Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players (Advance Player)

Where to apply the poker tools this book gives you? Anywhere, really - I used to play at my local casino 4 times / wk, but now play almost exclusively online, since play goes so much faster - I go out of my mind with boredom when I try and sit at a casino nowadays.


A must buy for any serious player   June 2, 2003
Dan Madeira (London)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

Though this book has its problems, it is an excellent guide to winning holdem stratgy. Apart from the fact that most decent holdem players would have at least read it and so will (in tougher games) employ most, if not all, of the stratgies discussed, it uses an easy to understand format to discuss some complex plays and how to adapt them to any situation.

The problems however are that a lot of the ideas are applicable to tight aggressive high limit games, which the authors now frequent. With the explosion of poker, especially the online varient, you will find a large quantity of weak loose passive/aggressive players playing on the lower limits, where many of the plays described in the book will be wasted. Though there is a section on how to play loose games, if this is your game of choice, you might be better off buying a book devoted to the subject.

Also pot limit/no limit is mostly played in Britain and this book is meant to be applied to the limit games prevalent in America. However there are no books which focus solely on this available and the concepts are still valid.

The last problem is that it might encourage you to play too rigidly to their guidelines, ie the constant use of the hand tables. Winning poker play is about how to use your cards in the best possible way in a particular situation, rather than following a set of rules.

All in all though, this is a must buy for any serious player. Many people consider this to be the 'bible' of Texas Hold'em, and after you apply these stratgies to your game, you will probably agree with them.

(As a direct response to gamboler, the chance of making your flush from any two suited cards is about 13%, and anyone can see that if you have two suited cards, you are more likely to make a flush than if you have one. The reason why Sklansky rates J 10s as high as A Q is because it is a large money maker in multiway pots, compared to A Q, which will probably only win a small amount of money heads up)


A book packed with useful ideas   June 1, 2003
Aj Sutton (Coventry, England)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

As with most hold'em books the book begins with listing the starting hands when to play them depending on position and how to play them depending on the play of your opponents.

The book then goes on to consider strategic concepts which includes freecards, semi-bluffing, check raising and odds and implied odds.

The next section titled miscellaneous topics gives advice on some of the typical situations found in a hold'em game, such as playing when a pair flops, playing pairs in the hole etc.

Following this there are chapters on loose games, playing short handed, playing non-standard games and other skills. To finish with there is an extensive question and answer section with questions on each chapter in the book.

The writing in the book has a very intense feel with often a dozen points hidden within a single page. This makes multiple read-throughs almost mandatory to gain the most from it.

It has been suggested that the advice in this book is too loose for the modern game. This may or may not be true, but if you are an advanced player surely you can take some parts of the book that are of use, and discard the rest.

I personally feel that this book will be of help to my poker, and is worthy of further study. I am also more than happy to take the advice of the experienced poker writers listed above by studying this book. Im sure they know more about the game than i do!


Suggested play is way too loose No help for advanced players   September 4, 1999
64 out of 88 found this review helpful

The ideas contained in this book are outdated and useless, even harmful. The concepts were developed by Sklansky in another era for another game. The modern game typically has two to three players seeing the flop for two to three bets. When Sklansky wrote his original book based on his experiences in relatively low limit games i.e the 10-20 game at the Gold Nugget) where a tight game was described as one where around five players saw the flop for half a bet or a full bet. Another section of the new book talks about games where no one at the table takes the game seriously. Those games just don't exist at levels high enough for the player to have a chance to overcome the rake (20-40 or higher).

Particularly dangerous is the book's oft stated theme of rating suited hands much higher than non-suited hands. For instance, 10 J suited is rated equivalent to A Q offsuit. Playing small suited connectors is suicide in the average high limit game (seeing the flop against one or two opponents for two to three bets). There is only a minimal difference between say A Q offsuit and A Q suited in this type of game because (1) you hit flushes very rarely (about 4% of the time when you're suited) and (2) you'll actually make more flushes with the off suited hand. Playing garbage hands in hopes of hitting a 1 in 25 flush is the biggest single error made by bad players and this book sytemically reinforces this error. This 1 in 25 shot is particularly ill advised when you play in game with lots of two or three handed flops.

The other problem is that strategy suggestions repeatedly encourage calling way too loose and raising way too tight, just the opposite strategy that consistent winning players employ. I suspect that Malmuth knows that the strategies suggested won't work in high limit games and are thus of no use (or even detrimental) to advanced players.

It is certainly true, however, that an amateur player could benefit from the book as long as they understand that the book will not turn them into a pro or enable them to overcome the rake in low limit games.

Finally, the authors discussion focused almost exclusively on structured limit games. There are only a handful of truly successful limit poker pros in the world. Anybody that can play, even a little bit, should focus on playing no-limit or pot limit. Even the authors admit that many of the really difficult situations are break even decisions in limit poker. In open limit games, however, these situations are extremely critical.

Psychology, tells, and betting strategies are so much more important in no limit that most working, practicing holdem/omaha pros refuse to play structured limit. Limit poker is great for the house, because they end up with all the money. If you have some talent (and some passion) for the game and you're trying to become a serious player, pass on this book and pass on limit poker in general.