381 pages
List Price: $29.95
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Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments (Strategic Play)
by Dan Harrington, Bill Robertie
Spotlight Reviews
Top notch; very pleasantly surprised, February 15, 2005
Reviewer: M. Grapenthien (Chicago)
No limit hold'em, obviously, is a complex game. So complex that there has never been a good comprehensive treatment in a book form; I had thought that this was because it involves more "table feel", experience and intuition that can't be easily taught or expressed in a useful format.
Harrington and Robertie have done just that. Harrington is the 1995 world champion, and the only player to make the final table in both 2003 and 2004, overcoming the two biggest fields in World Series history (839 and 2,576 players, respectively). Robertie is a top backgammon player and author of several excellent books on that game.
Among the top players, there are drastically different styles of play, from conservative to super-aggressive. One problem I expected was that given Harrington's solid, fairly conservative style, he wouldn't be able to give much useful information on playing at the other end of the end of the spectrum, styles such as those employed by Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen.
I was wrong. The book does a fine job addressing the relative merits of various styles, playing against each type of opponent, and even choosing one for yourself. This makes sense; no matter his own style, to be successful he has to have spent a lot of time thinking about, observing, and combatting all different types of players. Further, a playing style isn't cast in stone; even the most conservative players have to switch gears and become much more aggressive at times, and vice versa.
A few more notes on this idea: first, Harrington's own play as described isn't as conservative and cautious as many think. Second, a fairly conservative approach is demonstrably the more sound one for the student, and anyone without many years of experience. Hyper-aggressive play would be much harder to teach well, and also much harder to pull off successfully. The players who thrive playing these aggressive, gambling styles have exceptional talent as well as lots of experience and a great feel for the game and their opponents, and are faced with difficult decisions under lots of pressure much more often. For those who insist on trying, it probably still makes more sense to learn a fundamentally sounder style first and then proceed from there.
The book is laid out well for learning. Each chapter starts with a discussion of the topic, touching on the theory. There are several example situations with the authors' answers and detailed reasoning, as well as the merits of alternative plays. Following each chapter there are problems, mostly from real hands. It provides a diagram of the table, the chip counts for each player, your knowledge of the opponents, etc... all the relevant information. The problems usually provide all this information even when some of it is irrelevant to the problem, which is a strength. A big part of the decision-making process in poker (as well as lots of other things) is recognizing and eliminating extraneous details to make analysis more managable.
This is the first in a two volume set. I thought this was odd, as this is first for 2+2 poker books, but the first volume is bigger than most of their others already. The book is self-contained; there are no partial answers or information that tell you to buy the second volume for the details. I don't think there has been an official announcement on when Volume 2 will be released, but I've heard sometime this spring.
The book is geared specifically toward tournaments, and especially toward those with well-defined formats, such as major casino/cardroom events and those on the Internet. For cash game players, a solid understanding of tournament and poker theory would be necessary to make the appropriate adjustments to cash play. Most of the book would still apply, but some situations would change drastically in a side game, where simply getting your money in with an advantage, rather than survival, is the main goal.
For those newer to poker, to get the most out of this book, I would recommend a few others be read either first or at the same time: "The Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky, "Small Stakes Hold'em" by Miller, Sklansky and Malmuth, and "Winning Low Limit HOld'em" by Lee Jones, especially for the newest players.
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286 pages
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The Making Of A Poker Player: How An Ivy League Math Geek Learned To Play Championship Poker
by MATT MATROS
Customer Reviews
A refreshing, entertaining read, April 13, 2005
Reviewer: Richard D. Pernice "Bumblebee711" (Lake Zurich, IL USA)
Matt Matros has written a poker book that both teaches and entertains. How refreshing! Matros does an excellent job of instructing the reader without putting him/her to sleep with the same old tired advice. I found myself liking this guy more and more as I read his story. He comes off as a very intelligent, yet humble guy. He's obviously done his homework on poker and in turn shares his experiences with us in an easy to understand format. I think both beginners and pros alike will enjoy and benefit from this book.
Enjoyable and Educational, April 8, 2005
Reviewer: Polly Darcey (Boston, MA)
This is a great book to read and it is educational as well. The author states that you can live through his poker experiences and learn from his mistakes by reading the book. He did an excellent job of going back and forth between his poker instructions and personal poker stories/experiences. It makes for a delightful and interesting read. And it doesn't drag like most poker books. I would recommend this book to novices and experts alike. I think I can honestly say that Matt Matros is the best poker author out there right now.
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151 pages
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Tournament Poker & The Art Of War
by DAVID APOSTOLICO
Customer Reviews
A fresh approach, March 13, 2005
Reviewer: Cardcatcher
This book is different from any other poker book I've read. It takes age-old war strategy and applies it to no-limit holdem tournaments. The discussion of pre-tourney preparation and mental discipline during the tourney is first-rate. Also, by illustrating Sun-Tzu's principles with examples of actual hands, the author makes it easy for even novice players to grasp his points. I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to start playing no-limit tournaments, as well as veterans trying to reach the next level.
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270 pages
List Price: $16.99
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Winning at Internet Poker For Dummies
by Mark "The Red" Harlan, Chris Derossi
Spotlight Reviews
A surprisingly helpful book toward Internet Poker skill, February 28, 2005
Reviewer: C. K. Ogi (NW MO USA)
I make no bones about the fact that I tend to be a big fan of the 'For Dummies' series of books. The smaller bits of informatio, and the way they are highlighted to stand out with relevant information is presented, I appreciate.
So, I was not surprised when I found Internet Poker for Dummies to be very helpful as well. I am an avid online poker player, and feel recently that my developement has been stalled. I purchased this book, because I liked that it related to Internet Poker, which has several different nuances that you can't overlook when playing online vs. live game.
While some of the concepts and tips they recommend go in direct opposition to my normaly conservative style of play, I do really find value in their explainations about WHY these would be good/better bets to make or better ways to play certain hands. It also covers freeroll tourney's, which I found a very honest look at the nature of freerolls and how to succeed with them.
If you have any interest in online poker success, this is a book that belongs in your home poker library.
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