[quote="Percival"]Hello Mr. Obvious, long time reader first time poster. (Anyone that gets Bob and Tom will understand that one. Oh, and this is my second post but that's ok!) quote]

LMAO!!! Love it! WDVE??? Man, I miss that station!


There is a lot you can memorize. Some is useful, some is not. Also, playing on line, you can have a chart handy so you don't even have to memorize.

For me (primairly a Limit Hold'Em player). I don't find it too handy to memorize the percentage of hiting my draws by the river when I'm on the flop (i.e. Fush draw comes in 35% & gut shot comes in 16.4%) because people are almost never all-in on the flop in Limit and I will have to call bets on the turn as well. Also, If I'm going to memorize anything, I'm memorizing the required pot odds to call with a flush draw. Not just the win percentage, which I would then convert into win odds, and compair to pot odds. So, I have memorized the required pot odds in "bets" to call like below:

Outs Req' Pot Odds
(or size to call 1 bet)
4 10.8:1
5 8.4:1
6 6.9:1
7 5.8:1
8 4.9:1
9 4.3:1

So, if I have an opened straight draw, I know I need >4.9 small bets to call 1 small bet (and if I had to call two, it would be double 9.8). And I also use the same memorized numbers for the turn. I know I need 4.9 big bets to call 1 big bet on the turn (granted your odds are a little better on the turn since there are only 46 cards left instead of 47, so it would be 4.75 instead of 4.9. But I'm giving up less than 0.03bb of EV for the sake of simplicity... I can live with that. Plus this conservativeness helps make up for any mis-evaluations due to the ovelry large rake at the lower limits).

So, in my opinion this chart is worth memorizing for me because it has a lot of value. Memorizing the exact odds on the turn as well are of significant deminishing returns to me. And the exact odds of highing by the river when I'm on the flop is not as important as the odds in the chart above for me (for that I will just do the math).

There are a lot of other things you could evaluate and memorize, but beyond starting hand guidelines and drawing odds, there is a lot of deminishing return to trying to remember all of those numbers. You need to figure out what you find is the most efficient and helpful.

I personally have tried to do some evaluation of Cbetting and Free-Card-Raising opportunities and requirements and will probably try to remember some basic guidelines.

For example: When heads up with position. It is almost ALWAYS correct to Cbet. Even if only folds 20% of the time, you will profit over the long run. Becuase in a raised pot, you have 4:1 pot odds to bet and try to pick it up right there. And if you get it 20% of the time 1/5 = 1:4, you are break even. Sure you could get check/raised, but also you will usually have some outs to take the lead on the turn. And if you miss the turn, you will often get the opportunity to take a free card on the turn and hit the river. So these other drawing factors will usually make up for the times that you might get check/raised.

You can run through different evaluations and come up with lots of general rules to memorize and follow with various situations.

But like I said, three is a lot of deminision returns and it is up to you to determine what is most efficient for you.

But personally, I lean torwards wanting to memorize guidelines and general rules, especially if playing live, because I don't want people in a friendly game to realize I'm taking it too seriously and figuring out odds and math and crap in the middle of the hand. I think that takes some of the gamble out of them and causes them to play a little more seriously themselves.