Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro [Paperback]

Matthew Hilger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

As Internet poker exploded, thousands of players turned to Internet Texas Hold'em to help them become winning players. Today, Internet Texas Hold'em is now the most successfull book ever on Internet poker. Internet Texas Hold'em is an excellent tool for beginning to intermediate players to be successful at limit Texas Hold'em with specific topics focused on Internet play. The book's reputation has superceded its title as many players now recommend it for live play also. A comprehensive overview of Texas Hold'em is presented including general poker concepts such as probability and odds, bluffing, raising and check-raising. Various deceptive tactics are also discussed such as free cards, slowplaying, and inducing bluffs and calls. You'll learn the correct strategies for starting hand play as well as playing on the flop, turn, and river. You'll learn the intricacies of playing on the Internet and the differences in strategies between Internet and live play. Finally, you'll be able to practice all of these strategies on over 200 actual Internet hands. Poker is a fun game, but it is even more fun when you win. This is a book for players who want to improve their game to win more money. If you only play a few hours a week or strive to take your game to an advanced level, this book should serve as a reference for many years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

I wrote this version of Internet Texas Hold'em back in 2002 and 2003 right at the beginning of the poker boom.  It became an immediate success and to this day is the most successful online poker book of all-time.  My follow-up to this book was Texas Hold'em Odds and Probabilities, which goes into further details of some of the concepts first introduced in Internet Texas Hold'em.  This was followed up by The Poker Mindset, which aims to help players manage tilt while playing. 

In 2009, I released Internet Texas Hold'em New Expanded Edition which was updated to reflect changes in the game that have occurred over the last several years:

• Updated starting hand charts
• Two new chapters for short-handed games
• One new chapter discussing multi-way pots in loose games
• 50 new hand examples 

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the book.  Matthew

About the Author

Matthew Hilger's interest in professional poker is four-fold: playing, writing, publishing, and managing poker content websites. His other titles include:

• Texas Hold'em Odds and Probabilities (2006)
• The Poker Mindset (2007)
• Internet Texas Hold'em New Expanded Edition (2009)

Matthew started playing professionally on the Internet in 2001.  He has won two online tournaments with over 3,5000 entrants each, won the 2002 New Zealand Poker Championship, has cashed three times in the WSOP main event, and made back-to-back final tables at the Aussie Millions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dimat Enterprises, Inc.; 1st revised edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974150207
• ISBN-13: 978-0974150208
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Computers & Technology > Games & Strategy Guides > Internet Games

More About the Author

Matthew Hilger's interest in professional poker is three-fold: playing, writing, and managing poker content websites. He has written three best-selling poker books: Internet Texas Hold'em, Texas Hold'em Odds and Probabilities, and The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success, coauthored by Ian Taylor.

Matthew received his bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Georgia in 1989. He completed a master's degree in Finance at Georgia State University in 1991 as well as a master's degree in International Business from Thunderbird in 1996. Prior to embarking on a poker career, Matthew worked in various accounting, finance, and consulting positions.

Matthew started playing professionally on the Internet in 2001 and has logged thousands of hours online, playing at limits from $1-$2 up to $100-$200 and in countless online tournaments. In 2008, Matthew demonstrated his tournament prowess by winning a major online event with a $132K first place payout as he outlasted over 3,500 opponents.

Matthew cashed in the main event of the World Series of Poker three times between 2004 and 2007, including a 33rd place finish. He has a total of ten cashes at the World Series of Poker, including one final table. He won the New Zealand Poker Championship in 2002. In 2007, he made back-to-back final tables at the 2007 Aussie Millions Championships.

Matthew now devotes much of his working time to his website and poker forum, www.InternetTexasHoldem.com, where he answers questions about his books and general poker strategy. You can read his poker blog at www.PokerWonks.com.

Matthew lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Diana, and three children, Joshua, Zachary, and Isabel. Matthew's other interests outside of poker include composing on the piano and traveling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent all around hold'em book!, February 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro (Paperback)

When I first started playing hold'em online about six months ago I realized that if I didn't study the game I would just become another gambling statistic. Though I like poker I'm risk averse at heart, so I hit the books hard, picking up reading recommendations from the 2+2 forums. The most frequently recommended trinity of hold'em poker books to start with seem to be: Winning Low Limit HOLD'EM [WLLH] (Lee Jones), The Theory of Poker [TOP] (David Sklansky), and Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players [HPFAP] (David Sklansky/Mason Malmuth). I've been through all of these, the latter two several times as they are particularly good.

However good TOP and HPFAP are I felt there was something subtle lacking which made the advice more difficult than necessary to put into practice. Not until I stumbled upon a copy of Matthew Hilger's Internet Texas Hold'em by chance did I realize what it was: hand examples! Remember learning subjects like math? Very difficult to solidify the concepts by simply reading theorems. Most people require the repetition of doing many examples to use the theorems with any facility.

Poker is no different and the "Test Your Skills" sections at the end of each chapter in this book are worth their weight in gold. The "answers" to the examples are perfectly concise and there is no pretension that they are set in stone. You will be challenged just enough to think about each situation without feeling bogged down. For this reason Hilger's book serves as more than just another book on hold'em theory. It is "workbook" that will help you to start thinking through typical hand situations rather than simply memorizing tables of starting hands and odds. Overall, your ability to recall strategies for common hold'em situations will be much better having thought through the carefully chosen examples Hilger presents up front.

For the beginning/intermediate player (I can't really comment on expert players...yet), Hilger's is the best single book on the subject. Make no mistake, Hilger's books is comprehensive enough to take you into the tougher, higher hold'em limits and I envision coming back to it many times in the future for a refresher. In comparison, Jones' WLLH (the most often recommended introductory low-limit text) feels threadbare: very few examples, loose starting hands, and not nearly enough on post-flop play. Do yourself a favor and substitute Internet Texas Hold'em for WLLH in the trinity. You will have to do much less experimenting at the tables and will be well prepared to integrate the topics covered in HPFAP and TOP.

346 of 379 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Yet Another Book On Basic Holdem Strategy, February 8, 2004

By 

trapeze "Woo Hoo! Check Out My Website!" (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro (Paperback)

Let me be perfectly clear: This is not a bad book on how to successfuly play holdem. I would have no problem recommending this book to anyone who is interested in LEARNING how to play.
However, as a book that advertises itself as how to play and win online it is no better than anything else out there. Which is to say: it is a disappointment. 80% of the book is dedicated to the basics of holdem play and strategy. The remaining 20% offers sometimes useful insight into playing online but nothing that is particularly insightful or revolutionary.
[...]
Finally, don't buy this book in search of the "secret" to winning on the internet. It is simply not any better or different than anything else out there. It's a good BASIC book on holdem, nothing more, nothing less. [...]

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I finally see the light!, December 30, 2003

By 

P. Graves "Empty Graves" (Henderson, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro (Paperback)

Systematic, Complete, Accurate.

Most of the poker books I've read have a stream-of-consciousness format. Matthew's book is a revelation. Before I bought this book (two weeks ago, on a whim, because I laughed at the cover's illustration), I had been playing online for about six months. I'd read Sklansky, Malmouth, Krieger, etc., and had some success in $3-$6 online. I figured I knew the game better than most. But wow! I learned more from this book than I had from the other dozen I've studied. The starting hand chart is nothing less than brilliant in its design and research. It automatically adjusts your play for loose and tight games, by loosening your standards as the number of callers rises. It also adjusts your play for raised pots, and for playing in the blinds. The chapters on flop play showed me how much I didn't know about the game. I now find myself folding much more often on the flop than I used to. Matthew identifies several catagories of flops based on their characteristics (two-suited, triple-connected, etc), and cross references these with the hand you hold given your pocket cards (flush-draw, mid-pair, etc). He teaches how to play the hand on the flop given the number of opponents, and the preflop and flop action. I had recently been getting very frustrated by having a good preflop hand, and then almost always losing by the river! Now I understand why that was happening, recognize if a flop fits MY hand or is more likely to fit that of any of the five callers behind me. I now know when the reward will not compensate for the risk, and fold. This alone has saved me a lot of money and irritatation. In fact, it's fun to watch the play-out of the rounds after I fold flop-hands that just weeks ago I would have played, and see how much I'm saving.