Q&A #12: Developing Your Poker Thinking

Don't miss one article! Subscribe to the Full Feed RSS or get NPA in your inbox.

Rand asks,

The upgrades to your NPA site are great. I read it daily.

Your path to poker seems unique among authors having come from a technical, academic background.

I am an engineer myself who, along with the rest of the world, is making the transition from low-limit to no-limit hold’em.
I have read most of the significant hold’em lit (yourself, Yao, Harrington, Gordon, Jalib, Sklansky, etc) and am looking forward to the new Chen book and to your second no-limit book.

My question is this. What approaches do you use in formulating strategies? Do you make extensive use of computer simulations? What sources of data do you use? Is any commercial software useful in running non show-down simulations (Wilson?)?

I want to start developing my own strategies rather than be dependant on those published by others no matter how good they may be. Any direction you can give to techniques or publications would be greatly appreciated.

I’m not heavily into using simulation software, though there is one piece that I use regularly.

Tags: abdul-jalib, Adjusting Your Play, aggression, andrew-prock, bill-chen, dan-harrington, david-sklansky, jerrod-ankenman, king-yao, mathematics-of-poker, noted-poker-authority, npa, phil-gordon, poker, pokerstove, preflop-play, turbo-texas-holdem, wilson-software