Hold'em Poker: For Advanced Players

I was furious after I read some of the other reviews of this book. I looked only out of curiousity, considering I had already read (and reread) this book four year ago- before Varkonyi won the WSOP on ESPN or the WPT was being televised on the Travel Channel. The fact was, this book changed my life and my playing to a degree where I considered myself semi-professional. If you want a book on "How-to-begin-learning-poker" get Skalansky's skinny book on Hold 'em. But these pages are packed solid with enough information to make the book seem even heavier in your hands than the number of pages implies. Markus Damanski from Germany found it hard to understand, maybe english is not his first language. Jamie Landry from Seattle said she had to read it two whole times before she gleened a couple ideas from it! wow. And J. Gelling from NY gave it one star with an example quote to illustrate it's complexity which he could not follow. BUT... my response is: Noam Chomsky was not easy to get through. St. Thomas Aquinas made me want to pull my hair out. J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmerillian is just a bunch of nonsensical words! My points are as follows: 1. THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE TO FIND THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS BOOK. I have read them all. Yes, all of them. Many times. 2. THERE IS NO WAY TO PRESENT THIS INFORMATION IN A MORE PRECISE FASHION THAN IT IS. I had to read sentences, paragraphs, and whole pages over and over and over again until I understood it too (just like Chomsky & Aquinas), but there is no way I could I have said it more succinctly. 3. THEY ASSERT THAT SINCE SKLANSKY OFTEN REFERS TO LIMIT HOLD EM ON HIS LESSONS, IT HAS LITTLE OR NO VALUE IN NO LIMIT HOLD EM. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I could not reasonably move up to no limit hold em until I could understand and apply (with dicipline) the ideas and theories he presents for limit games. I play all over CA and NV at medium stakes ($5/$10 No Limit or $10/$20 Limit) against dozens of old men and young rookies (I'm only 28) who think they know it all. But it only takes a conversation at a short smoke break or a couple rounds of the blinds to recognize the basic theories they lack. And they scoff at me, "bah, i never read those damn books, sonny." Well, most of us are not smart enough to have spontaneous knowledge of complex ideas. The next best thing we can hope for is to be smart enough to follow the line of logic of smarter men than us like Einstein, Chomsky, Aquinas, and yes, even Sklansky. If you can't follow their advanced theories yet, go back and reread the basics. I shudder to think of reading an Einstein book for "Advanced Physicists" less than reading an idiot's review of it.

For people just surfing a list of poker titles, you will have a hard time understanding this book if you don't have a grounding in basic poker theory and some game-specific reference material already. Most of the terminology used by Sklansky and Malmuth is explained in detail in _The Theory of Poker_. For an easily read and perhaps more clearly written introduction to Texas Hold'em, I recommend _Hold'em Excellence_ by Lou Krieger or _Winning Low-Limit Hold'em_ by Lee Jones.Both of the basic books came after this book, however, and both pay extensive tribute to its lessons. It makes sense to read the simplified versions first, and then progress to this.An example of the different level of detail can be found with discussions of how to play a pair of jacks before the flop. Lee Jones tells you to raise with it in early position, and reraise the pot if it gets to you beforehand - which itself is sound advice, because you want to make worse hands pay to catch cards that beat yours. However, Sklansky sees it differently and goes further in explaining himself. "If no one has opened and you are in an early position, it is usually best to raise with JJ in a tight game and to just call with it in a loose game. With two jacks you would prefer either to have no more than one or two opponents in the hope your hand holds up without improvement, or to have as many opponents in the pot as possible when the majority of your profits come from flopping three-of-a-kind. The worst scenario is when exactly three or four opponents see the flop with you. This most likely would occur if you called in a tight game or raised in a loose game." This won't sink in nearly so well until you've built some good fundamental assumptions about playing the game and put in some hours of playing and thinking.No book will make you a strong player by itself, as Sklansky will point out in the introduction to any book on poker he's ever written. However, if you've read the Krieger and Jones texts a few times and come out a winner after six months of hold'em at the $3-$6/$4-$8 level, you might want to invest in this as your spring training before taking a shot at $10-$20 stakes and higher.

When I first bought this book i wasnt technically an advanced player. I understood the game, the rules, and many plays from just playing poker a lot. The problem with Hold'em is no matter how many books you read, you are destined to loose hundereds or thousands of dollars in the process of your Hold'em education. We have books like this one to give tips on how to cut down on the cost of your education. Honestly, if you're a regular player at the game of Hold'em you got to have this book for your collection. I say collection because all Hold'em players have a book collection :)Must reads: David Sklansky's - Theory of PokerDoyle Brunson's - The Super SystemThe absolute must of them all = Mike Caro's - Book of Poker TellsThis book gets more in to detail of things to do in certain situations or variations of Hold'em than it does about basics of the game. I really dont think anyone is going to get lost buying this book and being a beginner. You at least need to know what the basics of the game are, which can be learned by watching the World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker on TV. What David goes into more are Low limit, high limit, loose games, tight games, etc. and tips on what to do in certain situations against many or few opponents. I cant really say too much more that hasnt been said in all the other reviews. There is a lot of good info in this book. The bottom line is, for this game you must be as educated as possible about every kind of play there is. If you learn one thing in this book that will gain or save you a pot that you wouldn't have walked away with, then it has most likely paid for itself right then and there!

This is simply the best Hold'em book ever written.The first half of the book follows a traditional style. The authors cover opening hands, position, the "if you're checking a lot, you're a [bad] player" philosophy, calculating basic pot odds, and a variety of other topics essential to your game. This half of the book should be memorized. Don't kid yourself; if you don't know how to play a suited jack/nine from the fifth position, you will not win consistently playing Hold'em. Calculating pot odds separates the men from the boys, but you will need to get a copy of the Theory of Poker to truly cover that topic.The second half of the book is a wealth of short essays covering topics ranging from how to play especially difficult hands to more general topics such a slow-play and the semi-bluff. I can't tell you how helpful this part of the book is. For a newbie, there is too much information here to absorb, but just reading the text will help you recognize when players are using these techniques against you. With time, you will learn how to use these techniques yourself. The second part of the book also is an excellent reference for those times in a game when you just were not sure what the correct play was. Make a mental note when that happens and bust out this book when you get home. More than likely, you will find the information you need to make the correct play the next time. Keep in mind that when you're not sure how to play out a hand, your opponent likely has the same problems. If you learn from these difficult, often misplayed hands, you can gain a significant advantage over your fellow-players.Bottom line: Read this book over and over again until you can recall it line by line while sitting at the table. There is not a better way to spend your time than reading this book if you want to increase your hourly take at the Hold'em table.Five Enthusiastic Stars - HawkeyeGK

This is one of the books on the "required reading" list for the Poker Discussion Group in San Diego. It is really absolute must reading for anyone who intends to play Texas Hold'em in a casino and wants to be a winner. One notable thing regarding this book is that if you have not read "Hold'em Poker" by David Sklansky, this book may not make much sense to you. It really is for advanced players, and describes many plays that are sophisticated and beyond the scope of a beginning book on poker. The hand rankings are critical for beginners learning the difficult art of pre-flop play. The advanced plays described in some of the later chapters become the basis for winning play after the flop, particularly at the middle limits. Some of the plays are not all that useful in the small limit games, but the section on "loose games" is critical for beginning players learning how to navigate large multiway pots. Overall, this book is must reading, and anyone who hasn't read it is probably not going to be playing anywhere near optimally, no matter what limit of Texas hold'em they play.