Originally Posted by scarface_0001

This is the link to Jim Brier's Cardplayer articles (Maximizing SSH winnings):

Jim Brier - Poker Authors, Writers and Contributors - CardPlayer.com

In only 6 articles Jim Brier demonstrates that Small Stakes Hold'em is trash (like all Skalansky's books are)

The hand examples from his articles contain the main ideas of the book and he disagrees with almost all hand examples. Therefore he disagrees with the main ideas from the book.

If you read SSH and then read Jim Brier's articles you will want to throw the book in the trash.

Originally Posted by Chopper

Are they aimed at beginners? yes.

Originally Posted by scarface_0001

Small Stakes Hold'em today is probably aimed at beginners. But in 2004 it was a very advanced book.

Originally Posted by scarface_0001

"Hand No. 3: You have the 8c 6c on the button. Three players limp in, you limp, the small blind calls, and the big blind checks. The flop is Jc 9c 4d, giving you a flush draw. The small blind checks. The big blind bets and two of the three limpers call. What should you do?
Book Answer: Raise. This is a turn problem, so the book provides no explanation.
My Thoughts: Raising is not at all clear. You are getting 9-to-1 on your flush draw and have an easy call. You have no other outs but your flush draw, and a raise might drive out opponents. By raising, you give one of your opponents the opportunity to three-bet, further increasing your cost to draw and increasing the likelihood of eliminating opponents, which is not desirable when you are drawing."

If you raise probably the bettor will only call and the other players will also call. If all 3 opponents will call (very likely in a loose game) your raise is for value. You need to win more than 25% of the time to make the raise the best play. It seems that Jim Brier doesn't know you can raise on the flop for value with a flush draw. And if all oppponents check to you on the turn you can take a free card because you also have position. Clear raise for me.

He doesn't like to raise ATs from the blinds in multi-way pot because is difficult to play OOP. Probably he is the type of player who would also limp/check with AK because AK is just a drawing hand.



Small Stakes Hold'em today is probably aimed at beginners. But in 2004 it was a very advanced book.

Originally Posted by Trons

There was another aspect to the raise, with the FD, from the button, that, IIRC, was basically, by raising, even if the BB raises, you cap, this makes it much more likely the BB will check the turn giving you the chance to check back if you don't hit and you can then fold the river if unimproved. If I remember the idea and math correctly, this is the same as calling the flop and subsequent turn bet, but pays off when the BB does not re-raise you, allowing you to check the flop unimproved and see the river for the 1 additional SB you put in on the flop. This is based on position, and not something you would want to do when OOP.

SSH was specifically for beginners, teaching them how to capitalize against fish in LLHE games. Anybody who thinks it is, or was, trash, should talk to the people who learned from that book and built a BR playing LLHE.