Review of Hold'em Wisdom for all Players

Title:

Hold'em Wisdom for all Players

Author:

Daniel Negreanu

Publisher:

Cardoza Publishing

Date:

2007

ISBN:

1-5804-2210-9

Pages:

166

Price:

$14.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

July 13, 2007

Daniel Negreanu is one of the true stars of the contemporary poker scene. His winning personality and impressive tournament resume have made him a one of the most recognized poker players in the world. Hold'em Wisdom for all Players is Negreanu's first book, a collection of tips designed to improve the reader's hold'em game.

Hold'em Wisdom for all Players is a set of 50 bite-sized essays arranged in no particular order. Most, but not all, of these are geared toward no-limit tournaments, although some cash game tidbits and some limit hold-em advice is mixed in. Some recommendations are strategic, some psychological, some motivational.

The advice Negreanu gives his readers is generally good. There's nothing in here that I found to be flat-out wrong, although I believe on occasion his advice is correct only under certain circumstances. Unfortunately, these circumstances are not always well-defined out by the author. The bigger problem is that there is nothing in this book that we can't also find in several, sometimes many, other books on poker.

For example, essay number four is on levels of thinking in poker, level 1 being thinking about what you hold, level 2 being thinking about what your opponent holds, level 3 being thinking about what your opponent thinks you hold, and so on. I don't know if it was the first place this has been discussed in print, but David Sklansky discusses this topic in The Theory of Poker, first published 20 years ago. That would be fine if Negreanu had something to add to Sklansky's commentary (or to the commentary of others who have discussed the same topic), but he doesn't. Many of these essays follow this pattern.

So, can this book improve a person's poker game? Sure, if they are a beginning player and haven't read very many other poker books. However, I believe that many of the other books that contain the same material are better overall. Consequently, I would advise most readers to pass on Hold'em Wisdom for all Players, and read other highly regarded poker books instead. Given this, I can't think of a really good reason to recommend this book. It won't hurt, but I believe there are much more valuable ways to spend one's poker study time.

Capsule:

Hold'em Wisdom for all Poker Players contains 50 articles written by poker phenom Daniel Negreanu designed to improve a player's chances at the hold'em table, especially in no-limit tournaments. The book's advice is generally decent, if not always specified as precisely as I'd like. The big problem is that nearly all of it has been said before, and usually in books that are much better overall. Therefore, I recommend that most poker book readers skip this one.