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David Sklansky & Ed Miller
No Limit Hold’em – Theory and Practice
$29.95
 (8.0)
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Despite the fact that the authors (correctly) conclude that it is much harder to come up with concrete no-limit advice than with limit advice, this is very good and useful no-limit book. Not that it doesn’t suffer from any drawbacks:
· It’s not about Internet play, even though almost all readers of the book will play mostly online. Also, there is never any mention of things like PokerTracker / PokerOffice / Poker Ace HUD / Game Time +, even though it should be clear that for almost all serious players, and especially the Sklansky-like mathematically focused players, this type of software is a very important tool in maximizing one’s expectation.
· It assumes full-ring games, even though the 6-max. games are immensely popular nowadays. Also, no mention of multitabling, even though playing with an edge is much different in a one-table live game where you know your opponents than in a multi-table online setting where many of your opponents may be unfamiliar.
· It almost always assumes fairly deep money, even though online games often have shallow money.
· Often the text differentiates between good & bad players, tight and loose players, passive and aggressive players in a bit too ‘simplistic’ manner for my taste, as if they just play one way. For instance, as if people who are labelled as “weak-tight” cannot occasionally do something that is totally out of the ordinary for them.
· There are not a lot of examples to clarify the theory, and make it easier to digest. Of course, the authors will may very well come up with a separate book on Practice Hands (say, a NLHTAP II: The Workbook), but in my view it would have been better to include 10 or 15 practice hands in this book, to give examples of how the strategies described in the book can or should be used in concrete situations.
· The Sklansky / Chubukov numbers would probably have been better for a $.5-$1 game than for the $1-$2 blinds game that have been used. This way, the numbers would have directly reflected the exact ratios, rather than double the exact ratios – and this would have made these numbers much easier to remember.
· There are lots of mathematical calculations that may be very hard to follow for many readers. On top of that, almost all these calculations are based on assumptions how an opponent would react to your play – and changing these assumptions / changing the read on someone slightly could lead to entirely different conclusions.
Also a few concrete things that I didn’t like:
· P. 246 A concept that in itself is not bad (“Sometimes you should bluff to stop a bluff”) has an example that I don’t like much. It assumes 0% bluff raising on the part of your opponent, an opponent who would bluff though when checked to – and obviously, this is not a very realistic assumption to prove a point.
· P. 154 The example from the “Betting Yourself Off A Hand” chapter has been chosen rather unfortunate, as you are not drawing to the nuts with this board. If you hit your straight on the river and indeed – as the authors say – all the money may go in ($1,000 behind in a pot of merely $100), then you may actually be more likely to lose it all with your second nuts rather than win it. (Note: After finishing this review, I saw on the Errata List available on 2+2 that this board in the example had been judged by the writers to be an error, as they had intended to make you draw to the nuts. So, make sure you check out this Errata List before reading the book.)
Despite these points of criticism, this book is of the (high) level that you can expect of a collaboration between two of the top poker strategists. For instance, the book has:
· A good chapter on absolute & relative position. (In fact, in line with my own DVD’s on the subject.)
· A good analysis of Big Pot Hands versus Small Pot Hands, and the types of players that you should aim at / avoid.
· A good chapter on blocking bets.
· A good analysis on “Multiple Levels Of Thinking”. The authors clearly show how the exact same move (calling a pot bet on the river) with the exact same board & betting actions may be good against a level one thinker if you are thinking on level two – but that this same level two thinking can cost you dearly if your opponent in this hand is a level three thinker who has adapted his betting strategies to the type of thinking that he knows you are using.
· The “Part Two: Concepts” section is clear & good – and in fact, easier to digest than the preceding (much longer) “Part One: Fundamentals” section.
All in all, a very good book that clearly deserves an 8. Having said that, the book could have been superb (say, a 9 or so) had there been more focus on the game that is currently booming: (6-max.) no-limit hold’em Internet play – preferably with some practice / example hands to go with it.
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