Internet players

[kingmotan]

Do they do that a lot?

I'm feeling a certain sarcasm but I'm afraid you didn't get my point. I'm not sure you know what taking a line means but what I'm talking about is not a simple check - call on a certain street. Don't take my post to serious, I wasn't trying to be malicious, I just found that to be pretty funny and naive, what Mr Gordon said. Haven't had the pleasure of reading that book but I'm pretty sure he's only going through the basics..
Cheers.

[NoWuckingFurries]

The book is designed to deal with the basics - and that's the level I'm at. No, there wasn't any sarcasm in this instance, and possibly it's YOU that missed the point. The quote says that they very rarely call, it doesn't say that they never call, so I was simply asking whether they do it a lot. If they do it a lot I wonder whether that would make them too predictable and easy to read. If they do it occasionally, the quote probably still stands scrutiny.

[Peteyweestro]

I actually thought it sounded like sound advice,lol....goes to show what i know . In fact it's about a subject i strees over alot now, and that is the fact that i call / limp in to hands way way too much.But i don't seem to have the skill level yet to feel 100 % comfortable raising too much

[ND1991]

Well considering Phil Gordon has made a pretty good living playing poker, I would not simply dismiss anything he said. However, I would evaluate the era he played in, the copyright of the book, and how poker is an ever evolving game.

I personally like that quote quote quite a bit. I am also pretty sure if you really had the ability to diagnose the professionals' games you would see this holds true (remember what you see on TV are the hands to make the viewing enjoyable, it is a tiny tiny tiny sample of hands that selected not random).

I also have not yet read this book, but I assume it is on no limit hold em, and from the post I gather it is for beginners. So it might be the case the quote was used for emphasis to new players to the game to: a) emphasize calling is more often than not a weak play, and b) simplify the decision from call, fold, raise, to just raise.

In my experience (no I am not a pro, yes I am still learning a ton), two common mistakes I see from new players in NL are: a) they call too much, and b) they min raise too much.

[Peteyweestro]

You are right on those two things ND, i fight with both those issues daily at the tables but the last couple of days i started noticeing a trend where if i play like i have a monster and bet with that style alot of people will call once but if you raise again they aren't around to river you, and then the times they do call and stay in the hand has been when i did have a monster hand. Where before i let peeps limp in and stay in because of not being sure of my betting strategy, now i can raise a bet even if i don't have crap but do have the proper position