Customer Reviews

Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't have time to write a full review right now, but I'll put in this quickie to negate some of the negative reviews on amazon.

PROS
This book has almost everything a semi-skilled player needs to take their game to the next level. Mike breaks down the play and analysis in order, by street to give the book a logical flow in the beginning. After that, he expands on general topics such as bankroll management, bluffing, treating poker like a business, etc.

The advice is very pragmatic and much more realistic than most other books. Let's face it. Most of the time you should fold. But in those special circumstances when you have the right player in the right position with the right sized pot, then you can do other moves. Mike says as much and gives solid advice on when to and when not to do certain moves.

Also, the section on treating poker like a business is pure gold. Let's face facts. Most of us play with too much ego from time to time. His advice is a wake up call for those of us play as though we need to prove how smart we are.

CONS
The book is very math light, so you won't find any modeling of hand distributions. I personally really enjoy hand distribution modeling, but it's yet to prove it's usefulness to me so I didn't miss it here. In fact, the shortcoming of modeling (for me) is that all of the math is only as valid as the assumptions (your read). So after reading "Killer Poker: By the Numbers", I felt that this book was a bit of a missing link between the modeling and reality.

The second short coming is that this book is really just a collection of all of his previous work. Is that so terrible? If you've managed to read just about ALL of his newspaper and magazine articles as well as his books and his section in Super System II; then you may feel like you've already read most of this book. Personally, I've ready A LOT of his writings, and I only recognized about 25% of it in this book.

REBUTTLES
For those who criticize his recommendation to create a wreckless table image (while actually playing solid), what do you think about Doyle Brunson's recommendation to create an aggressive table image by always betting and raising, or Johnny Chan's recommendation to the exact same thing? Or what about Daniel Negraneau's recommendation to appear to be a call station so you can't be read? Most players agree that it's good to appear more wreckless than you actually are. However, Mikes advice is in the minority that explains how to appear wreckless without actually being wreckless.

First of all this is a great poker book. I consider myself a stuent of the game and read ALOT of books on Hold em. Mike's advice is sound and works. He does advocate having a loose and playful image and it does illict more calls. How many times have you tightened up your play against a intimdating oponnet? I also find myself calling more than I should to friendly players with my marginal / semi strong hands. Mike's book put this whole psychology into a easily readable format. I noticed a distinct upswing in my profits after reading the book and implementing some of his techniques. Now this style of play is not or everyone. If you want to play like a rock and sneer at other players you will probally still make a profit, but you will be mising out on ALOT of extra money at the tables. Read the book and then reread it and all of his techinques fall into place. This book changed the way I play poker in so many ways.

It's rather difficult to clearly analyze Mike Caro's most recent book because some of the advice he gives is a bit controversial, and other parts can only be pulled off by experts.

First, let me state that there is a wealth of very valuable information in the book. Granted, much of it has been previously published in his earlier works, and magazine articles, but here, it's all available in one place. I especially liked the section about treating Hold'em as a business as well as the occasional piece that really made me think about my game.

However, Mr. Caro STRONGLY advocates creating a loose image in order to induce more calls, and increase profit. Several sections stress this, and advise the player how to do it. As I recall, he and another author, went round and round about this several years ago. To my mind, Mr. Caro has not proven that creating the loose image is the best path, especially for beginning players. Furthermore, and more importantly, it is very easy for a non-expert player to attempt this strategy and cost themselves some serious money. Newer players should be very careful in their attempts to be like Mike.

So, while I do recommend the book [all of Caro's material is worth reading]I strongly advise the players to be careful when implementing some of it's advise.

For those considering this book, let me just say this...it's worth the money. There are plenty of valuable tips and insights which will make even experienced players re-examine their game.

I would not suggest this book for beginners even though there are plenty of lessons beginners could learn from as well.

Compared to Caro's famous book on Tells, i would think that this book contains much more practical advice.

Forced to look for negatives, i think the section on bankrolls and bankroll management can be skipped right over by most people and i think that some of the information is pretty much repeated in several sections.

The repetition is not exactly a negative though as the info is still good and could use the reinforcement, and the repetition is not entirely unexpected given that much of the book seems like a compilation of stories, articles, and book excerpts i've read before.

All in all, this book will more than pay for itself in the first hour of live play.

Imagine for a moment that you are so incredibly
foolish as to accept a $10,000 loan from a guy named Louie.

Louie is your friend and Louie believes in you!
He believes that you will win big at poker and that you will
pay him back the ten G's plus his "juice" of another ten G's,
so on your return from Vegas (If you do return) you pay Louie the 20 thousand, and you can keep the rest of your poker winnings!

Obviously you are in deep poop.

You decide to grab one book from your poker library to read
during your flight to Vegas. Your last chance to learn something about making money at poker! The book that I would pack into my suitcase is "Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice".

Turn to any page in this book. Any page at all! and you will learn something new about making money playing poker.

This book is amazing! Mike Caro is amazing!

Of course, don't accept a loan from ANYONE to play poker!

Good book with lots of valuable information. The focus is on the player who is aspiring to be a professional cash game player. If that's you, it's probably a good read. Much of the book focuses on developing your table image, so if you are a tourney player, or just play at home games you wont get as much value from the book.

This book if you really read it an absorb the information and use it properly: You will see the chips come to you. Not a book that teaches you the basics takes your game to a winning level. Anyone that says its a bad book is merely someone who has not truly used Caro's tactics they work.

This book is well worth the read for its advice on table image, how to conduct yourself on the poker felt. Caro tries to mention some no-limit hands, but his bias towards limit hold'em is evident. I find his writing style too avuncular (wordy and annoying) but there is information in here I haven't seen anywhere else.

Pros: A couple real gems that made me rethink how I was approaching my game. A statistical analysis of every starting hand for those that are inclined to that sort of thing.

Cons: Very little new information, mostly common sense/pragmatic views. He repeatedly qualifies himself as the "Mad Genius" of poker with tiring referances to his book with Doyle "Super System".

Bottom Line: Save the money read his articles freely found online and buy yourself a better book. Sadly I havnt found a better book yet. As the multiple books on poker I've read (4-5) have yet to leave a positive impression with me. Most delving into the authors ego or offering little beyond common sense; that is however better left for a different review.

I gave this book 2 stars due to the hand tables and the rare gem I found inside.

What a terrible book. Sure, Caro has the awesome "mad genius" reputation, and certainly his analysis was cutting edge a couple decades ago. But much of what he teaches has been debunked by newer, better research. There are odd bits of useful information in this book, but there is lots of other information that contradicts what the best poker thinkers of today are preaching, and they back it up with math. Caro backs it up by referring to his "research," without actually describing that research. The best analogy I can think of is that Caro is like Einstein. He came up with a groundbreaking theoretical approach, like relativity, that changed the way people thought about the universe of poker; but he got left behind when others came up with quantum theory. E.g., he doesn't seem to have caught on to current thinking on the concept of equity in tournament play, especially near the bubble. Does he not believe that ICM works? Most winning tournament players do. And many other examples I don't have time to cite. He can't accept that another, better theory has supplanted his, no matter how vividly the data demonstrates it. Also, his writing style here is very irritating. How many times must we read things like "Do you want to know why blah, blah, blah? Well, I'll tell you. Here's why...." Yuck.