Our next book, Applications of No-Limit Hold ‘em; A Guide to Understanding Theoretical Sound Poker by Matthew Janda has now been sent to our index builder. This means we’re on schedule for a mid-May release and expect to have the book in full distribution by the end of that month. This will be a major work in this field with the text coming in at 500 pages. The suggested retail price will be $39.95, but I’m sure a better price will be available in our Two Plus Two Store. In addition, the table of contents has also been posted in the thread titled “TOC for Applications of No‑Limit Hold ‘em” in our Books and Publications Forum.

We’re being asked a lot about when the new Internet poker sites will start in Nevada and New Jersey. Unfortunately, we still have no new information, and our best guest is that as far as Nevada is concerned, we could see something up sometime in May, but that July is probably more realistic. As for New Jersey, we don’t know and don’t want to speculate. Hopefully, it will be sooner than later.

My understanding is that several sites are now in the testing phase, and once everything tests out well, we’ll see Internet poker here in Nevada. However, it’s also my experience that when you have massive computer programming involved, it can sometimes take longer than anticipated. Of course, we’re all waiting for the first sites to come up (even if it’s only here in Nevada).

Other than the above, I don’t have much else to report this month. So, please enjoy this month’s edition of our magazine.

Continuing on from last month’s note, work is progressing on all three of our announced books – Further Limit Hold ‘em; Exploring the Model Poker Game by Philip Newall, Applications of No-Limit Hold ‘em; A Guide to Understanding Theoretical Sound Poker by Matthew Janda,  and Harrington on Modern Tournament Poker by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie.

We don’t have publishing dates yet for the last two books, but Further Limit Hold ‘em should be available around the middle of January. We’re waiting to receive the index back from our index builder, but it’s promised, at the time of this writing, to be sent to us by the end of 2012. Assuming this schedule is met and the printing press is available, the middle of January seems realistic. If not, we should certainly have it by the end of January. For those interested, at the end of this note is the table of contents for Further Limit Hold ‘em.

I also want to mention that we’re hoping 2013 is a much better year for poker than either 2012 or 2011 were. The ROW Full Tilt Poker players have been paid back, and we’re hoping that the US players will be paid back in the not too distant future, plus the site is up and running again.

In addition, we’re expecting to see some new Internet poker sites here in Nevada, and hopefully some other states will soon be joining in. We at 2+2 don’t expect this to be an instant cure-all for our industry, but it will certainly be progress and hopefully will lead to a much better future.

Table of Contents

About Philip Newall v

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

Part One: Game Theory 7
Introduction 8
Climbing the Poker Pyramid 10
Why Everyone Should Know Some Game Theory 17
Principles of Game Theory 21
Simpler Decisions with GTO 27
Game Theory Made Easy 38
Bluffing 62
Other Topics on Early Streets 68
Draws to Bet 70
Draws to Check 70
Practical Exploitation 78
N-Players and Three-Betting Light 86
Recognizing Errors 95
Introspection 95
Studying Others 96
Inferring From Results 99

Part Two: Peeling the Onion 103
Introduction 104
Heuristics 106
Preflop in Heads-up 112
Slowplaying 133
Slowplay More as the Other Players’ Ranges Get Stronger 134
Continuation Betting 149
Board Texture Models 154
The Hi-Lo Model 155
The Draw Quality Model 157
Putting the Models to Work 162
Range Equities in a Sample of Flops 176
Conclusion 198
Small Blind Versus Big Blind in Six-Max 203
First Attempts at a Small Blind Flop Donk-Checking Strategy in Six-Max 219
Donk-Checking the Flop in Heads-up 255
Rockhopper 255
Polaris 262
Conclusion 266
Flop-Raising 267
An Analysis of Flop Textures 270
An Analysis of Lines Taken 280
Turn Bets 282
Turn Checks 299
Conclusion: Levels upon Levels 310
Donk-Betting the Flop 312
Rockhopper 313
Polaris 318
Hand Values for Donk-Betting the Flop 322
Checking the Flop Behind 325
Rockhopper 327
Polaris 331
Conclusion 335
Summing Up 337

Part Three: Hand Analysis 343
Introduction 344
Using an Unusual Spot to Improve My Strategy 345
Bet-Folding the River 349
Donk-Bluffing the River 358
Reprising the Free-Showdown Play 364

Conclusion 369
Index 371