Review of Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold'em

Title:

Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold'em

Author:

Bill Burton

Publisher:

Bonus Books

Date:

2002

ISBN:

1-56625-189-3

Pages:

284

Price:

$14.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

July 21, 2003

Recent years have seen the publication of a legion of books that proclaim themselves to be introductions to the great game of casino poker. Certainly, there is a need for such books, as it is a mighty big step from "kitchen table" poker to even low-limit casino games. In his book, Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold'em, Bill Burton, the Casino Gambling Guide for About.com, gently charts a route for novice poker players to make their way across this chasm.

After introductory remarks and information on the mechanics of the game, Burton naturally starts off with suggestions for starting hands. He then works his way through the progress of the hand, dispensing advice on how to play various situations. His advice is interspersed with wisdom about various aspects of the game, from how to handle bad beats to avoiding mistakes in reading the board. The third part of this book covers Burton's recommendations for a step-by-step guide to a player's first few sessions.

Burton assumes very little on the part of his audience. He's very careful about explaining all the little details that are so familiar to veterans of casino poker but are so unfamiliar to casino novices. In fact, Burton probably does a better job of describing what a first-time casino poker player should expect than any other author I've read. The one minor downside is that while the information he provides paints a complete picture of East Coast poker and a decent depiction of Las Vegas poker, in some important respects the rules for California poker are a bit different.

Overall, I think Burton provides pretty good strategic advice for those who are new to poker and plan to play in low-limit games. My two main complaints are that he doesn't provide information on raising for value on a very strong draw, a very profitable play in loose low-limit games, and his recommendations are a little more passive than I'd like. This isn't as bad advice in very loose games as it otherwise might be. One of the reasons we want to be raising is to eliminate players, and this is much less likely to work as desired in very loose games. There are many circumstances when we should raise if we can eliminate players but just call if we know our opponents will call the raise anyway. Nonetheless, I'm concerned that Burton's advice is a little too close to a weak-tight approach, and while these tactics might be profitable in a typical low-limit game, it's a style that skilled players will eat for lunch.

Burton is quite clear that while he's a veteran casino gambler, he's a relative newcomer to casino poker, and is still primarily a low-limit player. For readers of his book, this is a two edged sword. His learning experiences are still fresh in his mind, and he can easily relate to what the poker novice is going through. This makes his descriptions especially useful as introductory material. On the other hand, Burton's inexperience shows in places, but on balance this information is more likely to be helpful than harmful to its target audience. At the very least, it serves as a reasonable starting point.

So, does the poker literary corpus need another book that introduces beginners to low-limit Texas Hold'em? Arguably not, but it is my opinion that inexperienced casino poker players who read through Bill Burton's Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold'em will overall be well served by the material it contains. While it may not contain the very best Hold'em advice, one could easily argue that it does contain some of the better information about the mechanics of casino poker, and it advocates an excellent attitude for new players to adopt toward the game of poker in general.

Capsule:

Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold'em is certainly not the only book aimed at introducing the game of Texas Hold'em to beginning players, but in some ways it's one of the better ones. Overall, I think the strategy advice is pretty decent, although some more sophisticated strategic possibilities are missed, and I worry that Burton's strategy is more passive than I'd recommend. However, his information about how to approach the game is quite solid, so I'll recommend this book to beginning players on this basis.