Quote:
Originally Posted by Pocket44s
Personally I don't like buying in short, but to each his own.
I only own one Ed Miller book due to that specific price reason. If I were to guess, it probably rehashes a lot of the same ideas as earlier books. The book actually tells you to purchase "play the player" and "How to read hands" in order to expand on topics in "The Course". Here's some chapter information to see if anything sounds new to you:
Part I: Mainly an introduction on how poker economy works and the various forms of poker available to play.
Part 2: Beating live 1-2 games with a focus on strong preflop play, folding against big turn and river bets, and assessing hand value based on flop.
Part 3: Beating live 2-5 games with a focus on barreling, evaluating board texture, making live reads, and emotional numbing.
Part 4: A small section on how to begin beating 5-10 games. Exploiting aggression, playing deep, and playing tougher opponents. Each section contains hand quizzes and recommended reading (the books I listed prior mainly).
I have Playing the Player and How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold 'Em (both very good, especially Playing the Player). Thanks for outlining the chapter information. It actually does look like it contains new content, particularly Part 2. There's nothing aimed at 1/2 in his previous books I've read. I'm not sure there's anything aimed at 2/5 either. Barreling, board texture, and making reads he covers in previous books but I don't know what "emotional numbing" is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pocket44s
I like the book a lot, my only criticism being that instead of incorporating material from prior books to make the book better rounded, it simply recommends you read other expensive titles to help bring the material together.
Yeah, that's a common problem in poker books, or instructional books in general I expect. For instance, Jonathan Little's "Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker" frequently tells the reader a particular topic is not covered in this book, but see (Previous Work X) for details. Cover to cover, it recommends Jonathan Little on Live No Limit Cash Games Volume I and Volume II, Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker Volume I, II, and III, and Positive Poker, a poker psychology book. Basically, he recommends you buy everything he's ever written. It's ridiculous. Since I have all these books (except Positive Poker) it doesn't bother me much, but I'd be pissed if I bought the book to see all the stuff it left out. It's only 114 pages! Still, it's the best book on 1/2 I've found yet, so for me, definitely worth the buy, but maybe not if you don't have some of the other titles as he glosses over certain very important topics, referencing his other books rather than giving even a brief summary (such as how to play different stack sizes).
I'm going to pull the trigger on buying The Course. Even if it's just Part 2 that's new material, I think it's worth it. Though I still don't understand why Ed Miller charges $50 for his books and everybody else charges $20 - $30. Whatever...ten red chips.
Thanks again