Customer Reviews

Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.
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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. [...]

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.

I was a beginner to Texas Hold'em when I purchased Matthew Hilgers, Internet Texas Hold'em, Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro just over 5 months ago. I had a few ideas of how to play poker (K9 suited....awesome, I'll raise!)

I bought Hilger's book because it looked like a good book for a beginner. I learned a lot of basic principles that helped me find direction in my poker oddessy. Now, I've become a more advanced player, and thanks to Matthew's teachings, have risen in limits. Then, I've searched for some more advanced titles, and was dissapointed. Thats where I realized something. Hilger has accomplished writing a "Beginner" poker book thats is deceivingly advanced. His skill of writing seamlessly bridges the gap between simple and more complex topics, that it makes it very easy for a novice player to grasp these concepts.

I'm not saying you'll go from a home game donation machine to a Vegas Millionaire just by reading the book. However, read the book once, pick out the major topics, and you'll improve. Wait a month, read it again, you'll pick up a few more advanced teachings you didn't quite understand the first time around. Hilger's book has become my poker desk reference. While I have 7 poker books around the house, most look like they are fresh out of the Amazon bubble wrap. Except for Hilger's work. It looks like its been used and abused rather frequently, thats because its that good.

So...go ahead and purchase Hilger's "Internet Texas Hold'em." No matter what level player you are, you'll gain some valuable insights that will earn you more than a few Big Bets down the road.

The reviews here that say this is just another hold 'em text book for beginners really don't do it justice. There is no way all of the information in this book could be ingested in a single read; it is extremely well structured, and doesn't patronize its readers (like, say Phil Hellmuth's lame excuse for an introduction to poker). I like the way it begins, not with starting hands and all that jazz, but with key concepts like hand reading, pot odds, bluffing and so on. While it's true that most of this is in familiar Sklansky territory, the real bonus comes in the thoroughness of the hand analyses and the test hands. Hilger covers a lot more ground than I've seen in other books of this sort, and needs rereading to get full appreciation. You really feel at the end that you could use this as a primer for internet (or live) poker, it's so complete. No, I'm not a friend of the author - I wouldn't know him if he sat opposite on the subway. As for the price - I think it's fair, compared to other poker books which deliver less value for about the same investment.

Just a note I put in all my reviews. I reserve 5 star ratings for only out of this world books. If there were a 4 and a half star rating I would have chosen it for this book.
I was going to wait to review this book after I had fully digested it and put the advice into practice and see what resulted. But since there is so much information it would take me years to do that.
The book delivers what it advertises. A solid piece on Hold'em in the internet environment. If you're looking for information on internet poker tells you can find it here. The author concentrates the work on Limit Hold'em almost exclusively. There are some pages devoted to Pot Limit and No Limit Hold'em, but Limit Hold'em is the star of this piece. The starting hands chart is a great guide for beginners at Hold'em or experienced players who are looking to trim the fine edges of their opening plays. I was also happy to see a section on a topic that many poker players do not know enough about, money management. The numerous hand examples in the book represent a variety of websites and stakes level.
The only thing that kept the book from receiving a full five stars in my mind was that there was not enough information on the emotional aspect of internet poker. No, you can't see the opponent who just bluffed you out of half your stack laughing at you, but emotional control is still an important factor in making profit at online poker. Maybe I'm just looking for that everything poker book. Actually, there isn't any maybe about it.
The final analysis? A good buy. Four and a Half Stars.

First, I should say I've just started playing Texas Hold'Em about a month ago. I'm a raw beginner.

I have to admit I had trouble with this book. The early and late parts were great, but the meat of the book is a turn by turn examination of various kinds of hands. There's probably a ton of wisdom in these pages, but I kindof kept zoning out reading through it. Each chapter ends with a kind of quiz describing real examples of hands and asking you whether you should fold, call, or raise, and then provides an answer and an explanation. This is probably great stuff for a more advanced student of the game, but I'm still not familiar enough with the jargon to be able to visualize what's going on. When I read:

"You hold the Ks Jd in middle position. An early player calls, you make a weak call, and the cutoff raises. The small blind calls and four players see the flop of Jc Js Th. The early player bets. There is $200 in the pot. What do you do?"

it takes me a long while just to figure out what's going on, let alone formulate a reasonable answer. A visual representation of the hands would've added a lot of value to the book and may have gone some ways towards justifying the $30 list price.

I'm not knocking the book, though. I just think its not for rank beginners like me. I did pick up some good tips about bankroll management and things like that, and some vague direction on actual play, but I feel I'd need to become more learned in the terminology to really get full value out of a book like this.

I may come back to it in the future and reread it, though another slight failing is that it covers only 10-hand Limit Texas Hold'em and I'm finding I prefer the "Sit and Go" No Limit games. Nothing on the cover of this book indicates it doesn't touch Pot Limit or No Limit games or short-handed games.

After a trip to Vegas, I caught the gambling bug. But, as I soon learned, a little education can go a long way toward conserving your bankroll. Aside from card counting, full-pay video poker, or using coupons and comps, there really aren't any ways to get an edge at casino cames. Until you consider poker.

It wasn't really love for the game that first got me to try poker; it was the allure of knowing that a part-time hobby could become a money-generating venture. I studied the game and read some great books (Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em by Lee Jones and Poker for Dummies by Lou Krieger) and quickly learned how to get an advantage in poker. I started winning (modestly) and started to explore other places to play aside from Vegas.

That's where Internet poker comes into play. As Matthew Hilger thoroughly and completely explains in this book, you can really up your per-hour winrate by playing online. He takes the worry out of playing online, gives you a group of safe online poker rooms to visit, and he gives you the winning strategy you need to make money online (his basic strategy also works for land-based games). Matthew uses his personal experience to guide you through the learning process.

No one will become a winning player overnight. However, with a good library (that includes this book), you can fairly quickly become a winning player -- even with a modest bankroll.

Even if you already are well-schooled, this book provides some great advice that even seasoned players will find useful for Internet Texas Hold-Em.

The issue with this book is the title is somewhat misleading.

As an informational book on intermediate limit and higher limit Texas Hold'em play strategy, I give this book 4 to 4 1/2 stars. It is well written, with solid, in-depth Texas Hold'em strategy and great card hand examples. However, the recommended strategy is generic; applying to both table and on-line play at the higher play levels.

Except for an occasional added comment, and two or three internet dedicated chapters, there is very little substantial and in-depth information concerning internet play, in general, and low-level internet play, is particular.

As an informational internet Texas Hold'em book, I give it 1 1/2 to 2 stars.

For generic intermediate level play, buy this book. It would be a valuable addition to a Hold'em poker strategy library.

For an excellent book that covers all (non-strategy) aspects of playing online, I highly recommend WINNING AT INTERNET POKER for DUMMIES.

For low limit Texas Hold'em strategy I recommend WINNING LOW LIMIT HOLD'EM by Lee Jones and WINNER'S GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER by Ken Warren.

That review by McIver is garbage. Over 200 people have reviewed the review?...sound suspicious to me. He is right though, 80% of the book covers Hold'em strategy which is good either in live games or on the Internet. It just so happens that this 80% is the best material on Hold'em ever written. It's not that it is rocket science, but the presentation, organization, and hand examples which all came from the Internet make it better than other books which came previously. The starting hand charts are also the best ever printed. So he is right in that this book is useful whether you play online or not.

This isn't easy reading however. You will need several reads to fully digest the information so if you are looking for a fluffy poker book, try Poker for Dummies. If you are new to poker or have some experience, read this book and then followup it up with Small Stakes Hold'em. Those two books combined will give you everything you need to succeed.