In the end, any formulaic starting hand strategy is going to suffer from major weaknesses due to the fact that it fails to make the proper adjustments for the specific players you are playing against. Chen's formula is no exception.
If you're just starting out, this provides as good a strategy as any for giving you a place to start. It will point you in the right direction for the vast majority of hands. The few major complaints I have with specifics of the strategy are:
- It appears to over-value suitedness in some situations. AJs and KQs are pretty much never going to be as good as AKo. And further, playing AJs/KQs from early position at a full ring game can easily get you into a lot of trouble.
- It leads to beginners playing marginal hands without a solid understanding of why they are playing them. Playing small suited connectors in position is very +EV, as long as you are playing them significantly differently than you would play AKo from early position. But if you do not understand the differences, you will often end up in trouble with the suited connectors.
- Never calling a raise with hands less than a value of 10 gives up on a lot of +EV situations. Specifically (assuming that stacks are sufficiently deep), set-mining with pocket pairs and playing suited connectors in multiway pots.
- It appears to also over-value middle pairs. This is likely to lead players to get lost with middle pairs. For instance, 77 is almost never better than AK - and that goes doubly true for beginning players. Hell, think about the reputation beginners give to JJ!
