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

[checkmate36]

Poker Mike ROCKS!!!

Went to my mail box this afternoon and there was the box with my copy of the book, only 2 days after he received the shipment.

I received the same type of A+ customer service and wanted to make sure that its mentioned again.

As far as the book, I have read the first 60 pages and really like it. The grammatical errors are not even worth mentioning up to this point. (Maybe the 2nd half of the book is worse??)

[twoplustwostore]

Originally Posted by checkmate36

I received the same type of A+ customer service and wanted to make sure that its mentioned again.

Appreciate all the positive remarks.
Thanks all!
Mike

[Mylife0115]

where can I get this book in canada? I have ordered this book many months ago at amazon.ca and I am still waiting...thanks.

[Ouird]

Originally Posted by Mylife0115

where can I get this book in canada? I have ordered this book many months ago at amazon.ca and I am still waiting...thanks.

im from Canada. i actually went to amazon.com vs .ca and purchased it there. price was comparible

[Mylife0115]

Originally Posted by Ouird

im from Canada. i actually went to amazon.com vs .ca and purchased it there. price was comparible

thanks a lot. I have cancelled on .ca and ordered on .com. i will be sent to me on Feb 10th. I am fine with the additional ship charges, do you know if I need to pay any duty? thanks.

[quadaces9999]

Can someone please post the table of contents for this book. Thanks

[brandnizzle]

Originally Posted by quadaces9999

Can someone please post the table of contents for this book. Thanks

i think its listed inside the quote on the first post

[TheDna]

I will prolly get this book. But i m also very happy that 2+2 has such high standards regarding typos and stuff

[Ouird]

Originally Posted by Mylife0115

thanks a lot. I have cancelled on .ca and ordered on .com. i will be sent to me on Feb 10th. I am fine with the additional ship charges, do you know if I need to pay any duty? thanks.

tbh, i dunno. there was a surcharge for additional shipping so i would assume this would cover it. ive ordered from amazon.com before with no issue of additional charges.

[twoplustwostore]

If the package has the correct classification code on it, books are duty free in Canada and most other countries. No idea if they escape the GST but the declared value one one book is low enough so it should.

Admitting that I am guilty as well, to keep this thread on track lets use this thread for content and review related posts and use the other SSHNL thread for availability and shipping questions.

Cheers,
Mike

[KCPokerHustler]

Originally Posted by jimdo

Perhaps you didn't notice that you're critiquing a forum post, not a book.

A joke is less of a joke if you have to explain it, but the irony comes from the fact that Mason was criticizing someone's spelling and he misspells a word. Further irony comes from the definition, courtesy of the Urban Dictionary, of the word mispelt which is how Mason spelled it. Yes, the misspelling of misspelt has a definition.

Even further irony is achieved when Mason screwed up the misspelled the word grammar in a later post.

[bighomeytim]

I liked the book and most enjoyed the last section which describes every hand of heads up battles. Unlike Harrington, he gives reasons for changing your line other than simply mixing up your play. I like the way hands are described from preflop to river, but the times that there's no symblol for the suit of a card for a particular street makes it hard to follow. If they could just fix that and then write all poker books this way from now on, that would be great.

One example is, "$25/$50 six handed, I open UTG with K-10 to $175 and am called by....". Boom, get right to the action then our minds will naturally wonder what stack sizes are at which time he'll tell us. No ugly diagrams or tedious info before the action starts. Soooooooo much better this way.

[jimdo]

Originally Posted by KCPokerHustler

A joke is less of a joke if you have to explain it, but the irony comes from the fact that Mason was criticizing someone's spelling and he misspells a word. Further irony comes from the definition, courtesy of the Urban Dictionary, of the word mispelt which is how Mason spelled it. Yes, the misspelling of misspelt has a definition.

Even further irony is achieved when Mason screwed up the misspelled the word grammar in a later post.

If you have to explain it, then I would say it's not much of a joke.

[TheClient]

I haven't read all the posts, so some of this might have been said already.

Really short review:

1. Is the book worth buying? : imo yes. Reasoning below under 4.

2. Is the grammar / spelling / writing style / outlay annoying?: imo yes. It's terrible and it's even more terrible for someone whose first language is not English (like me).

3. Do I understand that 2+2 wouldn't publish it?: Yes, (i) due to 2 above, (ii) too short for 2+2, (iii) while most of the concepts are good, the explanations don't go to the core (no real game theory expl, not a lot of math etc.), (iv) no real leitmotif (hey, awesome you use that word, hope it makes sense here), esp the hand histories appear to be kind of randomly chosen.

4. Why do I consider it worth buying?

(i) Not a lot of SHNL books out there.
(ii) 3 (iii) also has an advantage, it makes you think and research on your own (if u r willing to).
(iii) A lot of what the author says about hand-reading and value bets is really good. It made me less fearful when valuebetting thin or (semi-) bluff raising and when going through my HHs I get the impression that I am really becoming a better poker player (Background: play mostly 100NL, always been a slightly winning player, not enough data for a thorough statistical analysis of my perceived improvements).

[Melville]

Whenever a poker book gets published, there is a big discussion around all the wrong spelling and grammar in the text. I've seen this discussion so many times now. This is also true for all the poker magazines I had in my hand - also the german ones.

Are there no editors in the poker business, or are they just incompetent?

Edit: Halfway through the book. Ashman obv. knows what he is doing. His editor doesn't.