Texas Hold'em For Dummies [Paperback]

Mark Harlan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2006

Turn on the TV, drop by a newsstand, or just browse the checkout your local supermarket and you'll see firsthand that Texas Hold 'Em is the poker game everyone's playing. It's a game that's deceptively simple, yet within its easy framework you’ll find truth and trickery, boredom and fear, skill and misfortune—in other words, all the things that make life fun and worth living!

Texas Hold'em For Dummies introduces you to the fundamental concepts and strategies of this wildly popular game. It covers the rules for playing and betting, odds, etiquette, Hold'em lingo, and offers sound advice to avoid mistakes. This handy reference guide gives new and even seasoned players winning strategies and tactics not just for playing the game, but for winning. You'll learn:

• Rules and strategies for limit, no-limit, tournament, and online play
• How to "play" the other players
• The importance of your bankroll—recommended sizes and more
• Hands you should and should not play
• How to camouflage your play and dodge traps
• When, who, and how to bluff
• How to maximize your win with check-raising and trapping
• The different approaches for playing in private games, casinos, card rooms, tournaments, and on the Internet
• How to use mathematics to your advantage

Texas Hold 'Em is  a game of both skill and chance. But it's a game that can be beaten, and whether you want to make money, sharpen your game, or just have a good time, Texas Hold 'Em for Dummies will give you the winning edge.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Covers betting, odds, etiquette, and lingo

Read your opponents, avoid mistakes, and win the pot!

Want to play — and win — poker's hottest game? This practical, portable guide gives you all the insider tips and tricks you need to play at the table or online. From playing each stage of a hand and reading other players to betting, bluffing, and minding your bankroll, you get everything you need to play smart and maximize your win!

Discover how to

• Make the right bets
• Bluff your opponents
• Check, call, raise, and fold
• Look for tells and dodge traps
• Read your hand
• Play in casinos and tournaments

About the Author

Mark “The Red” Harlan was born in Rawlins, Wyoming, and has lived exactly the life you’d expect as a result. Armed with a degree in Applied Mathematics (from a university he loathes so much that he refuses to even utter the name), he fell headlong into a 20-year stint in the Silicon Valley’s computer industry.
Red’s professional experience includes human-interface work at Apple Computer, development of the bidding schema used by eBay, overseeing application development at Danger (makers of the T-Mobile Sidekick), as well as co-founding CyberArts Licensing (suppliers of the poker software seen on the MANSION and GamesGrid sites).
At the tender age of 8, he won a pinewood derby competition in the Cub Scouts, giving him his first heavy swig of victory that would forever warp his oh-so-soft-and-pliable mind. Under the influence of this experience, he started playing poker that same year (“might as well win money if you’re going to win”) and became good enough by 2005 to be a net money winner in that year’s World Series of Poker.
Red is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and has an extensive writing background ranging from penning InfoWorld’s Notes from the Fringe during the heyday of the Internet, to being lead author of the book he thinks everyone should own (his mom does): Winning at Internet Poker For Dummies (Wiley).
Red maintains a Web site of poker articles at www.redsdeal.com and welcomes non-spam e-mail at [e-mail] (be sure to include the +).

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047004604X
• ISBN-13: 978-0470046043
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Poker

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Place to Start, December 18, 2006

By 

J. Schmidt "Marcus Pheonix" (Minnesota - up north where it's cold) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Texas Hold'em For Dummies (Paperback)

I picked this book up at my local bookstore; I actually almost didn't. The shelf was covered with lots of books written by these great names I had seen on t.v. However, upon cracking open their covers I found a dialect I still wasn't ready to handle. I was a young player just tryiing to get a feel how to beat friends in the neighborhood and had no idea how deep the game of Hold 'em actually was. I chose this book because of the trusted Dummies name and I was not dissapointed me.

The book is the best approach for a beginner. The book starts with an explanation of the rules of the different variants of poker before dipping into any really deep strategy. He did what he should to any novice, presented the "correct" way to play Hold 'em and then told me about the deeper strategies of Hold 'em, but he only scratched the surface, leaving those strategies to other Hold 'em books.

All I can really say is that it is the necessary stepping stone for the true novice. Without reading this book, you won't have the foundation necessary to progress to more advanced books authored by such geniouses as David Sklansky and Mike Caro. These advanced books start off assuming the reader knows the rules of Texas Hold 'em and throw poker jargon at you from start to finish. Without this introductory text, anything else you read will be useless.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peek inside a master's brain, November 8, 2006

By 

Scott Knaster (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Texas Hold'em For Dummies (Paperback)

I started playing poker a long, long time ago, back when Texas Hold'em wasn't the only game that got any attention, poker wasn't televised, and guys that look like Jesus weren't winning big and getting famous. But I never learned -- I always played for fun, not profit.

Reading this book changed all that for me. While I've always resented the implied insult in the "...for Dummies" series titles, I was indeed a dummy at Hold'em before picking up this volume.

And now? I am stunned, astonished at (a) what I didn't know, and (b) that I could learn it from (c) a book. I've long admired Mark Harlan's legendary writing prowess, but only for enjoyment -- I didn't realize that the man could teach, as well as entertain. And he's got real chops, as the founder of an online poker company and frequent tourney player.

This book has given me, an occasional poker player, the skills and confidence to move forward in the world of Hold'em. If it can happen to me, it can work for anyone.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential book for those learning the game, and it's really well-written!, January 4, 2007

By 

Mark Goldstein (san francisco, ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Texas Hold'em For Dummies (Paperback)

Unlike most poker books, this one is a joy to read beyond the information, which is priceless. Harlan writes as if he's one of your best friends, teaching you the game, what to watch out for, the differences between home games and on-line games, and he lays it out in an easy to understand but never dumbed-down way. And he's not afraid to get into theory and more advanced methods for play. This is recommended far and above some of the "big" names in poker books because Harlan can write and explain much better than the pros and it's both entertaining and informative. A must.