i guess critiquing the method or style of writing wont improve my game. i'll re-read the sections and type up my thoughts as i complete them.
pot-size philosophy:
basically i think here we are looking to take the line that creates the largest potsize in which our hand is still +EV vs villains range. this is why you'll often hear people check something like tptk behind on the turn after betting the flop (preferably on dry boards), because they think they have a higher expectation (ie villain calls us down with worse) when betting the flop and river rather than the flop and then the turn. us checking behind the turn often makes our in position river bet look more bluffy. i'm not saying this is a uniform rule, sure you can get three streets with tptk against a lot of guys at the micros. similarly, if a (exhaggerated example) deepstacked 8/6 preflop player who is nitty, weak-tight postflop opens UTG, we have a read on ths guy that he is able to fold strong one-pair hands postflop, and he has only showndown strong hands. we call on the button and flop a set with 22 on AT2, we probably arent going to have the best hand if we take a very aggressive line vs this guy. especially if he also is showing aggression.
consider his range for the following:
bet/3bet/call our shove on the flop
bet/call flop, lead turn/3bet shove over our raise
bet/call flop, check/call turn, check/call river
and then think of all the other possible lines. there are some lines he takes where we simply do not have him beat. most likely the first one. we are looking to take the line in which we feel the pot can get as big as possible without making villain's range so strong we basically never have the best of it. that's my take on it. obviously the example is contrived but you can apply the idea to any number of hands. how strong is your hand compared to villain's range? is the board wet/dry? what does your range look like to villain? does he even think about your range? how will he react to.... as a result of this? how will YOU react if a flush card turns on a twotone flop (and how should this inform your flop decision) with say, top two or a set? the flush turn card mightnt give villain the best hand, but it will kill your action a lot of the time when he would have been willing to call a turn bet with a worse hand. one more thing i'd like to add. just because we have a very strong hand, doesnt mean we necessarily HAVE to play a big pot. obviously it's preferable. but i've had some spots recently against pretty predictable regs where i've been betting for thin value (not sure if its called thin value, i'm betting small enough to induce a call) with the nuts because their line tells me they have a middle pair, AK high or whatever. you're not always going to know how your villains play, but if you do, dont be surprised when he folds his face-up QQ-KK on an ace high board to your set because you bet in a way that put too much heat on his hand. flame my thoughts here as deemed necessary. i need to eat now.
edit: obviously if you're pure bluffing, the story is different. you want to exploit the weakness of villain's range and get them to incorrectly fold a better hand according to the FTOP, which is quoted somewhere early in the book we're looking at now.
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