to have a basic aggressive game first to fully take from it. Its the sort of book that takes several readings and each time something different will sink in. I read SS2 and that was informative though its again more about building on an existing game to my mind than building one up from the start.

Rich

p.s. After my first 5k of hands playing 0.5/1 I had an aggression factor of 0.6! I was the ultimate weak/tight but it can get better!

I also HIGHLY recommend first reading Winning Low-Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones. Get the newest edition with the funky looking cover. From there, move on to Small Stakes Hold'Em by Miller and Sklansky.

Here's what I do... ignore understanding the "raising with 4 people gives me an EV of..." part. Just know what hands are worth raising from what position and why the hand is strong there. You don't need to know with mathematical exactitude why this is the case. Just know it's a stronger hand than most hands in that situation and when you hit it, you will be paid off nicely.

Checking and calling AK when you hit an ace or king on the flop is a terrible play. If you're going to check, at least put in a check-raise. I'd still prefer straight out betting in most cases.

In summary... be more selective in your starting hands, pre-flop raise your stronger hands (read the books to get an idea), and raise-raise-raise your strong hands and strong draws. By strong draws I mean something like a pair, plus an overcard, plus the nut flush draw. Or a straight flush draw. Anytime you have more than 12 outs to the probable best hand, bet and raise the flop. Do NOT check-call here.

First of all---welcome to the best poker forum around!!!

I agree with all the above comments, and as usual, I have a few of my own...

#1---I would move up to .25/.50 ASAP---it is more like "real" poker that than the ultra low limit games...I believe you will learn a lot faster in such a situation...Even at the standard 300BB Bankroll rules, this should not be a problem, and if you lose a little, the money should be easily replaced.
#2---I would be more concerned with your V$IP numbers than any other---If you are anything above 14%, play fewer hands PERIOD!! As you gain experience and decide you want to be a LAG, that's fine, but as you learn, my opinion is the tighter the better. BTW, this is a VERY clear case of "do as I say, not as I have done!"
#3---Play no more than 2 tables...You are trying to learn, not maximize the profits at this point...This will allow you to take the time to--THINK!! and try to put the players on a hand. This is a HUGE weakness of mine, but I acknowledge the importance---It will pay huge dividends down the road...
#4---Generally speaking, if you are 1st in---RAISE...If you raised PF BET...Any other hands---fit or fold...
#5---Books---Forget Miller/Sklansky for now (these guys are brilliant, BUT you need more experience to digest it all)....Jones and Krieger are all you need for now...There is a TON of info here at BTP as well...Just go back and read the many posts which are very valuable (Piers has a "sticky" or 2) ...IMHO, the above books all espouse a style which is WAY to loose, especially for a newer player just starting out. If you have to play a bit looser, pick a hand (say 67 suited for example) and have fun with that if it's cheap enough....


Hope this helps and good luck...