The last few days were spent clearing a few bonuses and basically breaking even. Frustrating. I didn't have a student this week so I did get a chance to do a ton of writing, and the book is over 65,000 words now. The problem with no-limit cash games is that everything hinges on everything else, making it tough to roganize things into sections or chapters. <READMORE>

The same issue ocurred to me when I was answering a post on our forums recently. The poster wanted to see more videos where I had tough decisions to make because many of my decisiions seemed easier than he was used to in the videos on our site. I don't pick and choose which videos I put up on the site, If I record it I'm putting it up abotu 90% of the time. The onyl time I don't put something up is if I fold hands for half an hour. Nobody wants to see that.

The reason things look easier for a skilled no-limit player is that they are making correct decisions early int he hand to keep themselves out of trouble. If you are often facing tough decisions on the river don't worry abotu how to make those tough decisions, just think about how you ended up in that predicament. Anyone can end up with a tough choice to make at hte tables, it happens to me every day, but if you are careful about how you make your early decisions there won't be nearly as many tough choices later.

Knowing the game as a whole, and watching your opponents carefully, will help you make those correct decisions and knowledge fo every piece of the game will work together to keep you out of trouble more often. That's why the book is so tough to organize. How do I talk about preflop play without discussing implied odds and the effect they have on your hand selection. Then of course I have to talk about how to ruin your opponents implied odds when you have a big hand preflop. That leads into an understanding of the math necessary to determine those things. To know what kinds of hands to play preflop, in what positions, and whether to raise or call, all requires knowing your opponents, so I have to talk about that as well.

Of course knowing your opponents isn't enough, you have to know what to do against various types of opponents too. Your preflop hand selection also requires you to know the table and how it is playing overall, as well as your own table image so I had better cover that stuff in the preflop section too... Pretty soon I've got hte whole book written in a big jumbled mess and it's all in the first chapter. You see what I mean?

My point here is that everything works together. If there is one thing you are forgetting to consider in a no-limit Hold Em game you are throwing money away. Makes me wonder how the hell anyone can play eight tables of no-limit and make a profit, but many people claim they can do it, and some of them are even telling the truth.

I'll see you at the final table,
Fox </READMORE>