Customer Reviews

Hold'em Poker: For Advanced Players (Advance Player)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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

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 Poker
Doyle Brunson's - The Super System

The absolute must of them all
= Mike Caro's - Book of Poker Tells

This 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 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.

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.

Worth it's weight in gold? Hardly. Worthwhile to read several times? Definately.

Overall, this is a solid, advanced poker book. It is full of numerically based, money making advice as well as intricate "plays" designed to extract the most value from a hand.

With that being said, the reader must be warned that the author, in addition to being a solid poker player, is a busnessman and is aware of the money this book will make you if you take it's advice. Thus the hefty price tag.

I should stress that this is an ADVANCED book. The author makes the assumption that you are playing with tight agressive SMART players. If you are consistantly playing low limits and getting beat by idiots drawing out on you this book will not solve your problems (i.e. it is intended for $5/10 and up limits.) Additionally, if you have not played quite a bit of hold em', you might not fully understand the value of some of the advice that this book has to offer.

Overall I highly recommend this book along with the shorter, hold em' book (titled "Texas Hold em'" I believe) by the same authors. The information is solid and will undoubtedly help your game.

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.

I have most of their titles-the best poker advice backed up with easy to understand examples. contains the least amount of dubious advice of any poker text. this book will make a difference to your bankroll. No matter how good a player you are you are a clueless newbie until you read this text. Once caveat: Keep in mind that in general their advice is directed towards your playing in a game with tight aggressive skilled players. These authors no longer play in low limit games and to some extent have lost touch with the type of player the low limit playing reader faces.You should find another title to read that addresses games with loose bad players in it so as to obtain a proper strategic approach to all situations. A good poker book teaches you how to think about situations more so than what to do in specific situation.Any text by the team of skylansky malmouth is worth it's weight in gold. Look for a revision of some of their classic texts, subtitled- "year 2000 or 20c. update"?

This book is weighty and technical. I could imagine Malmuth and Sklansky discussing the exact way to play a hand before writing it down (along with all the variations). Play descriptions will be provided in one sentence and take a lot of thought to understand, especially for beginners like me. You will have to go to the tables and come back to the book to fully understand all the aspects of their discussion. This means that those with more experience will gain more from it. This book is for those who play higher limit games, perhaps 10-20 and up because poorer players predominate in the lower games. Poorer players don't respond to betting action like they should, partly because they are ignorant and partly because the cost of mistakes, or staying in lousy hands, are so low. Your education will hindered in those games, therefore this book is for serious hold'em players who wish higher study of a structured Casino game. Interestingly, despite the advice by so many books to be tight-aggressive (including this one), there is a good use of examples with poorer hands that might be played from late position. I hope I added something to earlier reviews.

I consider myself an above average player who was looking to take my game to the next level. I hoped this book would take me there, but I found it too confusing. The normal tip goes something like this: In this certain situation, you may want to consider checking or raising, unless you think the bettor may be bluffing or is tight aggressive, in which case a strong play would be to check-raise. If you're in an early position, definitely think about folding, but the blinds may want to call half the time, however only if the pot odds are right and 4 other conditions are met... Now take 150 similar -sophisticated- plays, and thats the contents of the book.

Would I recommend this to others? Well, certain players may want to consider buying it, while about 1 in 3 may want to think about checking with their friends first to see if they have a copy. A good play might be to consider a used copy, but only if the price is below the normal buy-in of their weekly game. Most should consider folding, however, a small percent of the time you should buy 2 or more copies for your friends to confuse them for the next game.

Note: No limit is not covered.

Several reviews say that is book is not for newbies. I disagree. If you know the basics of the game I cant think of a better way to start off on the right foot. Why waste your time losing money for a few years while youre becoming an "advanced" player. Keep in mind though that you need to be a data junkie to enjoy this book. It's kind of like reading a calculus book or something. You can't just sit down and read it front to back and expect to be a successful player. Be prepared to read the same information over and over until it makes good sense and becomes second nature. Also be prepared to memorize A LOT of information. If youre not willing to put in this kind of effort, don't buy the book.