DAN HARRINGTON - HARRINGTON ON HOLD'EM VOLUME 1: STRATEGIC PLAY
_RECOMMENDED FOR___________________________________________________________
Begginer to Intermediate MTT players.
Dan Harrington is a well-known poker author and player, who achieved celebrity status when he won the 1995 WSOP main event. He also reached the final table in 2003 and 2004, a remarkable WSOP achievement.
Harrington on Hold'em is considered by most Texas Hold'em tournament specialists as the main reference guide for hold’em tournaments. There are three books in the series, and each focuses on certain parts of the tournament, and different ideas.
In Volume 1: Strategic Play, Dan Harrington and co-author Bill Robertie cover the essential elements necessary to survive to the final table. They emphasise the various elememnts of a hand, position, blinds and antes, opponents, stack, etc. The hand is the total of all these elements. Rather than physical tells they focus on betting patterns, which makes this book translate easily to the online game as well as live play.
They move onto implied odds, pot odds, and hand analysis, and some general probablitiy, all covered in a clear and concise style which makes it all seem quite simple.
They cover pre-flop play in early and mid-stages of the tournament, breaking it down into sections depending on action before you. Everything is covered here, the difference between 1 raiser 1 caller, and a raiser with no caller, limpers, reraised pots, first to enter the pot, etc. What to do when certain scenarios occur after you, callers, raisers, squeeze play, all-ins etc.
Post flop play is discussed in detail, from continuation bets to flop texture, covering common hands, probe bets, value bets, etc.
This first book concludes with turn and river plays, firsing twice or three times at a pot, drawing hands, extracting value from your best hands, and pushing all in on the river.
Each chapter finishes with detailed hand histories, focusing on the content of each chapter, and making sure it's sunk in. Pretty much all the basics are covered in this first volume, players new to tournaments will find all they need here, and most regular mtt players will benefit greatly from reading it.
In all it's an easy to read book, it dumbs down the maths involved, focusing on easy to understand examples. Comprehensive, straight forward, and insightful, this book comes highly recommended!
print version