100 Hands: 100 Detailed Solutions to 100 6-Max Cash Problems

Written as a companion to “The Grinder’s Manual”, “100 hands” is a book of hands in online NLHE cash games ($2NL to $100NL) played by Clarke or his students with each one followed by analysis and discussion. It differs from the traditional workbook format (e.g. Harrington on Holdem 3, Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker 3) in that rather than giving a multiple choice question at each decision point and a score for each decision, it gives you the whole hand (up to the final decision point in the case of Clarke’s own hands) and invites you to perform your own analysis first, which you can later compare to the author's analysis and explanation.

One of the strong points about the book is that the hand histories are not sorted by topic; just like with real play, you don’t get told in advance if the main things to consider are going to be reverse implied odds, blockers, 4 betting or anything else. The idea is to bridge the gap between a book like “The Grinder’s Manual” and decision-making in real play, albeit with more time on the ball. In his podcasts, Clarke often talks about the gap between knowledge and execution and this is what the book is intended to bridge.

Another strength of “100 hands” is the emphasis on applying game theory – particularly discussing against which opponents it is appropriate (or not) and how to arrive at ranges with approximately the right frequencies in game – mostly avoiding discussion of mixed strategies which are difficult for players to reproduce under real conditions.

As a stats geek, the one thing I would have like to have seen added, consistent with the “realistic play” would be more “red herring” stats. Rather than just giving us the VPIP/PFR and sample size for opponents against whom we have few hands, it would have been nice to see the other stats included too, with the expectation that the reader is supposed to identify which stats are reliable (or at least semi-usable) and which aren’t, as this itself is part of the thought process during play. This topic is covered very well in “The Grinder’s Manual” (individual stats are given a reliability level based on the number of hands they are from) so should also be practised here with every hand.

Overall I'd say this book is a definite buy. Hand history review is a great way to improve, and checking your analysis against that of one of the leading coaches of the day is even better.

The book is available on https://carrotcorner.com/ (you get Kindle and PDF formats) or Amazon (Kindle only). There is an extract visible on https://carrotcorner.com/100-hands/

Disclosure: I received a free copy to review with no conditions attached relating to review content.

Thanks for the review!

Simplifying and approximating GTO to something humanly computable and applicable in-game was definitely one of my main focuses, but I also wanted to use game theroy approaches while never losing sight of the potential exploitative adjustments that might be much higher long-term EV. I tried to blend the two schools of thought as much as possible as I feel a lot of coaches focus too heavily on one or the other.

As for stats, I did lay off them quite a bit this time, again with the focus on trying to recreate the very common modern landscape of large zoom pools and annonymous tables where large hand sample HUD stats don't really get a chance to shine like they used to.

Very happy to use this space for discussion of 100 Hands and to answer any questions, criticisms, etc. that anyone has.

Pete.

I was in the middle of reading The Grinders Manual when I first heard about this and purchased it last month as I knew that it was going to be great. From what I've seen so far it is. The concept of the book is that 50 of the hands were provided by student's on the author's own forum (These range in level from 2nl right up through to 100nl) while the other 50 were hands played by the author himself (all at 50nl). The odd numbered hands are the student hands whilst the even ones are the author. The hand is laid out either entirely or up to a point and the reader is meant to come up with their own analysis before reading that of the author's.

I'm currently playing 16nl and what I quickly realised is that the level of analysis (especially in the even numbered hands) was way beyond anything I've read so far. I should point out that I haven't read any GTO books so some of the concepts were foreign to me. I haven't finished The Grinder's Manual yet but I did flick through the final few chapters and I believe that there is a gap between these two books where some of these unfamiliar topics lie. One example, that comes up a lot in 100 Hands is the concept of range betting/checking. In a lot of the hands there's a point at which the author decides whether to adopt a polarised betting strategy on the flop or whether to implement a range check or bet. Since this isn't a text book in the vein of TGM he doesn't explicity set out the criteria that applies in order to make this decision (I actually started a thread in the Poker Theory section of this site to try and find out what these might be as I was really curious about it).

The fact that the content and thinking in the book is higher again to that contained in TGM was actually a pleasant surprise. If the level of analysis was no higher than in that previous book then working your way through 100 hands would be a real plod. It is of great credit to the author that a book with such an unimaginative title is anything but formulaic. Somehow he manages to make each hand a unique read with little nuggets of wisdom to be found dispersed throughout. There is of course plenty of repetition but only in so much as one needs as a learning aid.

I've read about a quarter of the book and have returned to TGM as I want to have a more thorough understanding of the concepts in that book before I return to finish this one. I'd imagine players at higher limits or who are more familiar with GTO concepts will enjoy this even more.

Have reached out to Peter for the kindle version of 100 hands to his various emails, after ordering the PDF form his website, but have heard nothing in response. Peter Clarke, are you still out there???

So sad this book do not exist in reality, as in a real book...
Both books actually...

Very happy tho it work well for the author , thumbs up.

why aren't these available in book form?

The book is really geart imo. You can go through each hand day by day and if you expand what is said in the book by analysing it with equilab and solvers its a great learning tool. You can even test yourself. You will see the hand and action and before look at what peter clarke said you just think about what the "right answer(s)" could be. This way you can check if you are on the same page (pun intended).

Has anyone read his Psychology book yet? How is it?

This is a great book. You do need to have read TGM first though. Both books are extremely well written despite being self-produced. I have just bought the latest book on tilt control and expect it to be as good as his other two books.

Hey Carotter, I'm a philosophy major too: Russell, Hume and Leibniz, mate.

It looks like this book isn't available on carrotcorner.com anymore. Is it out of date?