Review of Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players, 21st Century Edition
- Title:
- Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players, 21st Century Edition
- Author:
- David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth
- Publisher:
- Two Plus Two Publishing
- Date:
- 1999
- ISBN:
- 1-880685-22-1
- Pages:
- 332
- Price:
- $29.95
July 17, 1999
Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players has certainly been one
of the most influential poker books ever written, it has literally changed
how people have played this game. Moreover, this book has, in large
part, set the standard by which other poker books have been judged.
Now, a much expanded new edition for the 21st century has been released.
The book starts with several short preliminary sections, including
the Forward by expert player Ray Zee, the Introduction, and a section
called "Using This Book". The reader is warned immediately that this
book should not be read casually. It is intended as a text book on
Texas Hold'em and will need to be studied as a text, not read as one
would a novel, if the reader is to maximize the benefit of the material
within.
Then, the first of eight sections begins, covering the play of the first
two cards. This includes the now famous hand ranking table. The authors
recommend which sorts of hands to play in various positions but emphasize
that it is not sufficient to just play well before the flop to be a
winning player. The second section covers various important concepts
about which the Hold'em player must be aware, including Semi-Bluffing,
Slow Playing, the Check Raise, Inducing Bluffs, and many more. The
third section covers a wide variety of topics, including playing when
a flush draw flops, playing trash hands, playing against a maniac, etc..
Most of these sections were classics when they were written. They're
even better now that they've been updated to more closely reflect
the sorts of games that are commonly found in card rooms today.
Sections four through six cover playing in all sorts of non-standard
games, and this is the area where the book has been most greatly expanded
since its original printing. We learn about playing in loose games,
including so-called "No Fold'em" games, playing short handed, and playing
in other
unusual circumstances. All of this information is very interesting and
has been updated to be much more closely aligned to the sorts of games
commonly found today. Of course, there is much more that could be said
on some of these topics, such as playing in spread limit games, but
the authors cover a lot of territory already. I especially like the
new sections that cover considerations in playing some especially tricky
starting hands, like AQoff.
Part seven includes commentary on other skills the successful Hold'em
player will want to possess, such as reading hands and applying psychology.
Finally, the last section, Questions and Answers, provides a quiz covering
much of the material presented in earlier chapters so the reader can test
themselves to see whether they've understood what the authors were trying
to communicate. I've always felt that this was one of the
strongest sections of this book and other publications by Two Plus Two, and
I'm glad to see that it has been
greatly expanded in the most recent edition. The book ends with some
concluding remarks, an appendix on calculating probabilities, and a
glossary.
Of course, Sklansky and Malmuth have never shied away from controversy.
There was plenty for Hold'em players to debate in the first edition of
this book, and there is certainly much one could fairly argue about in
this edition. Although I wouldn't compare my strategic understanding
of the game to the authors, there are strategies suggested in this book
that I'm not certain are optimal, and I'm sure many people will argue the
minutia of these many times over. However, I'm less interested in the
specific merit of the play of a single controversial hand than I am in
the strategic concepts the authors are trying to teach.
While I might quibble about whether
that strategic concept is applicable in an example that they provide,
I never get the feeling that the strategic concept itself
is questionable. One of the great things about Texas Hold'em
is that there are so many possible ways to play a given hand, and that
great players can disagree on these points. The way one can tell a great
player from a mediocre one is whether they can accurately read the
situation and take into account the strategic concepts that need to
be applied at the moment, much more so than whether they bet, raise, check
or fold. One would be well advised, in my opinion, to keep this
in mind while reading this book.
Clearly, this book is a classic, and I doubt there are very many successful
limit Texas Hold'em players playing today who do not own a copy of one
of the earlier editions.
Certainly, those that plan to play Hold'em well should own a
copy of this work and read it several times. The big question is
whether owners of previous revisions of this book should upgrade to the
21st Century Edition. Note that this is the third update of this work,
the original was published in 1988, it was updated in 1994, and the
current version was released in the summer of 1999. I have only the
1988 and 1999 editions, so I can only speak to those.
By my count, 150 pages have been added to the 182 page 1988 edition.
In addition to new sections, there are minor changes to reflect
how the game has evolved over the years and to emphasize concepts that
caused some conclusion in earlier editions. Overall, given the changes that
have been made to the 21st Century Edition from the first edition, I
would recommend that those people who are serious about their Hold'em
game and have read the 1988 edition upgrade their copies of this book.
Although I do not have enough information to make the same claim for
the 1994 edition, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was worth
upgrading from the second edition as well.
Capsule:
Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players is one of the classics
of the poker literature. This book is extremely well written, and it's
hard for me to believe that many players are likely to master
today's games without having read and studied this text. Further, the
21st Century Edition is, in my opinion, enough of an improvement over
the first edition that those who have already read the 1988 version
should buy and read the new edition as well.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book from Two Plus Two
Publishing. I have no other interest, financial or otherwise, in
the success of this book.
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