Quick Super System Notes

I received Doyle Brunson's Super System in the post the other day and decided to give you some quick thoughts on it so far.

I read the introductions and skipped to the no-limit hold 'em section, so this is by no means an in-depth review but more my initial thoughts on it.

For those who don't know, Super System is known as the bible of poker books and has been selling well for years. By the time Brunson had written the book he had already won millions in poker and had won the World series Of Poker (then known as the Poker World Championship) twice.

When it comes to poker, he knows his stuff.

After a read though the specified sections I took two things away straight away which will defiantly improve my play.

The first one is that the way that he plays hold 'em is aggression, aggression, aggression! One particular quote that I took from the book is this:

"If your going to call, then bet."

By that he means that if you aren't on the button, and you would call say 100 chips, then instead of checking and waiting for an opponent to bet, then bet the 100 chips yourself. This may sound simple to some readers but it opened my eyes to another major flaw in my game. I really check sometimes knowing that I would call a bet that may come may way. Doyle explained that I should bet in those situations.

The other thing that I picked up straight away is the value of mid sized connecting cards. By this I mean 6-7 suited, 7-8 suited, 8-9 suited etc. He writes a huge chapter on it which I am currently absorbing. I hope that I don't do his millions of hands of experience an injustice by explaining the power of these cards in a few sentences.

Basically if you raise pre-flop with these hands then most poker players will throw away cards other than picture cards, like aces, or kinds, or queens etc. If you have four players in the hand with picture cards and you hit your straight with your mid-sized connectors then you know you will have the best hand and the chances are if they have a big pair then you can get a lot of money from them.

It's like making sure that everyone is beating themselves up and fighting to make their way to the front door, you can wipe them all out by quietly sneaking out the back. You are setting them up perfectly for a fall.

Again, I have just read a few sections and I can't say I properly studied them. These are just my initial thoughts and observations on a huge course on poker. However, I used these tactics at a local tournament on Tuesday this week and finished higher than I ever had done before.