How Good is Your Limit Hold'em? [Paperback]

Byron Jacobs (Author), Jim Brier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2005

This book will be of tremendous value to anyone who has some experience with limit hold'emand is looking to improve their game.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...most of the advice in this book is simply of very high quality - which is exactly the reason why I have chosen to rate this book an 8 (out of 10)" Rolf "Ace" Slotboom "Jacobs book is well worth reading, especially recommend for aspiring mid limit players". 8 out of 10 Tristan Steiger, poker-soft.com "Not only is the advice and thought process consistently good, but he asks the right questions. He probes the key areas where people lose most of their money, and his scoring system reflects the fact that he knows these are the most important areas. I give it 10/10." Ed Miller, noted poker authority and best-selling author.

About the Author

Byron Jacobs is a publisher and author specialising in games and leisure. As with many Poker players, his enthusiasm for games originates with chess, where he holds the title of international master and is the author of many popular chess books. He has now switched his attention to Poker and has become a successful on-line Limit Hold’em player.
Jim Brier is well known to serious hold em players as the author (with Bob Ciaffone) of Middle Limit Hold'em, and also as a columnist for Card Player Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: D&B Publishing; First edition (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904468152
• ISBN-13: 978-1904468158
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #845,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great content, poorly put together book, January 9, 2006

By 

Brett Foster (Xenia, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Good is Your Limit Hold'em? (Paperback)

This is an excellent book in many ways, but the structure is not well thought out. It takes you through 24 hands and introduces multiple hypothetical situations in each one, which really takes you out of the flow of the hand. It's in a quiz format, and the point is to get a feel for how the hand went and how you would play. This is very awkward when the author continually diverts you. I found myself spending more time thinking about what happened in each example than thinking about how I would play.

I'm giving it 4 stars because Jacobs knows what he's talking about and has a good handle on how to play in modern middle-limit online games. It's just a shame he couldn't make the book more readable.

In the very first question of the first hand the author sidetracks you and asks, "Hypothetically, how would you play if it had been 3-bet before the flop?" In the real hand you flop top pair and bet the whole way. We get pulled into two more hypothetical situations that involve you getting raised on the turn. When the author gets back to the actual hand and asks how you would play the river, the correct answer is to bet, but you've still got all these hypothetical situations swirling around in your head so you have to think for awhile to come to the conclusion that there was very little aggression and your hand is probably good.

The ideas in the book are top-rate, but the bottom line is that 24 hands is obviously not enough for the author to illustrate everything he wants to, and adding several hypothetical situations to each hand is not a good solution. These should all be separate hands entirely. Ciaffone's Middle Limit book has over 400 example hands and is much more readable.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Pretty but Very Educational., November 13, 2006

By 

Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Good is Your Limit Hold'em? (Paperback)

The first question I ask when evaluating any poker book is, "Did it strengthen my game?", and with this one the easy answer is yes. Byron Jacobs may not principally be a poker player, but like so many other chess greats, he possessed excellent analytical and processing skills which enabled him to excel at poker before he first sat down upon the virtual felt. The style you'll learn from him can best be described as logical/aggressive. I say this because for limit, he's far from super tight. It's actually a great text for nits because it gets you to take better advantage of the opportunities presented. I think the real theme throughout these 24 hands is obtaining the MAXIMUM EXTRACTION of chips from your opponents. Jacobs, unlike many of us, fully realizes that the only way to really make good money from limit is to make the most out of every opportunity which comes your way. Limit's all about small edges and when they're not pushed players end up losing to the rake. Concerning the criticisms about the book's structure and organization, I do agree that they could have been improved upon. Perhaps putting the answers right after the questions would have helped as I too didn't like constantly flipping back and forth as I read; however, the whole "learn by doing" thing really did help me. I liked answering the questions because it made the lessons clearer. Yeah, it should have been longer, but considering the pile of lengthy stuff out there which isn't useful, this one was definitely a cut above.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mandatory reading for the serious player, September 23, 2005

By 

B. D. Spence - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Good is Your Limit Hold'em? (Paperback)

If poker is more than just a hobby, and if you are serious about analyzing your play and winning the game, then this book is a must read. It is not the kind of book that you can just skim through; it is the kind of book where you work through examples and then compare your thinking to the author's on the way best to play the hand to maximize what you win at hold'em. The examples are realistic and the author's discussion on how best to play is well thought out. The book includes descriptions of the type of opponents you face each hand because correct play varies depending on the type of players in the hand. This book challenges you to think about how you play, to think about what the actions of other types of players likely mean and to improve your performance as a result. I highly recommend this book to a player who already has fundamental hold' em knowledge as a way to move to the next level of play.