Hold 'em Poker by David Sklansky

Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth

and

Small Stakes Hold 'em

I was wondering if there are any I shouldn't get if one book already covers something that another does. Or are there any other poker books that I should get that would help me improve my limit hold 'em game. I'm not expert, but definatly not a beginner. So I guess I would be somewhere in the novice range as I can easily apply novice strategies and understand advanced strategies. I'm not sure if any of these books are mainly for beginners that I shouldn't get and save the money to buy a more advanced book.

I have never read a book on limit hold 'em before, but was reading up on the solid foundation Small Stakes Hold 'em can build. I just dont want to waste time/money on a book that is too beginner/fundamental. I really just want to get must reads.

Thanks a bunch everyone.

Oh ya and one more question if you can answer this too. I understand that certain limit in online poker arent exactly the same in regards to skill to the same limit in a live game. For example, a online .25/.50 NL player could probally play with the same confidence in a 1/2 live game.

What level of online fixed limit is equivelent to live 2/4 if that is a feasible question to ask/answer.

Thanks again.

P.S. Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I'm in a rush right now typing this.

SSHE, King Yao's math book and WITHG would be the three I would recommend at the current state of the game. But there are a few good books out there. HEPFAP is good, I would leave HOld'em Poker out of the list. Theory of Poker is another good read.


.10/.20

Small Stakes Holdem (this is the foundation for Limit). Play 10K hands.

Read it again. Play 10k more hands.

King Yao's Weighing the Odds. Play 40k hands.

Stoxtrader's Winning in Tough Holdem Games. Keep playing.

Reread any/all as necessary.

Other books are fine, but think of them as bonus/extra credit.

IMO.

And 2/4 is somewhere around .05/.10, IMO. Even if it's lower, if you've got the BR for it, start there and move up from there. If you're BR is smaller, start lower and build it up from there.

I'd skip the first two books and go to Small Stakes Hold'em. The others are written for a style of live game that doesn't exist any more. While there is useful general poker know-how in them, the examples relate poorly to a modern online game. Even Small Stakes Hold'em was written for low limit live games, and doesn't describe games like you'll see online.

What if I recommended Super System as someone's first NL book to play online 6m, say NL100? The issue isn't that the book sucks, but the frame of reference.

theory of poker

Are Winning in Tough Hold'Em Games and Weighing the Odds worthwhile for someone still at the 0.02/0.04 and 0.05/0.10 games?

I'd just go to Leroy's post. He has it 3rd, and I think his progression is good.

Small Stakes is great, Have read it twice, gonna read it again. You might wanna read Phill Helmouth's book don't remember the title, he advertises Ultimate Bet there and advises to cap with 22

Forgot about Theory of Poker... Probably slide that in after King Yao's and before WITHG.

If you read/reread and understand SSHE, play a respectable amount of hands, then read WTO, play a respectable amount of hands and are still stuck at the penny/nickel micro level you didn't really understand them or are not applying them.

FWIW, I'd guess 10/20 in AC is somewhere between .05/.1 and .25/.50 FR online especially over the weekends unless you end up at a bad table.

I'm a fan of Harrington's books on Tourney and Cash Game play, although they're for no-limit games.

As a noob, agreed with Leroy. WITHG is way too involved for my game right now but it's an awesome read and I look forward to rereading it when it becomes relevant.

I've found Lee Jones' book to be pretty good for a quick read too. Curious what vets think of this one.

It's called "Phil Hellmuth's Texas Hold 'em". (This book is basically a word-for-word reprinting of the hold 'em chapters in his book "Play Poker Like the Pros.")

His preflop strategy outlined in the book is basically this:

AA-77,AK,AQ: Cap the betting

66-22: Three-bet (but don't call three bets cold)

Axs: Raise if first in pot, otherwise call. Call one raise, but don't call three bets cold.

KQ: Same as Axs, except raise whether first in pot or not.

Overall, I've probably made a small amount of money with this system playing .02/.04 and .05/.10.

Playing this way, you will lose a lot of small pots and win a few very large pots.

Overall, at low limits it'll probably turn a small profit.

I actually did pretty well with this strategy of just the top 10 hands at full ring back in the .50/$1 days at Party. It taught me patience when I needed to learn it most, at the beginning. Hellmuth does say, though, that capping with hands like 77 is a bad idea when the mouse comes in raising.

I'm not a vet, but this is what was recommended to me before SSHE. I think it's a better starting point for a beginner because it's simpler, shorter, and gives more explicit advice. After reading that, and playing a few thousand hands, the progression outlined before starting with SSHE is good.