Secrets of Short-handed No Limit Hold'em Review Thread

[Vampiro]

So finally here it is! One of the most eagerly awaited books of recent years.

I just received my copy and still can't comment much, but the reviews have been pretty positive so far:

Originally Posted by Acombfosho

Ive got it this morning and read through the first 60+pages of the book at work.

First off, you can tell that Danny Ashman is a winning NL poker player because he writes in a clear and straight forward way>

The first 50 pages of the book are about the correct mindset, attitudes, considerations and approach to the game to become a winning player.|

Danny stresses learning about HOW TO LEARN poker. He advocates posting Hand Histories as often as possible and he talks about hands using a concept Tommy Angelo also discusses RECIPROCALITY, although danny does not explicitly refer to this, he is describing exactly the same thing.

Danny wants you to think about how you can WIN more in the pots you already win. Lose less or win in pots you already lose. Play your A-game longer and play your C-game less.

Again a similar approach to Tommy Angelo, but without using the same phrases or tommyisms that Angelo uses to describe them.

He talks about BR management and Tilt and how you should game select.

Only 1/4 of the way through the book, but so far I'm glad Ive read it

Table of Contents:

INTRO

Poker is a new game
Because its new people dont understand it
There is alot of money in poker
Why this book will make you money
About this book

APPROACHING THE GAME

The keys to winning poker
Passion for the game
Why poker is hard to learn
Confidence and honesty
WHy continual learning is important
Self-checking
Intelligence

MENTAL DISCIPLINE

General Guidelines
Winning Poker
Tilt
The Seven Deadly Sins
The importance of not tilting
How to avoid tilting
EMpowering yourself

STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS

Shorthanded Vs Fulltable
Live vs Online
Game selection
BR Management
Multitabling

POKER MATH

EV
Basic Probability
Hand combinations
EV Calculations
Putting it all together

PREFLOP

Evaluating your Opponents
Skill Level
Loose vs Tight
Agressive vs Passive
Making adjustments
Starting hands
Hand reading
Example hands

THE FLOP

Planning a hand
Being aggressive
Protection
Determining the bets line
Pot odds
Impied odds
Example hands

THE TURN AND RIVER

Sophisticated Play
Considering future cards
EV+ vs EV++++
Bet sizing
Insticts
Strategic Considerations
Metagame
Example hands

OTHER CONCEPTS AND HH's

Value betting
Bluffing
Semi-Bluffing
Trapping
Folding Strong Hands
Bet-Call and Check-Call lines with weak hands
Changing gears
Misc
Headsup

---

Its 206 pages long and so far its a good read

Originally Posted by Joliq

I'm reading through my copy pretty quick.


What I will say is this so far beyond the other printed mainstream poker literature. Basically everything revolves around hand reading, ranges, and determining the best line based on the ranges. Basically the book teaches you how to sort of think and work out the best play for yourself rather than giving you by-rote lines, and that's why its a good good book. It's better than a lot of other books on the subject because it really does teach you HOW to think, not WHAT to think, and that's far more important. I would recommend it (especially if you're in the uk and can still get it for like 10.50). I think for the price bracket and outside the high end ebooks that are starting to emerge, it's a really really good option.

Originally Posted by excession

I got this book yesterday from Amazon UK.
Read about half of it so far.

Very thought-provoking and at an advanced level strategically. It isn't maths heavy which is always nice after some of the stuff I've been looking at recently.

Especially at it's cheap price (I think it was £7.99) this one is a must read for anyone who has been playing SHNL for more than a year or so I would say...

I've read Kill Everyone and the Moshman HU book in the past couple of weeks as well and they were both excellent also. The quality of poker books has really shot upwards of late IMHO..

Originally Posted by RajHendon

I've had the opportunity to study the book over two long evenings, and I enjoyed it.

Getting inside the head of an obviously very good shorthanded player was well worth it for not very much $$ at all. It is always interesting to see how better players think through their hands.

The only deficiency that I felt the book had was that it was not structured in a how-to format. As such, the book may be less meaningful for the relative neophyte to the game (= me!!) -- but newbies should still buy it for the insights of the thinking process of high stakes players. For more established winning players, this less structured approach, which requires more thinking of the reader, is very possibly a strength.

I am a school teacher, and the book would be more appealing to the kind of student who likes to think things through themselves, relative to the kind of student who likes to be spoon-fed their course. Using a cookery analogy. the book is not a cook-book, but more like a discourse on how to think about cooking.

The issue is, at the price its going for (peanuts), this book definitely has to go on your bookshelf, whatever kind of learning style you prefer. In the shorthanded context, its a pretty unique and valuable book.

Originally Posted by RajHendon

My post was not a major criticism of the book. It is a must-buy in my view for ALL players interested in the shorthanded game.

My views in a prior post were based upon the following premise: that newer players are better suited by a structural, fundamentals-based approach and more established players do well by a holistic, thinking approach.

The holistic view, namely teaching a player to think, is highly valuable, but only once a player is well-versed in the fundamentals.

The book is excellent at teaching players to think but it only briefly skirts over the fundamentals. Page 13 does state that the book is not for beginners. I will quote from page 13 of the book as to what it asserts is its purpose "...where the book differentiates from others is that the bulk of the book will comprise of taking those basic concepts [the fundamentals] and using them in advanced ways".

With respect to the stated objective of the book it scores very high marks. My point is simply that it doesn't cover the fundamentals at a more basic level; this is why I contend that the book is a must-buy as a practical guide for more seasoned players. It does also come across as a must buy for less established players for a different reason, namely that it offers insights into the mindset and thinking processes of someone who is obviously an outstanding player of higher stakes shorthanded games.

Originally Posted by gball

Reading this book made my play too passive. I used to cbet 75% in 6max games, and after reading the book I'm cbetting 50%, and my wwsf% went down from 45 to 37. Clearly my hand reading skills are not good enough for me to be able to voluntarily give away the "initiative".

Originally Posted by gball

It's just that being passive and checking when you think "no worse hand calls, and no better hand folds" will lead into worse spots than if you just blindly bet and take it down. But as the book author states, it's good and ok to get into harder spots because he can outplay his opponents, and that's what I thought too, but apparently 5ptBB/100 6max winner doesn't have enough of an edge against typical opponents to do that.

Originally Posted by Joliq

You're probably missing that there are a ton of spots where better doesn't fold/worse prolly won't call but they're not going to bluff if we check, or we can't bluffcatch, so just betting and taking it down is fine. That's pretty standard in a lot of spots because people are bad/passive, I think he sort of covers this in a few hand examples but maybe not in as much detail as it deserves.

Also there are probably spots where a bet doesn't immediately fold better but maybe can set up barrelling them off a better hand over multiple streets.

Originally Posted by captainwan

That's the best book I have read on NL Hold'em and I have read almost all of them, mainly because the author has a talent for explaining concepts in a clear way and, as important, he refers constantly to these concepts in the hands analysis.

Originally Posted by adsman

I've read the book three times now. I have over 15 poker books, most of them 2+2, and this book is very good indeed. This book has changed the way I look at poker, similar to how Ed Millers first book did. Most poker books of any worth follow mathematical principles to explain the game. This is the first book that I have read that gives you a feel for the game. It is difficult for me to understand what my opponents could be doing based only on math, which is why Danny's book has really changed the way I look at the game. It gets you into your opponents head.

There have been some points made about the grammar in this book, and to be honest the first 50 pages have some quite shocking errors. But if you want to improve your game, you're going to have to look beyond that in this case.
I can't recommend this book enough.

Originally Posted by jherward

I've just finished it and I'm gonna add to the positive reviews,the best thing about this book is that when reading it I never got the feeling I was going over information I already knew just looking for the occasional nugget of wisdom.Every chapter had something I could learn from and it's been a long time since I could say that about a book.

Originally Posted by httassadar

Just finished the book. Definitely an awesome one. Lots of fresh ideas in it.

They typos are annoying to some extent -- the real issue is that if it contains too many minor errors, readers will begin to doubt your main idea. If something does not make sense at first sight, the immediate response will be to think if one or two words are mistyped.

Also, sometimes very important ideas are discussed in the middle of an example hand which will easily be overlooked. I would suggest reading the book very carefully and read it several times.

[Adman]

I am reading it and loving it. This is a very important poker book and I think 2+2 made a serious error of judgment in opting not to publish it. I will write a full review when I finish the book. As a side note, one thing I love is Danny Ashmans confidence in his own play. He is cocky in a cool way and it seems he doesn't have much respect for the vast majority of his opponents poker games. Everyone is "bad" or "a fish" or "too aggressive" or too "straightforward" etc. Love it!

[Beck]

In the section about implied odds, isn't there a mathematical error in the examples?

It is stated as
0.8(-$135)+0.2($405+x)=0

Shouldn't it be
0.8(-$135)+0.2($270+x)=0

Isn't it a mistake to add our own contribution to the pot, to calculate how much we win when we hit our draw?

[punter11235]

I think 2+2 made a serious error of judgment in opting not to publish it.

Is this real story or Bruiser didn't want to publish with 2p2 ?
If it's real then lol. They published completely worthless full of errors and pseudo math NLHTP and they don't publish what will probably be considered all-time no-limit classic soon from great player/thinker of the game...

[1p0kerboy]

Originally Posted by punter11235

Is this real story or Bruiser didn't want to publish with 2p2 ?
If it's real then lol. They published completely worthless full of errors and pseudo math NLHTP and they don't publish what will probably be considered all-time no-limit classic soon from great player/thinker of the game...

Cue Mason in 5...4...3...2...

[kaisersoze83]

It's oriented for online game or not ?

[1p0kerboy]

Originally Posted by kaisersoze83

It's oriented for online game or not ?

It's for all the 6max live games out there. Oh wait...

[phydaux]

Originally Posted by 1p0kerboy

Cue Mason in 5...4...3...2...

Mason has commented several times that he read the manuscript, but returned it to the author because it needed further work.

In the reviews that have been posted thus far, one of the recurring comments is that the book is full of spelling & grammar errors. This tends to confirm Mason's assessment that the original manuscript "needed further work."

When these spelling & grammar errors in the finished book were pointed out, the author has commented in this forum that, quite frankly, he doesn't care and that his work should be judged on content alone and not judged on presentation.

Feedback from early reviews on the book's content seem to have been uniformly favorable.

Seeing as it was likely that Danny would shop his manuscript around to other publishers, it seems only right that Mason would not bad-mouth the unpublished manuscript of a new author on a public internet forum. And he never did. IIRC Mason never made a content-related comment regarding the original manuscript, one way or the other. Only that it "needed work."

I don't have a copy of the book yet but I intend to buy it, as over a year ago I promised the author an honest in depth review if his book ever got published.

[punter11235]

When these spelling & grammar errors in the finished book were pointed out, the author has commented in this forum that, quite frankly, he doesn't care and that his work should be judged on content alone and not judged on presentation.

Feedback from early reviews on the book's content seem to have been uniformly favorable.

Seeing as it was likely that Danny would shop his manuscript around to other publishers, it seems only right that Mason would not bad-mouth the unpublished manuscript of a new author on a public internet forum. And he never did. IIRC Mason never made a content-related comment regarding the original manuscript, one way or the other. Only that it "needed work."

I see. I am sure Mason knows a lot more than me about what makes successful book. On the other hand I am not surprised Danny don't care about grammar/typos because those are not fun to work on. My opinion is they don't matter to general poker population either at least not that much as quality/readability of content.
I remember the days I started playing poker. All non 2p2 books are basically crap these days more and more good/interesting/great books are published elsewhere. I think 2p2 miss a lot of opportunities but again I don't know how many copies other publishers sold and maybe Mason is making good strategic decisions here.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by phydaux

When these spelling & grammar errors in the finished book were pointed out, the author has commented in this forum that, quite frankly, he doesn't care and that his work should be judged on content alone and not judged on presentation.

phydaux, this is not correct.

If you look back at one of the other threads on this book, Danny
said that he does not care about his grammar and spelling in
his posts on the forum, but that he was ashamed of the grammatical
errors in the book.

[Mason Malmuth]

Originally Posted by phydaux

Mason has commented several times that he read the manuscript, but returned it to the author because it needed further work.

In the reviews that have been posted thus far, one of the recurring comments is that the book is full of spelling & grammar errors. This tends to confirm Mason's assessment that the original manuscript "needed further work."

When these spelling & grammar errors in the finished book were pointed out, the author has commented in this forum that, quite frankly, he doesn't care and that his work should be judged on content alone and not judged on presentation.

Feedback from early reviews on the book's content seem to have been uniformly favorable.

Seeing as it was likely that Danny would shop his manuscript around to other publishers, it seems only right that Mason would not bad-mouth the unpublished manuscript of a new author on a public internet forum. And he never did. IIRC Mason never made a content-related comment regarding the original manuscript, one way or the other. Only that it "needed work."

I don't have a copy of the book yet but I intend to buy it, as over a year ago I promised the author an honest in depth review if his book ever got published.

Hi phydaux:

This isn't quite right. When Ashman sent us the manuscript, we could not even look at it because at that time we had too many other commitments, and this was communicated to him. However, I have now read most of the manuscript that he sent us more and I can guarantee that we would not have accepted it because, as you put it, it needed a lot more work. Also, the text was too short and lacked the type of detail and specifics that we are currently requiring for our newly published books. (Perhaps some of this is corrected in the now published version which I have not yet seen.)

At Two Plus Two Publishing LLC we pay far higher royalties than publishers in general, and we feel that on average our authors make roughly five times as much as what they would any place else, and this is certainly the case when compared to our major competitor. But in return for this, we do expect that the manuscripts that are submitted to us be reasonably well written, detailed, and accurate. When that's not the case, we will either return the book to the author for rewrites, and if necessary, just not publish it.

At Two Plus Two we are committed to only producing top notch work for any of our new publications, an this has been our policy since the beginning. Over the years we have turned down a fair number of manuscripts and proposals, some by well known authors, that would have made us money, but which we did not think would be at the quality level that we strive for. So while that was not our original reason for not accepting Ashman's book, if we would have had more time when we first got his submittal, it is very doubtful that we would have proceeded with the book.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Mason Malmuth]

Originally Posted by punter11235

I see. I am sure Mason knows a lot more than me about what makes successful book. On the other hand I am not surprised Danny don't care about grammar/typos because those are not fun to work on. My opinion is they don't matter to general poker population either at least not that much as quality/readability of content.

Here's a quick lesson concerning part of our business. There are actually two groups of people we need to sell our books to. One is people like yourself who actually purchase them. The other are the book buyers who work for the book sellers like Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.

While this second group is actually a very small number of people, they can make or break a publishing company. Essentially, they review a book and decide as to what, if any, the quantity of the initial purchase should be. In addition, most of these people don't know much about poker. But if you produce a book that is filled with gramatical errors, mispelt words, and so on, it's unlikely that the book will make the book shelves. They also consider past sales of an author and how the publisher's other titles in that field have previously done.

So when any author or publisher comes on here and states that they are not concerned with the professionalism of their book, they are being very foolish. In addition, when we hear this sort of thing from an author, it is a tip off that this is not someone we want to work with.

Best wishes,
Mason

[punter11235]

Ty for explanation Mason. As I learned to play from 2p2 books I just wished you could publish all the good ones
Your arguments make a lot of sense to me. While I couldn't care less about grammar/typos/editing I can see those are very important for your business.

[Jbrochu]

When these spelling & grammar errors in the finished book were pointed out, the author has commented in this forum that, quite frankly, he doesn't care and that his work should be judged on content alone and not judged on presentation.

Pretty sure the author since has posted that he was talking about not caring about spelling and grammar in his forum posts, not his book.

[Berlino]

Originally Posted by punter11235

My opinion is they (spelling and grammatical errors) don't matter to general poker population.

The general poker population now includes masses of people who don't speak English as a native language.

Errors in something that is written in a foreign language often can throw you for a loop, whereas a native speaker could fight through the same mistakes without too much difficulty.