Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker (Paperback)

~ King Yao (Author) "The purpose of this book is to give you, the reader, the tools to succeed at Hold'em..." (more)
Key Phrases: shorthanded games, opponent folding, more limpers, Fold Fold, Action Computation Result, Bad Number (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 351 pages
• Publisher: Pi Yee Press (April 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935926259
• ISBN-13: 978-0935926255
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,035 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 116 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best limit hold 'em book ever!, May 12, 2005

By	Poker Buff (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

I just received this book and have been unable to put it down. This book by Yao (a former derivatives trader) is masterful. It includes the best quantitative discussion that I have seen on calculating pot odds and on starting-hand match ups, with an excellent discussion of which hands play well against few hands and which play better against multiple-hands (thereby distinguishing between good calling hands and good raising hands). It includes a thematic discussion of different plays (the check raise, bluffing, semi-bluffing, etc.) as well as a discussion of common situations on the flop and beyond, all with excellent examples. This is not a book for a rank beginner, but should be accessible to anyone who has read the any of the currently-popular limit books (Jones/Miller). Unlike some of the books by 2+2, this book is organized and readable. It is kind of refreshing to read a poker book that has great substance and is also well written (with no apologies needed for the writing)!

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars King is King., September 15, 2005

By	Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased this the other day after it sat on my wish list for many months. If you could ask my bankroll, it'd tell you there were 200 big reasons for why I should have bought it earlier. King Yao provides us with an engineer's eye view of poker as told by a master technician who had the tenacity to forego a successful career as an options trader to become a full-time professional poker player. There's no fluff or rhetoric in this one. It's fact after fact after fact and that's exactly what is most helpful to poker enthusiasts. The reader receives essential insight that is central to the game. Before reading this book, I thought I understood pot odds much better than I actually did. In the past, I was not calculating them effectively as I played. The method he uses for game determination of pot odds, DIPO, is extremely easy to practice while seated at a table or at a virtual one. Making quick, but accurate, determinations as to whether it is profitable to remain playing is essential to victory, and Weighing the Odds provides us with many tools with which to do so. His treatment of starting hands was masterful, and I'm not using hyperbola when I say so. The four pages of specific recommendations as to how to play each hand given early, middle, or late position are sterling. Helpfully, the author makes use of detailed charts and analysis to illustrate those hands highest in EV. Specifically, his discussion of AQ and JJ benefited me as they have proved challenging hands again and again. This one's for everybody, but an advanced player will examine it for a moment and immediately recognize its value.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and methodical, July 6, 2005

By	Albert Silver (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) - See all my reviews

I must say the hype of this book wasn't wrong. I first saw this announced by the author in a well-known forum dedicated to poker (www.twoplustwo.com), with an extremely impressive list of contents, and a sample chapter. Not long after, some players had received their copies and all, without exception, were giving rave reviews. Naturally, I wanted to see whether it was justified.

Suffice it to say, they were 100% correct. The book should be on the list of must-reads for any hold'em poker player. Although it is especially written for limit hold'em players, speaking from experience, no-limit tournament players will undoubtedly get a lot from it as well. As another reviewer mentions, this isn't a first poker book for a player, and should be read after having digested a book such as "Getting Started in Hold'em" by Miller.

A quick perusal through the book will immediately highlight two items: the extremely methodical layout of all situations, and a few lines of math with each and every strategic discussion. This may seem intimidating at first, but in fact it ends up becoming comforting instead. Yao explains in the very beginning that although he supports all of his discussions with math in order to verify the correctness of his explanations, one doesn't need to use this to benefit from the general discussions. It is there if you need or want to go through it. Thus, discussions on bluffing, semi-bluffing, raising for a free-card, etc. All have supporting math to show when it is correct to use these strategies, as well as when not to. Yao isn't so cruel as to force someone no longer familiar with such math, yet willing to learn, to try and figure it out. My case for example. In his early chapters, as he explains, he lays the foundations for his reader to be able to follow it. His patient and dilligent writing reveal him to be a talented teacher as well.

Beyond going through the entire gamut of hold'em strategies and situations, he also includes extremely detailed examples of scenarios in which he takes you into the mind of a player such as himself, showing the different weighted factors, and how they influence his decision. I found this invaluable in understanding how one might deal with the strategy or situation discussed.

As expected from such an author, there are tons of charts as well to provide as much information to the reader as possible. Not just the usual charts on outs, nor even starting hand charts, but other less common ones as well, such as overall chances of JJ (pocket pair of jacks) against hands of Ace-Queen or higher.

On a final note, the layout and print of the book are irreproachable, and even have the rare (in fact I never saw this before) red ink for the suits for red cards.

Without belaboring the obvious, if you are a hold'em player and don't have this on your reading list, you are missing out. I know for a certainty I will be rereading it.