While this is probably true at low limits, it's not at 2/4+, where players tend to be much better and much more observant

I have only read Ng's and negreanu's chapters, but daniel's chapter alone makes this book worth the 35$ easily. Ng's chapter should be skipped over unless your looking for a very basic/beginner tournament strategy(as described).

For what its worth,

At our normal homegame we usualy run 2 tables of .50c/1d NL. We pretty much always buy in for 100BB to 200BB. I have always come home with a profit, but only like $15 - $20.

After reading Negreanu's chapter twice between the lasts week game and last nights game, I came home this time $240 profit. And I was pretty much card dead the whole night too.

So for what its worth, Negreanus chapter is gold to me.

Yesterday I got to (and through) Todd Brunson's chapter on Winning at High Limit Cash Games.

It was aweful.

Most of the advice was extremely basic and generic, which isn't going to help the reader win at high limit cash games. There's three pages explaining what a semi-bluff is and some examples. There's eleven pages, each one showing the cards of a preflop trap hand and the hole cards which dominate it. Brunson babbles about one subject and then moves into another with little organization. He's mostly all over the place.

There's one area that he touched on which actually could be an interesting topic, and that's left-brained thinking versus right-brained thinking in poker. But all-in-all, his target audience is rank beginners and, quite frankly, there's much better material available from other authors for these players.

Mason ranked this chapter a 2 and I tend to agree.

Todd Brunson's chapter: 2

sample size = 1

niiiiiice

I agree again with Mason's 3 rating for Erik Lindgren's chapter on Playing No-Limit Hold 'Em Online. It was pretty generic and didn't offer anything more than what's in the other generic 'play poker online' material. There were a couple of interesting hands at the end that he played in live tournaments against Daniel Negreanu. Perhaps the worst part about the chapter is the failure to discuss one of the most important aspects in the online game today: tracking software and heads-up displays. They are only briefly mentioned, while Erick says, "Admittedly, I never use the poker-tracking online software..."

Paul Wasicka's chapter on Short-Handed Online No-Limit Hold 'Em deserved much better than the 4 rating that it got from Mason. The book describes some of the tougher players that are appearing online and those counter strategies to get the best of these players. The chapter was way too short, and I would have loved to have seen more detail from Wasicka, such as more hand analysis. But overall the material was pretty good and I would rate it a 7.

this

I agree, especially when those two chapters take up over half of a book which is over 500 pages long.

I thought the small ball section was great.

I think it's much more wothwhile to set up action by playing hands in a way tha ones opponents will perceive as foolish. Getting it in on the flop with a flush draw and a gutshot against a big overpair will win often enough to pay for itself, or almost pay for itself, but it takes a savvy opponent not to pay you off if you flop a set agtainst him after doing that. It takes an even less savvy opponent to realize that getting it in on an open-ended SF draw is not even particularly aggressive but opponents like that exist right up to five-ten no-limit.

So I don't think it's necessary to play the kind of hands that Williams talks about, or not that often. Maybe a simple flush draw if you have lots of fold equity but that's about it. Color me conservative.

However, you have to play the same people over and over again for this to have much impact.

My impressions so far:

Evelyn Ng's chapter was basically written by Daniel. One, it's simply an expansion on his beginner's strategy laid out in some early chapters of "Hold Em Wisdom for All Players" and almost directly lifts entire sections of text from that book, and two, Ng herself almost admits as much in the text. I rate it a 7 for a beginner, and if you hadn't bought Daniel's first book you certainly don't need to anymore if you have "Power Hold Em" on your bookshelf.

I have only skimmed Brunson and Wasicka and cannot disagree with any of the negative comments so far, although I hardly ever play cash games and don't plan on using these chapters too much anyway.

I liked Lindgren's chapter, just don't expect too much from it. If you want some actual decent strategy from him, get his WPT book. This chapter is basically just helping you achieve the correct mindset for online play. If you are new to online or switch up a lot with live play it could be a helpful refresher.

Not a fan of the Williams chapter, but I haven't read it all the way through yet. It just seems more intent of making moves for the sake of making moves, changing gears just to change gears.

Negreanu's chapter is amazing. I think to play this way you must really commit to playing this way all the time, as small ball requires much more of the player post-flop and reading opponent's hands. In my mind it's the HOH of small ball style, and if applied correctly really plays well against both TAG and LAG players, which means it should still be relevant in 5 years, something HOH is starting to struggle with. It's well-written (despite some spelling errors and typos) and holds very little if anything back.

The introduction by Cardoza is absolutely ridiculous and unreadable. This and some of the subpar chapters take away from what truly could've been one of the 2 or 3 best poker books of all time had they just chosen to let Daniel write the whole thing.

I love Daniels small ball chapter. Ive been using his small ball tactics in 6 max NLH cash games. Has really improved my game. Being in position alot more in 6 max is the nuts.

"posistion is power. When your in posistion use it on the other hand if your not in position respect it." A quote from Negreanu

Reasonable argument, but ... you should always take everything you read with a grain of salt. When I was starting out, I read playwinningpoker.com and the first page says,

"But why should you believe what is written here rather than what some nut might babble on a street corner? Good question .... Keep in mind this site's principal lesson: if you want to be a winning player, you need to think and decide for yourself."

Which was and remains to this day, the best piece of poker advice I've heard. Just as it applies to this book it should apply to 2+2, so, not buying the book might be a bad thing. I came here to find out what was good in the book, and having heard what a lot of people said, I will be more cautious reading the other chapters - but not immediately discredit them. I really wanted to know if DN's section on small ball was worthwhile though.... I use small ball intermittently but need/want some more advice on how to use it better.

@Rainbow,

The more you play Smallball, the more you realize Smallball plays itself.

Having the initiative, having position, having implied odds hands and using the 1:1 raise vs blinds/antis ratio is "easy mode," because you'll either steal the blinds when you raise or you'll steal the pot when they check, or you'll fold when they re-raise you pre-flop or fold when they lead or check-raise you.

You always win big over time, and you always lose small in the mean time regardless of your cards, unless you manage to get there with your 62s, in which case god help them

One weakness i see with Daniel's chapter is he never really talks about multiway flops its always heads up.

Seems like a big weakness too.
How often does exactly one opponent call?
In online play either everyone folds or whole table calls

This is a good point. My rating of 9 for Negreanu's chapter may be a little too high.

Best wishes,
Mason

Thank God someone pointed that out. I kept rereading his hand examples, etc. and couldn't get over how it was always "Daniel vs. Big Blind"

Komodo is right on the money with this one. I highly doubt I would ever be able to isolate just the big blind with the moves Daniel recommends. Don't get me wrong, I'm obviously talking about online play, whereas Danie's advice could very well apply nicely to live games.

I just had to shake my head when I read the part about where ideally you want to play heads-up against the big blind. It just doesn't seem feasible online with the abundance of calling-stations.

Keep in mind though that I'm not the most experienced poker player around here...

i noticed that too......... i guess multi-way you're looking to hit. not so much position plays and stealing the pot......... but i definitely noticed that almost all danny's stuff is heads-up. didn't notice the big blind stuff (that maybe others mentioned)...

I suppose a high-level pro sees much more heads-up action than a nickel-dimer like myself, so it would appear that DN discusses what happens in his world rather than mine.

I expect the success of his small-ball approach depends on expert hand reading, and also on the ability of his opponents to lay down big hands. Thus, a low-level player might not have the skill necessary to capitalize on it, nor thinking opponents who will help make it work.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Daniel's discussing "his world." High stakes, big buy-in, day(s) long live MTTs.

I really want to know what any decent poker authority has to say about "our world." Well my world anyway. The micro-limit online cash games, $3.00 + $0.03 thousand entry MTTs, dealing with the extreme variety of player types, etc.

I'd LOVE to sit down with someone like Mason, David, Daniel, etc. and have them spend some time where I play.

+1

if you buy the autographed version with fpps daniel signs it personally
"PLAY GOOD, ________"
D(scribble scribbble)

My last sentence could be misconstrued. I mean that it would be cool to have someone like one of the guys spend some time experiencing the dynamics of my usual games and hear what advice, tips, etc. they have to give.

Small ball works fine at micro and small stakes

You just don't bluff too far if you realise the calling station won't fold his TP and value bet the hell out of made hands and solid draws

Someone should chop up all the great chapters from all the various poker books and make one HUGE "Poker Bible" lol