Customer Reviews

Getting Started in Hold 'em

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The short: The limit section is 77 pages, the no-limit (NL) section is 33 pages.

The long: Ed Miller is known as a poker authority, and there's no doubt that he knows his stuff. Along with Sklansky & Malmuth who represent the 2+2 publishing company that Miller writes for, he's known mostly for being a limit holdem player and that part of his book is well done.

However I felt that the NL section was lacking. While he went through his thought process for the section on evaluating his limit holdem hands, which were very well done, his NL section leaves much to be desired. Let me sum up his NL section.

Buy in for cheap so you limit the extent that you'll get exposed by better players. Wait for premium hands such as AA-TT, AQ, AK then raise preflop about four times the big blind, then go all-in on the flop whether or not you hit the flop. This is seriously the bulk of his entire strategy. He does not go into the thought process for the player as he did in his limit sections. He accuses other authors of writing a vague strategy, and giving amusing anecdotes in their books, but Miller does the exact same thing. He gives an anecdote of a 3-hour session, where his strategy made him money versus a player who made a snide remark, as evidence that this strategy works. Any real poker player knows even thousands of hours may not be enough to prove yourself as a winning poker player (Ed knows this and makes a mention of it).

This book deserves 2.5 stars. I have a lot of respect for Ed and wish I could give it a better rating, but I cannot ignore the lack of substance in the NL section. If you are like most new holdem players, then you're probably not interested in learning limit holdem. You may see this book and think "Wow, I want to learn to play the game that's taking over the world. The one that those guys on TV are playing". Well buying this book will start you off learning the wrong game. Limit & NL are a very different animal. Other books out there at least have many examples of no limit hands, so the reader can develop an intuition as to the rhythm that an NL games flows to.

This book how now supplanted Lee Jones' Winning Low Limit Hold'Em as the first book on hold'em that I recommend to my friends. Despite the title, it's hardly a beginner's book - in fact, I think the author's tone strikes a great balance between not talking down to the reader, and introducing intermediate and advanced strategies that will bridge the gap from novice to experienced player. I've played poker professionally for the past 4 years, and hence have many people coming up to me asking for suggestions to improve their game - I find myself time and again recommending Miller's book. It's actually his second book, and while his first - Small Stakes Hold'Em - is another excellent read, I don't know if it's the best place for novice to intermediate players to start, as it advocates a relatively aggressive strategy that most players find intimidating at first.

Although most of the book is dedicated to limit hold'em, the most fascinating chapter(s) talk about no-limit hold'em, in which Miller discusses an intriguing and effective short-stack strategy for no-limit cash games, which many of my fellow full-time players have been buzzing about. The reason that the strategy has rarely been used until now is that it depends on the ability to stand up and switch tables frequently - of course in casinos this is relatively difficult when there may be only one or two tables at every limit...but online poker is the perfect place to use/abuse this strategy as switching tables is as easy as the click of a mouse. Call me an old-timer, but I had never really gotten into online poker, until my son insisted I "get with the times", and I happily play on 4 or 5 different sites now. Another post here led me to pokercroaker.com which I found had bonus sign-up codes to the various online sites, and reviews of each. I will say that the style of play online is substantially different than what I was used to in live games, but Miller's book is just as applicable. It's written clearly and concisely, and in my humble opinion should be a staple in the library of every poker player, no matter the level of experience.

Professing to address both of the most popular forms of hold 'em (limit and no limit), Ed Miller's first solo effort does a terrific job providing useful approaches for the former. The first 35 pages are spent as a cursory review of hand/board reading and rules/regs, which may be necessary for some. However, from page 35, and through the next 80 pages, the limit hold 'em section is absolutely terrific, as Ed takes you through an in-depth analysis of the play of 9 hands from all manner of positions on the table. The best aspect of these hand examples is the marriage of visual (you see a theoretical hand played from deal to river in most cases) applications of such points as:

- Protecting your hand.
- Saving pots, not extra bets.
- Value betting the later streets.
- Pot equity
- Semi-bluffing
- Pot odds/Implied Odds
- Strategic Advantages (Pre- and Post-flop)

The no limit and tournament sections are weaker, but the fact that the limit section is so well organized and composed more than makes up for their shortcomings as the theories can be applied to NL play. Besides, most of the NL material is more thoroughly addressed in Ed's new effort (NL Hold 'Em: Thoery and Practice).

I've been playing hold 'em (admittedly mostly no limit) for 2.5 years, having been able to advance to $5/$10 levels, and found a re-read of this short and sweet book (especially the 80 pages of limit material) to be a terrific refresher, and so believe it would serve as a great intro to the game.

I thought I knew a fair bit about small stakes hold'em and thought I should dive into my studying with a more advanced book. A buddy kept telling me to start with this one, and I'm glad he did. The best proof I have is that I consistently win in small money games. After reading "Getting Started" I have the background knowledge the authors of more advanced books assume that their readers have.

This book was great. The first 35 pages alone are worth the money i paid for it. Speaking of which, this book is relatively cheap in comparison to other books fetching $20-25. Miller gives clear and thought out examples and explanations that aren't cluttered with too much poker jargon that the beginning player may not understand. Again, the first segments of this book, such as Reading the Board, and Understanding hand strength, benefited me greatly. Along with Small Stakes Hold 'em winning big with expert play, these books should be the first buy for a beginning player hands down. A very solid read.

If you're are a beginner to Hold'Em and really want to learn about it you probably wont't find a better book out there.

Ed Miller is an excellent writer. He succeeds in transferring the most important (basic) knowledge about limit hold'em in an extremely easy and enjoyable 100 something page read. this first part of the book alone can lead you from being an absolute loser to an at least break-even if not small winner in limit hold'em.

the rest of the book covers the basics about no-limit and tournaments which provide less info but also can get you started. he also provides you with good recommendations on the follow up books to read for each part.

ed millers writing style is really refreshing compared to david sklansky (and other experts) who's style is really hard to follow the first x times. i first tried the sklansky & co. books for a start before i discovered millers beginner book. having read it its much easier now to follow the advanced but sometimes badly written expert books.

so to repeat: if you're a beginner buy this book, because there is no better place to start.

I've got this book in my bag right now. And I've bought over 20+ poker books; a half-dozen DVDs; and plenty of poker magazines.

I'm rereading it to review some of the NL cash concepts...which one reviewer ridiculed...but I thought it made alot of sense...essentially its NL short stack cash strategy...play tight and put your stack in the middle with premium or very good hands. I like that he admitts...this probably won't make you the most popular guy at the table.

In other parts of the book...he goes over the concept of pot equity in an easy to understand fashion...which I still appreciate. After you read this book you're either aware of....or refreshed on...some very solid poker concepts/principles.

The NL tournament section is short...true. Nothing remarkable. But still useful for a beginner. I looked at it more as an add-on than anything else.

good luck

My only wish is that I had this book when I was starting out. It is clear, concise and it covers all of the nuts and bolts of hold 'em poker so well. If you are starting out in poker and you only want to get one book this is the one. I would consider myself an intermediate player and I was surprised how much I learned from this book. It is truly excellent and I would give it six stars if I could.

Today is June 1st of 2009, so i have a solid two months of hold'em experience behind me! Just wanted to play pool, but they finally got me off the bar stool into a game of hold'em at Johnny's Bar. I was hooked by the very first game which of course, i lost. At the bar, i would ask one of the old timers for advice, which was typically "play every ace" or "play every A,K,Q,J" or even "play every hand to the flop, any hand can win". We even have a kid (relative to my age) who is in fact a professional hold'em dealer at a local South Florida casino who advised me that a hand being suited doesn't add much value to the hand, so an Ace-7 off-suit is just as playable as an Ace-7 suited. I believed him, that is until i read "Hand Five - Two Off The Button", "Are You Suited?" wherein we learn that being suited is a SIGNIFICANT advantage!

Don't listen to card dealers, their game generally stinks because their knowledge of poker theory is non-existent. The old timers mean well, but they only know what they know, as they have never read a single book on hold'em. Just trust me on this one.

Now my hold'em library presently holds 17 books from amazon.com and I have perused at least one chapter from each, but the 1 book that has done me the greatest good for my budding hold'em side income career would be Ed Miller's "Getting Started in Hold'em". Ed presents the fundamental theories of poker in such a clear way as to be accessible to the beginning adult player. And that's what i like the most about Ed.

He does not talk down, nor dangerously oversimplify, towards the beginner. He tells you what you fundamentally need to know with straight talk,(if books could talk) no nonsense prose. I used to struggle with pre-flop hand selection, but after reading just one single previously mentioned chapter, i can now go into battle knowing that the "ONLY profitable unsuited and unpaired hands to play are AK,AQ,AJ,KQ and in favorable situations AT and KJ." However! "If someone raises in front of you, the situation is very unfavorable, and you should play only AK."

Well that simplifies things a whole bunch! Now we now know how to manage an entire class of hands, namely the unsuited and unpaired class.
We play only those unpaired, unsuited hands that Ed advises and anything else in this class can be considered an unprofitable hand, so we fold.

So here is my "University Of Texas Hold'em" class schedule:

Read Chapter 1 of "Getting Started" Ed Miller, a noted poker authority.
Read Chapter 1 of "No Limit Hold'em Theory and Practice" Miller/Sklansky
Read Chapter 1 of "Harrington on Cash Games Volume 1" Dan Harrington

"Read chapter 1" means means read & meditate upon the idea(s) presented.
Then, go online with play money and practice the concept(s) that you are learning. I like to spend the entire day contemplating a single chapter.

I also find it helpful and sometimes necessary to draw a large oval (the table) on a sheet of paper and place a circle around the "D","SB","BB" and create a circle (seat) for all the other players as well. Then place an "X" inside the circle for those that have folded and other info above each seat as needed to designate the action, such as "call $1", and so on. This way, you can easily resume the action that you will have entirely forgotten after Ed has finished coaching you on your hand! "and so you raise..."

The next day, go to the 2nd book (Theory & Practice) and do the same.
The third day is spent with Dan Harrington, another marvel of clarity.

Now i repeat this "round robin" for chapter 2 of each book.

This just works well for me, but if you prefer the traditional "cover to cover" method, then stay with that.

Conclusion: Ed Miller's Getting Started in Hold'em is the most excellent beginner's book available. I love this book for both the clarity and depth of content. Heck, just reading any one chapter of this book will make you a better player! I plan to re-read this book once a year to stay grounded with fundamental theory. Thanks Ed! Fantastic book!

Observation: Many people think that they are advanced amateurs at poker,
and many that think this have never read a book on hold'em! Amazing!

I would venture that there are 9 levels, namely: Beginning Beginner, Intermediate Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Beginning Amateur, Intermediate Amateur, Advanced Amateur (sounds like band class! Yes?) and finally Beginning Professional, Intermediate Pro & Advanced Pro's such as Ed Miller, Dan Harrington & Daniel Negreanu and pretty much anyone that makes it to the "Final Table" or those whose names we don't know, but can earn a decent side income playing cash games.

If those of us whom are in fact beginners would like to become intermediate beginners, and then advanced beginners, then Ed Miller is the answer!

I agree with the reviewer that said that this book has replaced Lee Jones' book as the best introductory text for beginning players. Where I differ from most reviewers is in the idea that this is only a "beginners" book. I disagree. This book is great for anyone who plays poker including advanced players in that it acts as reinforcement for concepts we know but sometimes forget or ignore. It basically explains advanced concepts in a simple way and for that reason it is valuable to anyone. I remember that even though I was already a winning player when I read this book, it still improved and strengthened my understanding of concepts such as pot equity, the danger of hand domination, importance of aggression and so on. If I had a close friend just starting out in hold 'em, this would be the first book I would recommend to him, followed by Millers other classic, "Small stakes hold 'em- Winning big with expert play."

Great book, you can't go wrong with this one.