|
|
|
|
 |
|
Harrington On Hold'em, Help My Poker!
|
Author: Marc Weinberg
You can tell a really good poker player every time. He's the one who tells you that there are holes in his game, mistakes he needs to correct, and that he still has much to learn. You could be forgvien for thinking that I am an absolutely brilliant player because I'm here to admit to all of you that my game suddenly contains more holes than that movie for kids, the one called "Holes". Following a bad month of play I have decided to reread the key poker books, and to write about the process of working through their core ideas. I'm starting with Harrington On Hold'em, the first volume, because the style of play it espouses is one that I have personally drifted away from of late.
I think my journey is undoubtedly similar to that of many poker players who make a lot of progress, win some decent tournaments, and start to make money more often than they lose. What happens is this: You start to feel very confident and with that comes the desire to experiment with different styles of play. You also return to those original low-stakes ring games and tournaments and cannot summon the adrenaline that is necessary to focus at the highest level.
The result is that you play fast and loose. You start to ignore the funadamental principles that got you winning in the first place because now you operate above and beyond all that basic stuff. You understand position, which entitles you every now and then to ignore those rules because you're a step ahead of the rest.
For instance you are playing in a no-limit tournament and get dealt 6c-8c under the gun. Instead of mucking it as Dan Harrington surely does every day of his life you decide to raise 4x the big blind. You know that your opponents are all decent players who have read the same books as you, but you're an artist and they're a bunch of sedate plodders. They put you on pocket Queens but the joke is on them. Then someone on the button makes it 6x the big blind and you're left heads-up.
The flop comes 8-2-3 but that's good news for you because you're already pretty confident that he has AK, so you bet out half the pot convincing yourself that this is a cheeky probe bet. He just calls. The next card is a Q. You are now in a lot of trouble, out of position with no right to be in this hand and no way of winning it unless you keep betting. But the joke turns out to be on you because he has QQ and there is no way out of the situation other than to fold when he puts you under pressure.
I think the problem here is that online poker players feel that good play is synonymous with tricky or clever play. That they somehow reward you with extra chips and kudos and cash when you slow-play a hand as opposed to betting value hands.
The first thing that hits you when you read Harrington On Hold'em is how sensible the book is. Dan Harrington opens up early on with a cautionary tale from the 2003 World Series Of Poker final table. He was in middle position with AK and in the sample hand he was up against Sam Farha's pocket 9s as well as two other callers (Moneymaker and Amir Vahedi). Not only did he manage to get away from that hand, but the way he explains it you feel that you would do the same.
Only you wouldn't. At least 95% of no-limit hold'em tournament players would have been caught square between the eyes for all their chips. Farha would have bet with 99 and the vast majority of players would have gone to war with AK, preferably for all their chips. And that's why the vast majority of players will never get to the WSOP final table, and why Dan Harrington gets there in his conservative and frugal style quite frequently.
Harrington doesn't look to get involved in complicated situations. he tries to simplify his life at the poker table by making good decisions as early as possible. That's a key to poker by the way - get away from troublesome hands as early as possible, and you'll save money. The longer it takes you to fold KQ in those horrible and common situations when you're up against AQ make an enormous difference to your bankroll.
I'm going back to basics as a poker player and this book is the ideal place to start. We'll look at his ideas about early play in tournament poker in my next article, but he's got a lot of answers if your poker is getting too cutesy and fanciful. Harrington's views on Hold'em are the equivalent of a thick steak and a loaded baked potato after weeks of nouvelle cuisine. Nourishing stuff!
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Bad Beat Poker Stories - Stop Telling Them
> Poker Quiz - Analyze This Poker Hand
> Poker Share - Justifying The Hype
> The Curse Of Partial Withdrawal
> Hollywood Poker - New Player Observations
> Ultimate Bet Comments And Observations
> Rebuy Tournaments - The Crack Cocaine Of Poker
> Tournament Poker Strategy - First Impressions Last
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
Hot Poker Promotions
|
Online Poker Rooms Guide
|
|
|
|
Join Our Newsletter
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
