Sunday, February 06, 2005

Not so Super System

YTD: +$19781.95

A little while back a poster asked me for my views on Super System 2 (SS2). Finally, the slow boat from China delivered this long-awaited tome from the Doylesroom.com site after only a wait of 1 1/2 months from shipping. What's my initial view?

Crap.

I haven't read it all yet, and I sincerely doubt I will do. Even for a poker book the writing is mostly poor. I guess the problem for me is that I expected it to be of a similar quality to SS1, which although was often about antiquated games, was always full of top-notch advice. In SS2 you get a lot of filler...a LOT OF FILLER. Do you want to know the history of NLHE? Or the WPT? Or a synopsis of Mike Caro's n books? Well here it is. But wait, isn't this supposed to be a book for *experts*?

I've only read one full section, the PLO. I can't imagine that anything in it you wouldn't have already figured out for yourself if you had played a bit. Certainly nothing as useful as the Ciaffone and Ruben books. Not one thing that was an eye opener. I guess there was the prohibition on early raising that I liked, but I understand that I may be in the minority there and for me its more a style thing - lots of players seem to raise early and do okay. There was also some bad advice and IMHO at least one piece of fatal advice, so bad I can't mention it just in case it is widely taken up and it is directly responsible for my becoming a millionaire :-)

But it does make a very effective doorstop.

10 comments:

Sultan said...

Thanks for posting your thoughts on Berman's Omaha High section. I have the Reuben and Ciaffone book's which are good (epsecially the Pot Limit and No Limit Poker book) but not comprehensive. (I know, comprehensive is asking a lot). Reuben's How Good is My Pot Limit Omaha contains an entertaining stream of analysis and non sequitor, but is often incoherent. I am not a good enough Pot Linit Omaha player to evaluate the quality of his advice, but I know he needs a better editor.

I thought the section by Daniel N. on Triple draw in SS2 was interesting and worthwhile (but where would I find someone to play this game with?). The rest of the book contained an occasional nugget or two, but you have to sort through a lot of ordinary rocks to find them.

redsimon said...

Looking at your YTD I guess SS2 is superfluous(sp)! I thought the PLO stuff was the most disappointing chapter on a game, though the NLHE chapter was a big let down too.

Going back to your YTD...PLO/PLO8 or have you been dipping your toes in Limit Hold 'Em?

Milkybarkid said...

Hi Dave

Surely the increase in the YTD of $8000+ from Wed-Sun is worth a mention?

How many hours did you have to play to win all that?

Ben

SimonG. said...

Glad I read the other comments first....was thinking the same thing! Roll out a couple of hand histories from the last couple of days - I can't believe you made $8.5k nicking the blinds!

Great results.

Big Dave D said...

Red,

The game I am playing is "rush" :-) Im hotter than hot at present, playing PLO and PLO8b. I threw away a grand last month at limit holdem which I will write up soon. But so far Im staying disciplined and not stepping up to 5-10...long live the rush!

gl

dd

Big Dave D said...

Ben,

I learnt last year not to comment on any jumps in the YTD as it becomes tedious and depressing when the jumping is on the other foot :( I recently bit the bullet at work so I am putting in a fair few hours...this month so far I have played 20 hours, all at 2-4. I'm shooting for 4-5 hours a day but it hard.

gl

dd

Big Dave D said...

Simon,

I need to review the hands but mostly, as is often the case in a rush, the hands themselves are only interesting in the fact that Im winning big pots. In some cases I have had monsters, in others I have been very lucky. I'm not a big fan of just posting hands for self-aggrandizement as it doesnt do much for me or you either, although it can be mildly entertaining :)

Thanks all for the nice comments!

dd

Big Dave D said...

Aksu,

As there seems to be some popular voyeuristic demand i will publish some hands...some pretty, some ugly :) As to the PLO question, its up to u...if its short and sweet, prolly hijack a thread, if its more convuluted then mail me...maybe we could turn it into a post!

gl

dd

Anonymous said...

Dave, congratulations on your success so far this year.

I only browsed the PLO section in the bookstore yesterday, but it really seemed like Lyle Berman is a fish. There is a ridiculous comment to the effect of "Many times on the flop you'll have a coin flip, and both players would put in all their money even if the cards were turned face up." That is totally bogus. As Ciaffone/Reuben point out, you can often shade the odds in your favor if the money is deep enough and you manipulate the pot correctly.

People often wonder who the target is in the big Bellagio game and I suspect it is Berman. I am sure he is a competent player, but he seems to lack some understanding of fundamentals. Of course, he is worth hundreds of millions, so what do I know.

BTW, I have confirmed that the 1/2 and 2/4 PLO games on UltimateBet are very good, although they seem to go sporadically and are often shorthanded. I seem to be having much more success there than on Stars.

Roswell

Big Dave D said...

Tx Roswell...I might give the UB games a spin! My first happy memories of playing on the net were there :)

cheers

dd