Poker Book Report Wars: Arnold Snyder challenges David Sklansky
Arnold Snyder is not new to gambling, but he is a new writing force in the world of poker. Having recently written a groundbreaking tournament poker manual, he has sparked an old-school versus new-school debate, aggression versus conning, and blunt force versus fear of losing. With the publication of The Poker Tournament Formula, Snyder has captured a loyal and expanding audience of strategy-hungry tournament players who contribute to Snyder’s online forum like packs of wolves, frequently biting into old-fashioned tournament thinkers. school.
Collectively, those thinkers are represented (ideologically at least) by David Sklansky, the in-residence professor and writer for Tournament Poker for advanced players. This book, now several years after its first publication, and before the boom, launched the tight-early and tight-aggressive strategy that just made good sense in Hold’em tournaments. This strategy is guided in nature by the gap concept described in Sklansky’s book as “you need a better hand to play against someone who has already opened bets than you would need to open yourself.” Even modern superstar writers like Dan Harrington and Phil Gordon use this in their strategies too, so you know it has to have some merit. As such, it is not unusual to find that loud and aggressive player at numerous final tables who has enough playable cards during the tournament to have survived the final table.
Survival is the keyword here, as he (insert any Sklansky drone) is rarely among the chip leaders. Additionally, the player rarely returns to a final table, because the basic tight strategy of relying on sufficient quality hands must also be merged with actually winning pots and holding for the entire tournament. As Snyder has long pointed out, it’s those “quality” hands that get you kicked out of the tournaments they play, as opposed to positional plays with weak positions.
Where Snyder feels that The Gap is a completely wrong concept is in the smaller buy-in tournaments that many players participate in on a daily basis, at local casinos, regional events, and online poker sites. Snyder feels this is a lucrative segment, as many players will never have a large enough bankroll for $ 10,000 and $ 15,000 entry fees for the WPT and WSOP. However, if you play these smaller tournaments the way Snyder plays them, you will soon be able to pay a $ 10,000 entry fee!
Snyder breaks down these smaller tournaments and ranks them on a skill level based on the chip and blind structure combined with the number of buy-ins. Depending on the skill level and patience factor of the tournament, your strategy will be radically different than what Sklansky would recommend. The underlining of that strategy relies heavily on positional play and putting pressure on your opponents, who have probably missed the flop as much as you. This is done despite your hole cards, not because of them. Snyder’s wolves say this strategy works with numbers in large part because of Sklansky-type tournament opponents knowing nothing more than folding out of position or weakness on the flop.
Both writers have forums and they both have a following, and it’s interesting to hear some of the challenges presented by the Snyder Wolves: “specific errors in advice from Sklansky and Malmuth”, “I’ve been thinking a lot about the” Concept Gap “and why it’s wrong “,” Waiting for Sklansky to speak “,” The burden of proof was on Sklansky, and all he did was increase his mistakes “,” Sklansky’s “proof” is a perfect example of his incompetence at logical poker “and so on. This is juicy!
All I can say is that between the two of us, someone has to know what’s going on here! All we want to know is how to win a fucking tournament! It seems to me that you need elements of both strategies to win tournaments. Take a look at players like Daniel Negreneau, Erick Lindgren, Gus Hansen, Greg Raymer or Gavin Smith. They’ve often made some incredible passes to aggressive opponents, but I see them more often playing things like QJos, 57s, KTs, and even more crap hands for not just one player, but two! These guys really understand, like Arnold Snyder, that if you lay down like Sklansky does, you just aren’t going to see a lot of final tables. By the way, have you seen David Sklansky at a final table recently?
All of the past tournament players, who are definitely more in tune with Snyder’s lean, have won big and often. Yes, I want some of that.