Poker - Texas Hold 'em: A Complete Guide to Playing the Game (Paperback)

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.
PokerMan

In this edition he has revised the groups and corrected some minor errors. For example, 7-6s was then both the #30 hand in Group 5 and the #53 hand in Group 8. That has been corrected.

In addition to being the first book devoted exclusively to hold'em, Sklansky's little gem is perhaps the best introductory book on hold'em ever written, and then some. Sklansky does a masterful job of introducing the reader to the game, pointing out how it differs from other poker games, narrows in on the community card essence of the game, and then, amazingly enough, gives the reader information and ideas of considerable value to even seasoned players. Even if you have been playing hold'em for some time, and even if you have read Brunson's SuperSystem, I still recommend that you spend some time with this book.

Sklansky writes in a deceptively terse style so that the ideas and concepts are plainly stated without elaboration. This has frustrated some readers because in some cases what Sklansky is saying is clear at first blush, while in other cases the text seems cryptic. There are three reasons for this.

One, Sklansky thought of himself primarily as a teacher and deliberately left out some explanations while inviting readers to work out the reasoning for themselves. Serious players who want to improve their game will benefit from this approach. Take out a deck of cards and deal out some hands if necessary. For example, near the end of the section on "Odds and Implied Odds" he explains why it is often correct to call with a small pair before the flop. He notes that you'll often "win a nice pot if your card flops." He adds without further explanation, "Get out if it doesn't, unless you make an open-end straight." He wants you to work that out. If you do, you will come to note (after some study) that a draw to an open-ended straight that figures to be the nut is enormously better than an inside draw to the bottom end. I would add that if you have two sixes, the board 754 is significantly better than 987. Sklansky doesn't mention it, but in this latter case, you should usually not draw, but toss.

Two, like all experts writing for a general readership, Sklansky unconsciously takes some ideas for granted since he himself knows them so very well, but doesn't realize that the less experienced reader needs more explanation. I've read many books by experts in all sorts of fields from cosmology to Scrabble, and I can tell you that this is a common phenomenon. What the expert needs when writing a book for a general readership is a very good editor who is less than expert him- or herself. So, yes, this book would benefit from the work of a top notch editor.

An example of Sklansky's not explaining something that would be cryptic to most players comes from the "Semi-Bluffing" section of the "Strategy" chapter. First he notes that "If you never bluff on the flop or fourth street, you are giving away too much information when you do bet." Then he writes, "Rather than try to guess when to bluff, it is much better to use your cards to randomize your play." He is referring to semi-bluffing situations described in the proceeding paragraphs rather than a seat-of-your-pants bluff when you feel you haven't been bluffing enough. However, his use of the word "randomize" recalls a technique some pros use. Say it is correct to bluff one-fourth of the time in a certain situation. Everything else being equal, how do you decide? Take the first card on the flop. If it is a spade, bluff, otherwise don't. That will randomize.

Three, the expert is always aware of his learned colleagues looking over his shoulder; and so to some extent writes for that readership as well. We can see this in Sklansky's almost exhaustive treatment of how to play heads-up on fifth street in the "Strategy" chapter. Sklansky is anticipating knowledgeable critics familiar with saddle-point ideas from Game Theory, which are applicable to heads-up decisions on the river. You might profitably skim this section and save its intricacies for graduate school! But be aware that the top experts understand it very well.

I found it strangely synchronistic in rereading this book to fall upon Sklansky's ideas about the pause as a "tell." As Internet players know, how long it takes you to respond may give your opponents some information about your hand. Sklansky writes, "If a good player does not pause at all after he has bet and has been raised...he is most likely on the come for a flush or straight if such a hand is possible. With almost any other hand in this situation he has to pause to consider either folding or reraising." This is exactly the sort of "tell" that still exists in Internet play, and Sklansky's reasoning is as sound today as it was when he wrote this in the seventies.

This is not only a classic, but a book that almost thirty years after its creation is still very much worth reading. The fact that he devised his strategies originally for a game with only a single blind and an ante (the Las Vegas 10&20 hold'em game circa 1975) should be kept in mind. Yet the ideas and strategies are mostly still of great value. I played cards with Sklansky and I can tell you he is a very good player, but more than that he is a great theoretician who understands the game better than many world champions. Indeed they have learned from him.