Customer Reviews

Trademark Hold'em Wisdom for All Players Book By Daniel Negreanu Instructional (Multi)

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I believe Johnny Chan's book "Million Dollar Hold'em Limit Cash Games" is destined to be a poker classic and is a must have book for the serious player looking to gain knowledge of limit cash games. The book offers practical lifestyle approaches; techniques and strategies to help make you a profitable cash game player and, perhaps, a wealthy player as well. The book is easy to read, written in a conversational tone, as if Chan is sitting next to you at the poker table giving you one-on-one advice and wisdom. The book combines well-written narrative and lots of hand examples to help clarify the points he is trying to get across. What Dan Harrington's books do for the tournament player, Johnny Chan's book does for the limit cash game player. The book does not have an index, and it is not a book you would buy to improve your no-limit cash play as it is, as titled, a limit cash game text. The book goes over money management very clearly and, if followed, will keep you from going broke and getting discouraged. Sacrifice one bet and buy this book with it. I think you will be very happy with your investment. Good luck.

I love Johnny Chan and think he's a great player and hero but this book was a serious disappointment. Million Dollar Hold'em is not the type of timeless work which will bolster his legacy. It will not make novices into average players nor average players into stars. Overall, it is a rather forgettable offering, and one that fails to enhance our cumulative knowledge of the game. Certainly though, it does possess some positive aspects. The tips concerning the specifics of a professional's life and career are illuminating. Some of its advice is quite practical such as the way it highlights all the major and minor things one should look for before selecting a card room. Game quality is mentioned along with which seat to occupy in relation to other players as are essential elements of casino safety and geographic proximity. His bankroll section is also helpful as Chan recommends having at least 500 big bets for whatever limit you play. The observation that one must play no lower than the 3-6 limit to have any chance of beating the house rake was excellent.

The biggest problem though is that there is little that is new here. Million Dollar Hold'em does not live up to its own hype. What's even worse is that many of its examples could actually prove detrimental for a novice's understanding of limit hold'em and his ensuing performance. Frankly, the overly optimistic results which are described in the individual limit scenarios proved baffling. The river outcomes will not remind readers of the games they actually play. They are more reminiscent of the way we would like to see the action go than of the action which we in fact witness. By the reviewer's count, forty-four out of the fifty-five hands not decided pre-flop end in victory for the hero. A ratio that skewed was alienating as it seemed like everything the player did worked out in the end. Is that limit hold'em? There were few surprises as his value bets and bluffs got continuously rewarded. Such a plot has more in common with a poker movie than with an actual limit poker game.

If the Orient Express really wanted to be of service to readers then he would magically transport us to whatever location which held the games depicted in these examples. Your average limit player would be most grateful as he would immensely profit from raising to death the lightweights who fold their way across these pages. Should the reader be new to the game or just starting out in limit hold'em, then they would be advised to spend their money elsewhere. Manuals like Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big with Expert Play, Winning Low Limit Hold'em, and How Good Is Your Limit Hold 'em? are all recommended over this one.

This is one of the best poker books I have ever read. It is rather unconventional, in that it does not have a traditional table of contents or follow a step by step outline. In this way it is very much like how I learned to play poker at the tables.

The book is a series of hands with commentary about how you should consider playing each one. The types of things covered are playing from the blinds, the importance of blind structure, how to avoid traps, value betting and how to get max value, slowplaying big pairs, how to benefit from aggressive play, how to play weak hands, making tough folds and tough calls, how to get and avoid giving free cards, continuation bets, isolation plays, defensive play, semi-bluffing, playing middle pairs, and mixing up your play. There are a lot of other things covered as well, but the list is so long, it's too much to include in this review.

In addition to the commentary, there are graphics of almost all the hands which really helped me to visualize what was going on.

I especially liked all the discussion about how to get maximum value out of your hands. As I was learning to play, it took me a long time to understand how important getting max value out of my hands was. I notice that most of the losing players fail to get the value they should out of their hands. It makes sense, because limit poker is mostly about getting maximum value out of your hands over and over again. People who miss this don't have much of a way to accumulate profits.

In addition to all the hand examples, there is a lot of information about things you don't get from other poker books like where and when to play, the importance of playing your best game at all times, choosing your environment carefully, the importance of taking vacations, and the importance of having a stable home life.

The discussion of bankroll management is worth the price of the book alone. Many players don't understand how to manage their money. Methods to protect yourself from going broke and how to move up in limits are more clearly laid out than in any other poker book I have read.

One of the only drawbacks to this book is that it's true value will be lost on many of the readers because of it's unconventional layout and subtle but advanced concepts. Frankly, though, I don't mind that a bit, because that's why poker is such a great game to play.

I took a break from limit because I moved up to a level where I couldn't seem to win anymore! Then I saw this book and it was just the thing I needed to set me on the right track.

The people who would benefit the most are people who have studied all the great books on limit hold'em and have lots of playing experience, but are still not confident about their game. This book will get you back to the proper aggressive strategy required to win in limit. Like a previous reviewer said, it is like having Johnny sit next to you and tell you how to play and why.

The book has only two shortcomings:
1. It is an incredibly easy and fast read, I finished it in a few hours at the bookstore.

2. Most of the hands are won by the narrator, we don't get too many hands that we lose despite making the correct play. This is still a gambling game and we are maximizing our percentages, so more losing (but correct) hands would be great.

This is a book to buy and keep on your bookshelf so that you can get a quick refreshing read everytime you have a downswing or are doubting your game. It will get you winning again!

This is a great introductory text on middle limit hold'em. If you are a white-chip player looking to move to the red-chip games, this will help. Covers the basics of continuation betting, bluffing, betting for value, check-raising and some isolation plays.

I really enjoyed this book. The layout of the hands are very easy to read - similar to the Harrington books. The thought process behind each move is very well explained - it will get you thinking in more advanced ways. I would love to see more poker books written in this layout. For a visual person such as myself, it was just a pleasure to read.

But realistically, you will need more that this to take-on 10/20 limit and above. For a more through examination, see Ciaffone's "Middle limit Hold'em", Byron Jacobs' "How Good is Your Limit hold'em" and of course Sklanski's "Advanced Players Guide".

P.S. To Bob Ciaffone: Rewrite your classic text in this format! It would be 3000 pages long, but what a learning tool it would be.

This book is a really strange one- I can't really figure out exactly who it is written for. Beginners won't find the explanations they need of limit hold 'em fundamentals since the book basically is just a collection of sample hands and advanced players will learn absolutely nothing new and in fact, will probably disagree with a lot of the advice. The book's jacket says that a lot of the ideas contained within have never before appeared in print. Huh? I couldn't find anything in there that was even remotely interesting or novel.

The book starts with some very uninteresting introductory text and then jumps into page after page of hand examples. Each example takes up several pages using a ridiculous amount of space. The whole book literally took me a couple of hours to read cover to cover and it is 368 pages long! What a joke. The actual text and information easily could have fit into a book a quarter the size of this one.

The hand examples are also pathetic and some of the advice is downright bizarre. Chan often suggests just cold calling with big pocket pairs like aces in multiway pots, cold calling hands like AK instead of 3 betting, checking top pair on the flop from early position on scary boards and all kinds of other weird advice. Most of the hand examples are along the lines of; "You raise and get called in two spots, you bet the flop and get one caller, you bet the turn and he folds." great, thanks for that.

This one is a real weakie- give it a miss.