Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I Doubt Daniel Negreanu Even Read This Book..., January 21, 2007
I agree with Nick and Milhouse below: this book is mediocre at best. I doubt that Daniel Negreanu contributed a single idea to the writing of "Hold 'em Wisdom for all Players." There isn't one bit of unique advice in here that hasn't been seen in the poker literature for the past two decades. In fact, it feels like some ghostwriter all but copied and pasted large blocks of text from David Sklansk's works on hold em (but deleting the mathematical or strategic explanations for various plays).
Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Daniel Negreanu. I was hoping to glean some sort of insight into his thought process at the tables while reading this book. But quite simply, none of that is here. "Hold 'em Wisdom for all Players" advocates a tight, weak style of play that I doubt Daniel Negreanu would ever employ. It focuses on basic card values, provides no particularly helpful guidance on reading your opponents, and is shallow in its reasoning and explanation for its various "bits of wisdom." Even for beginners, this book is far too elementary, taking the form of "thou shalt not play J8 off-suit" without any explanation of math, positioning, chip count, etc. I was hoping for a book that would provide some insight into how to play an intelligent, but aggressive game of poker; this book can only teach you how to play a truly conservative, borderline passive game. This might be enough to help you win a fair bit of money against drunken tourists at the $1/$2 ring games in Vegas, but this style of play probably will not work against more aggressively unpredictable online players.
For all that, I'll give the book three stars because "Hold 'em Wisdom for all Players" may still be useful for rank amateurs in staying out of too much trouble while learning the game. The book also isn't bad in the sense that these bits of advice have been considered conventional truths in the poker world for decades now. And maybe I'm being nice because I like Daniel Negreanu and even read his blog on occasion. In any event, if you've read Sklansky and Harrington before, then this book is wholly duplicative, if not inferior, to those works. But if this is the first book you were looking at for learning Texas hold 'em, it wouldn't be a bad choice.
I'd also recommend The Poker Tournament Formula and Poker Tips that Pay: Expert Strategy Guide for Winning No Limit Texas Hold em for readers that are looking for more detailed, hand-by-hand poker strategy and advice.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, March 6, 2007
I'm a big fan of Negreanu, and have had the pleasure of watching him on pretty much every televised game he's been on. Unfortunately, I'm in agreement with many of the other reviews here, in that this book is simply disappointing at best.
There's no new information here, nor even any unique insights into old information. Having read dozens of other books and always finding some new wisdom in them, I can't say I read a single thing in this book that was worth the money I paid for it. By all means, buy any book but this one. Phil Gordon's Little Blue/Green Book, Super/System II, Harrington on Hold'em (highly recommended!), any of Sklansy's books, are all great picks, and far more value for your dollar than Hold'em Wisdom.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing new, January 13, 2007
This book is average. If you have read any poker books you've probably heard all the concepts in this book, and you've probably heard them in greater detail. It's an easy read and the book is a good review for some basic concepts.
It's difficult to recommend this book. If you are a beginner there are better books out there and if you an intermediate or advanced player you have already heard most of these ideas.
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