Customer Reviews

How Good is Your Limit Hold'em?

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR BEGINNERS! If you have a solid Hold'em background, are playing middle limit games, and want to learn to push marginal edges to increase your expected value you must read this book. Byron Jacobs came out of nowhere (his name is not well known within the poker community) to produce the definitive question and answer format book on middle limit play. My favorite part about each sample hand is the fantastic reads he provides of each player, and the hypothetical outcomes based on the possible opponent actions.

Get it... its mandatory reading.

I read the other two How Good Is poker books on pot-limit Holdem and pot-limit Omaha and liked those. This 3rd book in the series is a disappointment. I find it very confusing to read. In the hand examples, they keep going first to hypothetical situations, then back to the actual hand. This is a very confusing approach. It is difficult to follow the hands. When you read the answers, you will have difficulty following which situations the answers relate to. I also think this book does not have the same level of insight as the other two.

Do not believe the negative reviews that have been written about this book. They are written by the very people for whom this type of book is useless, namely rank beginners who are nowhere near ready for an advanced text such as this one.

I'll keep this review short, this is an excellent book for somewhat more experienced players; for a beginning player the book is a waste of time. Some of the problems are extremely difficult and are designed to test the knowledge of players who are already proven winners in limit hold 'em and are looking to advance to higher limit games against higher caliber opponents.

If you are already a good hold 'em player and are looking to find out just HOW good you are, read this book and test yourself. It is very educational and will certainly get you thinking about the game on a higher level. If you are a beginner, don't bother. Without trying to come across as condescending, I would guess that this book will be way over your head.

There is nothing worse than people writing negative reviews about something that is way over their heads and that they are incapable of understanding yet that is exactly what has happened when people say ridiculous things like they use this book for toilet paper. Go out and buy "Getting started in hold 'em" and work on that before you start reviewing advanced books that are way out of your league.

This is a book with 24 practice hands, with quizzes on each stage of each hand. It's an excellent learning tool for an intermediate player after digesting Ed Miller's Small Stakes Holdem. I particularly enjoyed how the playing styles of opponents were factored into the quizzes.

There are some excellent poker books (and some good DVDs too), but this is currently my favourite.
It is not a relaxing book to sit and read, you have to work through it and solve the problems. But if you are serious about improving, this is an excellent way to do it. [If you are playing online, it is probably even more important to get some tracking software - PokerOffice etc - and always spend 5 minutes debriefing after a session to see what dumb things you did. I discovered, for example, after 2000 hands that I was consistently misplaying AK]

not the first book i pick up when i'm looking to study a little poker cause the book takes EFFORT, but i like it. defintely a different approach to learning poker. the fluff factor is low. you have to be on the ball to squeeze value out of the book. nice job.

I am reluctant to contribute my review because recommending this book only works against me at the table. However, I feel a debt to the author for the most useful poker book I have read.

Other reviewers are correct that the technique of presenting various hypothetical scenarios can be confusing, but it is also the best method, IMO, for teaching the nuances of poker. The author shows the reader how slightly different elements, e.g. different competition or hand play, lead to different decisions. Its utility for instruction far outweighs the mild momentary confusion it may cause.

What I found is that I became adept at reconstructing the "actual" hand as it unfolded. The publisher could make it easier to follow the "actual" hand by using bold type.

I appreciated the kind of scoring the author used. There often is no "wrong" answer, and this was reflected in his scoring. The author's optimal answer received the greatest number of points, but other alternatives received points commensurate with the author's perception of their correctness. Often, the author admitted that the choices were close and this was reflected in his scoring.

My advice to readers is to use this book as a reference over time. What I found is that the more I read and played, the more sense the author's opinion made. For me, this book has been indispensable.