The book starts out by outlining basic rules and
situations of playing poker, more specifically Hold'em,
in a casino. What to expect, difference from home game,
and classifying your opponents. The second section of
the book makes a smooth transition from general poker,
to Hold'em, starting at the beginning for a person that
has little or no knowledge of the game. With a few pages
of the nuts and bolts of the game, Krieger moves onto
the different stages of a Hold'em hand. Pre-flop,
playing the blinds, playing the flop, the turn, the
river, raising, and analyzing the table, each get ten+
dedicated pages.
I would have to say that the information on how to play
each stage of the hand is worth the price of the book
alone, especially when you read it, play a few sessions,
and reread it. I have yet to read Sklanky's HE book, but
I really can't imagine it offers anything more then what
you can find here (although Krieger does list Sklanky's
book as a must read).
Krieger also covers how to play jackpot games, something
I hadn't read anything about until now. Of course some
pages set aside for money management, computers and
poker, record keeping info, and a few other 'Easter
eggs' that one might not expect to find in a Hold'em
book. All in all I would have to say this books belongs
on the shelf of anyone looking to improve their poker
game. It contains a few personal short stories that I
found quite interesting, and the knowledge I gained is
immeasurable. Finally, the chart for starting
requirements in the back is great. Easy to look at and
memorize because of it's picture like layout.
Review by YAW -- and reproduced courtesy of the
Poker Forum.
Get Hold'em Excellence here.
Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em
It's hard to leave this out of any favorite
collection of Poker DVDs, if only because it's
so "in yer face" and in some ways it's inspirational in terms of the presentation, but it's also the
series which helped to massively popularize
Poker in recent times. |
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Title:Championship
No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em
Author: T.J.Cloutier (with Tom McEvoy)
Publisher: Cardsmith Publishing
(Copyright 1997)
Price: US $39.95 or
just $19
here.
Pages: 212
Book Review by: Nick ChristensonUntil
this book was written, the best advice
on playing Texas Hold'em in Pot Limit or
No Limit games was the section from
Doyle Brunson's epic, Super System.
Since the writing of Super System the
state of the art in poker writing has
advanced considerably. There certainly
remained a lot to be said about "the
Cadillac of poker games". |
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T. J. Cloutier, who has been competing
in big time poker events for the better part of two
decades, has impeccable credentials as an expert in
pot-limit and no-limit Texas Hold'em. The question is,
will his expertise translate into a good book? This was
especially of concern because although his collaborator,
Tom McEvoy, has been one of the most successful
tournament poker players in the last 20 years, his book,
Tournament Poker was a mediocre offering at best,
offering few, if any, significant new insights into
being a successful tournament poker player.
I'm happy to say, that these fears turn out to be
unfounded. This book was written clearly, as a spoken
exposition by Cloutier. The topics in this book are well
organized and carefully spelled out. All aspects of the
play in these poker games, with a special emphasis on
tournament play, are covered. More importantly, there is
a significant amount of information here that has never
before seen print.
Cloutier goes through how to play starting hands in
various positions in detail, covers having various hands
on the flop, turn and river. He discusses carefully how
to get a read on one's opponent, the skill Cloutier
believes most critical in winning these games. This is a
difficult topic to discuss, reading players is much more
instinct than science, but he does a respectable job of
it.
There are two chapters specifically devoted to
tournament play, a very good set of practice hands with
commentary by Cloutier, and the book concludes with a
set of tales from Cloutier's colorful life.
I like this book quite a bit, but it is by no means
perfect. First, charging $39.95 for 206 pages of paper
bound content seems a little steep to me. While one
could rightly argue that if this book saves you just one
bet at a game of these limits, or moves you up one money
place in a medium sized tournament, you've recovered
this money, it's out of line with what I expect from
books in general.
My second complaint, with which it may be fair for the
author to take issue with me, is that I get the
sensation that the author is holding back a bit. There
are several places, where Cloutier does a good job of
explaining what one can expect in situations, except
that one has a feeling that the author was almost ready
to continue with an "... except in these cases..." or
"... but watch out for ..." but didn't.
This has been a point of a great deal of soul searching
by poker writers for years and can be found in Super
System and Ray Zee's introduction to Texas Hold'em for
Advanced Players among other places. However, the sense
I've gotten from Brunson, David Sklansky and Mason
Malmuth is that after a great deal of soul searching,
they decided to "damn the torpedos" and bare all to the
poker public. I don't get the same sense from Cloutier.
Again, this is merely my impression. I'd be very
interested in hearing how the author answered this
question, very diplomatically worded, of course.
Nonetheless, this book represents the current best
information in print on pot-limit and no-limit Hold'em.
If you are a beginner or intermediate Hold'em player
interested in pot-limit or no-limit ring games or
tournaments, don't be afraid of this book's price tag.
In a nutshell:
Unless you're a big money winner of pot-limit and
no-limit Texas Hold'em games, this book will provide
enough useful information to more than justify its cost.
While not perfect, this book represents the best
information publicly available on how to play and win in
these games.
Nick Christenson
Gambling Book Reviews
Get Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em
here.
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