Thanks for the post lambchop. It looks to me like there isn't that much of a difference. Let's see...

AQ call a min raise. Judgement call works well either way as long as you know how to play it postflop.

Never open limp for beginners we'll have to disagree. It's not wrong if you have the experience to play it out. That means the balls to throw out continuation bets, the brains to get the most out of your set and the wisdom to know the difference (revised from Alcoholics Anonomous). Since most beginners zig when they should zag in these instances. I would say have brains balls and wisdom FIRST - and anyone who has brains, balls and wisdom plays a more sophisticated game than 19 hand.

I do have to revise I don't play 19 hand in mtt and sng. Also, there are plenty of times when I don't play 19 at all in ring. However, I did play it for hundreds of thousands of hands. It does work.

So do other tactics and game styles. The main thing about 19 hand - which has been said before and I'm sure will be said again - is that it's a place to start to learn how to play poker where you can get 10,000 hands under your belt without paying too high a poker tax. AFter 10,000 hands or so then ANYBODY will do whatever comes naturally to them.

"never open limp" though? For beginners?

AQ is certainly a judement call, but KT??? Let's bust out the Sklansly. KT, QT, AT are all group 6 hands, out of only 8 groups. Granted that low pairs 66 -22 are group 6, and 7 hands, but they are sooo easy to fold when they miss. The orig 19 hands are about making confident plays and staying out of 2nd best situations. Even with experience KT is a shaky hand. And if everyone follows the Never Open Limp rule + KT it can get pretty ugly.

However, keep an eye on this thread. Let me get my laptop online and I'll post something you'll find very interesting. It's a tease from Section 2 of the book. You'll like it.