Poker Book Review: Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller, Mason Malmuth and David Slansky

There's no question that when it comes to Texas Hold'em, the lowermost limits are extremely bewildering places in which to play. It's full of kids who think that the meaning of poker is to pretend that betting two fours for value means treating them as if they were a straight flush. There's what I call, "All in Disease," where every chance a guy gets, he tries to emulate his highly paid heroes on television and go all in. The only problem is that they usually believe that they can win when they do so. These clowns go after 15 dollars worth of blinds with their entire stake. It's demoralizing when you lose to them.


For this reason, I bought this book by Miller and company to see if there were a way in which to improve my game. The first helpful thing the narrative does is to put things in perspective. Any maniac or tomfool can win Hold'em in the short-term, as a player, my job is follow the percentages and maintain discipline. Even if I take a beating during one session, eventually, the numbers will rectify the situation in the end. Somewhat surprisingly, Miller's advice is that if you find yourself amid very loose tablemates, it's okay to lessen your hand selection values as they're calling with practically anything.

The idea of, "don't be tricky," definitely benefited me immediately. With so many callers, slowplaying is not a sound idea unless you possess the nuts. They're liable to come back from huge deficits to pummel you on the river. Don't let them linger. Bet them to death. If they want to see your set, make them pay for it--big time. Again, we learn what we already know, that aggressiveness is rewarded again and again in Hold'em, but it remains just as true in limit as it does in no limit. If you don't raise, you will be raised so its important to lead out after strong flops. The idea that many beginners spend too much time worrying about "good laydowns" is a great point. Miller thinks that it's more tilt-promoting to laydown a winner than it is to lose at the river; so calculate your odds of calling and how many times it has to be a winner in order for questionable calls to be income producers. Many times, that last call only has to succeed 1 in 10 times for you to make money on aggregate, so a call is mandated.

Overall, I was very pleased with this book. If you've ever wondered how you can be losing to the idiots you've been losing to, buy it. It returned me to profitability.

by Bernard Chapin, Illinois


Getting Started in Hold 'em by Ed Miller

The long: Ed Miller is known as a poker authority, and there's no doubt that he knows his stuff. Along with Sklansky & Malmuth who represent the 2+2 publishing company that Miller writes for, he's known mostly for being a limit holdem player and that part of his book is well done.

However I felt that the NL section was lacking. While he went through his thought process for the section on evaluating his limit holdem hands, which were very well done, his NL section leaves much to be desired. Let me sum up his NL section.

Buy in for cheap so you limit the extent that you'll get exposed by better players. Wait for premium hands such as AA-TT, AQ, AK then raise preflop about four times the big blind, then go all-in on the flop whether or not you hit the flop. This is seriously the bulk of his entire strategy. He does not go into the thought process for the player as he did in his limit sections. He accuses other authors of writing a vague strategy, and giving amusing anecdotes in their books, but Miller does the exact same thing. He gives an anecdote of a 3-hour session, where his strategy made him money versus a player who made a snide remark, as evidence that this strategy works. Any real poker player knows even thousands of hours may not be enough to prove yourself as a winning poker player (Ed knows this and makes a mention of it).

This book deserves 2.5 stars. I have a lot of respect for Ed and wish I could give it a better rating, but I cannot ignore the lack of substance in the NL section. If you are like most new holdem players, then you're probably not interested in learning limit holdem. You may see this book and think "Wow, I want to learn to play the game that's taking over the world. The one that those guys on TV are playing". Well buying this book will start you off learning the wrong game. Limit & NL are a very different animal. Other books out there at least have many examples of no limit hands, so the reader can develop an intuition as to the rhythm that an NL games flows to.


No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice By Ed Millar and David Sklansky


This is the first No Limit Hold'Em book that I have read that applies to cash games as much as, and probably more than, tournaments. It seems that most books follow the popularity of television (which is reasonable if you are trying to sell a book) but I strongly prefer a regular old cash game.

This books covers traditional Sklansky theory of poker material, nicely taylored to a No-Limit game. One of the most important concepts is the fact that in Limit Hold'Em, you play for pots, but in No-Limit Hold'Em you play for stacks. This means that you try to win your opponent's entire stack when you are well ahead and try to avoid traps and mistakes that cost you your entire stack when you are behind. Implied odds become very important and often even more important than your immediate pot odds.

This title covers topics such as bet sizing, considerations for keeping the pot small, when and how to get your stack into the middle, playing the short stack vs playing a deep stack and much more.

This is a dense volume and well worth every penny, but it is a Sklansky book and delves heavily into theoretical points and mathematics, meanwhile it lacks a thourough discussion of the psychology of the game, which is why it is only 4 stars.    D. Dugal (Peoria, IL USA) - See all my reviews



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