which free books should i choose?

[sotnub]

I recently did the free book signup thingy from internettexasholdem.com and was wondering which books u guys recommended. I already have lee jones' low limit book and some crap by john vorhaus. Some options are sklanksy, harrington and lo-and-behold super/system 2. I was thinking one of harrington's, but does anyone know the difference between volume 1 + 2? CheersTim

[josh37]

part 1 is about the strategic elements for earlier in the tournament and teaching the basics of tournament poker. basically it is all about getting you to the final table. volume two covers more in-depth and harder concepts such as playing shorthanded, and tries to help you win on the final table. it is essential that you read volume 1 first. as to what 2 free books you choose, it is dependant on what part of your game you want to improve. Tournaments - both harrington on holdems. these are the bibles of tournament poker and makes the sklansky tournament book look like that John Vorhaus book you have. they are great books that i hope the normal bad tournament player never reads. lots of problems at the end of chapters to enforce what you have learned. Limit - seeing as you already have a "beginner/this is how you play holdem" style of book, you can jump to a little more advanced stuff. Holdem poker for Advanced players by sklansky is great and is sure to extend on anything you have read in the past. maybe "weighing the odds in holdem poker" by Yao King. it will give you a good maths base for the rest of your poker playing days. i cant comment on this book propely, i am about to start reading it today. No Limit - the essential book is - "Pot limit and no limit POker" By Stewart Reuben and Bob Ciaffone. apparently an amazingly good theoretical NL book. i guess you should probably read super system if you are goign to play NL as well. HOwever, as the advice in there is from the best players in the world, their advice is usually more prone to a high stakes games than the middle limit or lower ones you are likely to be playing.i hope this gives you some advice. Do you agree Bluebear?Josh "the book reviewer" Davenport

[Andre28]

I gotta disagreree about the Reuben and ciaffone book. i really didnt find it very good at all, but i did find out how good the authors are at the game. Best book ive read is still Sklansky's theory of poker. I know its not specific to Hold'em (if thats what your after) but i think the concepts in that help more than any other book. For limit again the Sklansky for advanced players in probably the best.I have 2 copies of Theory of Poker so Tim if you get 2 other books ill swap you one of them once your finished. I havent read the harrington books, although i have the first one lying around somewhere, but i havent heard much bad said about them.

[Sedda]

I signed up for 4 books from that web site and I've got to say that "Internet Texas Hold'em - Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro" was by far the best for me and my game (limit). I'd already read Lee Jones' book and Small Stakes Hold'em by Sklansky and found that ITH explained more of the concepts of position and what cards should be played from what position as long as certain criteria were met, etc. I didn't get any of that from the other 2 books. Each to their own, though.

[Blu3B3ar]

Reuben's and Ciaffone's book is absolutely amazing and it's probably the one of best poker books ever written. It's probably the book that won and saved me the most amount of money as it corrected some of the misconceptions I had about NL/PL poker that I once had before.Although I have both Harrington's books, I found them an absolute bore and I have never read anything more "padded" in my life. He introduces some fancy new concepts like the "inflection point" but it's intuitive and certainly won't be ground breaking for most experienced tournament players. I found the chapter on the preflop hand-rankings and classifications for heads-up play too strange, even wrong (reason: Hold'em hands are simply non-transitive). Same with King Yao's book, I can't stand the game of limit holdem so I found it better than a sleeping pill.

[cameronw01]

Lol, quite a review BlueBear...In any case, if anyone is wanting to sell Harrington's books I'd be happy to buy them, otherwise I'll just end up going to Amazon.

[mattp]

Internet Texas Hold'em by M Hilger is great for limit play. Great theory and lots of hand examples to test you.I found Harringtons books a very easy read and a must-read for NL hold'em tournament play. They are a progression rather than two versions - so read 1 before 2.Super System 2 is a great read if you'd like to learn about games other than Hold'em. The NL section is a repeat from SS1.The other option ITH will give you is to sign up for Matt Hilgers new book about Applying Odds in Holdem. It will have heaps of hand examples ( a crucial part of any text) and it should be a great read. I like the way Hilger explains things. This has not been released yet but you can put it on back-order.

[sotnub]

thanks a lot for ure help guys. I think ill settle with harrington vol 1 and either hilger or adv. poker by slanksy. Andre, when I finish with either of them, im more then happy to swap 4 theory. Ill let u know when they arrive. CheersTim