DAN HARRINGTON - HARRINGTON ON HOLD'EM VOLUME 2: THE ENDGAME
_RECOMMENDED FOR___________________________________________________________
All MTT players!
Dan Harrington is well known in poker as both an author and player, and came to fame by winning 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 many NLHE mtt players 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.
Volume 2: The Endgame follows on where Volume 1 left off, with more sophisticated plays and moves, and introduces some new concepts. Although the second in the series of three, this book works well as a stand alone book. Beginners will need to be familiar with all the ideas in volume 1, but for those with a good grasp of the basics this book is the best of the series if you're only going to buy one of them.
It starts off explaining all kinds of different plays, the thinking behind them, and the
best time to employ them. These include all kinds of bluffs; the preflop bluff, semi-
bluff, check-raise bluff, and some other moves such as slow playing and continuation betting as well as how to combat opponents who are using these tactics themselves.
Next is one of the most famous parts of the book, defining the M, Q, and Mzones, which
are famous tools that decide how safe a player's position in a tournament is when compared to the rising blinds and antes. This one of the most useful concepts in the book, and indeed poker tournament strategy in general.
The final few chapters treat heads up and short handed play, covering the different
strategies and plays that are required in each situation.
There are a lot of different strategies detailed in this book, and each is presented
succintly, with underlying reasoning explicitly laid out. As with volume 1, each chapter
finishes with examples covering the issues in that chapter, and many of these are real
tournament hands that Harrington has played.
Since it was published, along with volume 1, this has been the standard by which all
other tournament guides were measured, and there aren't many that come close. If you want to improve your tournament play, this book is a true must-read.
print version