Honestly Perhaps the Most Confusing Book I've Ever Read!

Author David Sklansky thanks his father for helping to edit this text; he really ought to have hired a professional editor to re-write this book for him! Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players is poorly written and even more poorly organized. Here is a typical bit of wisdom from the book: "One criteria to keep in mind when deciding to play a small pair or a medium to small suited connector is how passive/aggressive the game is, in addition to its being loose. Specifically, as just mentioned, small pairs play well in loose aggressive games providing that they are not too aggressive. This is because if you flop a set you can anticipate many bets going into the pot. If the game is too aggressive and you hold a small pair you will frequently be forced to play for several bets, and now your hand will not achieve the implied odds that it needs to be profitable. If the game is passive, you prefer the suited connector to the small pair. This is because a 'set' will have trouble collecting a lot of bets. On the other hand, if the suited connector flops something like a gut shot draw it won't necessarily be bet out of the pot."

It should also be noted that this book specifically addresses itself to limit hold 'em games, and does not address today's far more popular no limit games. So even if you succeed in parsing out some sort of strategic themes from this book, they may not be applicable to no limit hold 'em. The book is completely focused on making the mathematically correct play in 1001 different situations, but as any no limit hold 'em player knows, the math of that game is frequently a lot less important than the psychology (since you can risk your whole chip stack on any hand).

Can be complex, but very helpful

This book can be tough to read if you're not really familiar with hold'em, but once you get used to the lingo, it's a good read. I especially enjoy the Q&A at the end of the book because it's helpful to review for different strategies. They give a lot of good examples on how their strategies apply too, which is very useful.

well done

I read a lot of poker stuff and I have acquired a good understanding of strategy in conjuction with other texts, especially from applied mathematics and gambling psychology. This book explains in depth the strategy, reading hands and even psychology in an enjoyable manner. But I think it still has no full coverage of odds calulus and interpretation and math behind the poker. I found Catalin Barboianu's "Texas Hold'em Odds" far superior on this count. I recommend it as a completion for this book.