Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:41 am Post subject: No-Limit Texas Hold'em: A Complete Course by Angel Largay
I like this book, but I'll start with some dings. First, I don't like misleading book titles. This book is by no means a "complete course" in NL Holdem. And I don't think a book should be, so why try to pretend? Harrington wrote 3 volumes on tournament play alone. Three more volumes could easily be written on cash game play. Consider this book one of those 6 volumes (it is a cash game only book). This book fills a niche - a very important and neglected niche, so that should be the focus. It might have been the publisher's idea, not the author's.
This book is about one specific form of NL Hold’em only - small blind, max buy-in games. He calls it “low-limit no-limit” (LLNL). He explains very nicely the difference between this and larger blind, uncapped buy-in games, and stresses how important the difference is. He makes comparisons in structure to the early stages of an multiple rebuy tournament (and notes Negreanu's profitable success in his 26 rebuy tournament at the WSOP).
The other "ding" is more of a personal preference thing. There aren't enough concrete hand examples. I've grown to very much appreciate Ciaffone, Hilger, Harrington and Miller in this regard. You won't find nearly as much of that in this book. Perhaps Miller's upcoming book will have more. However there are some interesting quizzes in the beginning of the book geared toward beginners, but some are not as easy as they first appear (I was surprised at how many I got wrong when I tried to breeze through the first one quickly). Everyone should try to answer them all. (Although I did find a couple errors in one of the quiz sections.)
Having said all that, I think the book is actually very good and very relevant. There is a LOT of LLNL being played today. Mostly $1/2 NL with a $200-300 max buy-in and $2/5 NL with a $500 max buy-in. This book caters specifically to those games.
Some new concepts are introduced along with the usual probabilities and odds sections. Playing the same hand against different player styles is discussed.
The concept of "small hand, small pot, big hand, big pot" is stressed but with a different twist. The pervasive theme is that the big profit is made in this game not so much by nickel and diming your opponents to death (a la Hellmuth tournament style), but by winning the big bets and big all-in hands. The question you are encouraged to constantly keep in mind when you make your decisions throughout the hand is "Who is more likely to go broke with this hand, you or your opponent?" This is actually quite helpful in avoiding situations where you can be drawing dead (like drawing to a flush when a full house is already possible). But thinking about this question can affect your decision making at all points in the hand including preflop.
I rate the book 7/10 - it's actually very good and is a must buy if you play these sorts of games because there is no other book out there that addresses this niche, and there's demand for it (I shouldn't even refer to this as a niche, since this might be the most popular form of poker played today). I knock off a couple points because there was definite room for improvement, not because it's not useful. Highly recommended for anyone playing these games.
Joined: 21 Sep 2006 Posts: 50 Location: London, UK
Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:47 am Post subject:
I have this book. I kind of like it but it's way off being a complete course in anything.
In fact the main feeling I get after reading it is that it's missing a lot of things. The preflop advice is pretty scant really and the post flop advice focusses on a few topics. I think I've probably picked up a couple of things from this book but it seems to be lacking in both theory and practical examples. I learned a lot more information that I've found useful at small stakes NL from Harrington on Hold'em vol1 even though that is aimed at tournament play.
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