The Best Book

I have read 75% of the published Hold' em Books and this is by far one of the best. It was recommended to me by several people and I found it to be an excellent read. Thank you Dan. It is a great book. The only complaint, waiting for Volume II...

Solid Book - Will Improve Your Game

I would just like to say that I have read over 14 books on poker, won tournaments, and I was fortunate to be in the 2003 WSOP.

That said, I read this book and realized that I still have a LOT of holes in my game REGARDLESS of my playing style.

I learned that I haven't been tracking my opponent's betting patterns as much as I should be. I learned that I have been giving my opponent's proper odds to make calls in certain situations because I didn't pay enough attention to the money in the pot. I learned how to apply some of the lessons in Theory of Poker to NLHE Tournaments (i.e. make your opponents make mistakes) thanks to the examples/problems/exercises in this book. I wasn't making enough calls pre-flop because I was too focused on staying alive in the tournament (because of Cloutier/McEvoy books which I will discuss next) instead of looking at pre-flop pot odds. I wasn't paying enough attention to what players thought of me to use that at different stages of the tournament.

I have a lot of the Cloutier/McEvoy books and one of their main points in surviving a tournament is to throw pot odds out the window because you can get busted out of a tournament on any given hand. Basically: Don't play hands like J-10 suited or 9-8 suited in the blinds or late position in a tournament even if it's only $20 more to call an early position raiser with $10-$20 blinds because those are chip-burners you'll need later to double up when you have AA or KK.

Harrington claims that Pot Odds are Paramount. Page 375. And I believe him now. While I have had success playing big hands and big pairs, I have always realized that I need to loosen up my starting requirements, but now I realize HOW to loosen up my starting requirements IF Pot Odds are favorable to me and I won't be making a "mistake". (As always, "it depends" on a lot of factors before you play these hands) It's not that I didn't play the occasional K-J suited or Q-10 suited for another bet, it's that I wasn't even THINKING about how I was getting great odds pre-flop. Poker is a thinking game, and I see that I need to do a lot more thinking when I'm playing.

When I have won tournaments or done well, the stars and planets were pretty much in alignment. The AK beats the pair, the pair beats the AK. But that doesn't happen often enough to justify entering the number of tournaments I entered in 2003. I had holes in my NLHE Tournament game that I can take care of now thanks to this book.

I've read SuperSystem, Theory Of Poker, Championship Series, Tournament Hold 'Em by Sklansky, and a whole bunch of other books and they all had a lot of great information. I honestly thought this book would be more of the same, but it wasn't.

I learned in Harrington's book how to use what I've learned in those other books (particularly Theory Of Poker) and how to open up my starting hands quite a bit.

No Limit Tournaments will always be big money tournaments, at least for the next 100 years. If you're going to play in those tournaments, I recommend that you get this book and hold it in the same esteem as the other poker "classics" because this one holds it own with SuperSystem, Theory Of Poker, and the Championship Series.

Fine book on NL Tournament Holdem

This book is top-notch. I can't wait to the second volume comes out. If you are new to NL Tournament Holdem you should improve your results dramatically by reading this book. There will be several other no limit books coming out soon I hear, by Greg Fossilman Raymer, Greenstein, etc. and it will be interesting how they compare with Harrington's. I like the book because Harrington gives instruction WITH examples (although I'd prefer a ton more examples like Ciafonne's book Middle Limit Holdem). If you're a limit Holdem player, you should give NL Tournaments a shot--I think it will improve your overall Holdem game and prevent you from going stale--plus it's FUN!