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Summary: ken warrens taxas hold'em poker
Review: Before reading the book I was loosing 70.00 at a session playing 3/6 now I play 4/8 and win most of the time thanks for this great book. I have only been playing sence January and have won two tureys and placed 2 in one. If i can get my self to be patiant I will win more. I did become a better player after reading it. Thanks for letting me tell my story. Bill
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Summary: exellent
Review: written very clearly and easy to understand. i recommend it higly to novice holdem players. some question the accuracy of the probablities presented at the end of the book since they contradict some of the advice given in the text. ignore the stats. stick with the text. the advice is clear and makes a lot of sense
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Summary: Perfect for beginners
Review: This is the first poker book I have read and I have re-read many of the subjects covered. This book is perfect for a beginner who wants to get better and gain a better understanding of how to profit. This is not a tournament book- it is a low-limit hold 'em book. I instantly realized mistakes that I was making previously- ESPECIALLY in hand strengths and how to deal with specific but common situations. It helps to explain why some hands are unplayable when most people will stick with them. It teaches how to play others rather than just your cards. Beginners will benefit from this book.
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Summary: don't rely on this book alone
Review: As a true beginner at Hold 'em, I bought a book (this one) to get me started. Even as a novice, I could spot numerous contradictions throughout the text. Warren gives easy-to-read charts, which is nice. For instance, which hands should be raised, folded, or called based on your position at the table. But at other points, he contradicts himself by reccommending plays that his charts suggest otherwise. It appears to me that this book would be suited more towards mid-limit live games, as opposed to low-limit internet games, where I play. His advice does not hold up under the wildness and insanity that reigns in low-limit online play.
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Summary: Better hold em books
Review: There is nothing wrong with this book. Ken Warren does a good job explaining the game of hold em and takes you through how to bet from pre-flop to the river. However, I would reccommend Lee Jones book Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em. Lee Jones does a much better job explaining the strategies, and there are even quizzes after each section to make sure you understand the concepts. Buy that book instead.
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Summary: One of the best beginning books I've read
Review: I read a couple other, more expensive, introduction books to Hold'em before I picked up this one. I found this book went into a bit more detail and was a lot less rigid than some books that tell you to play a certain hand the same way everytime. Warren's book offers advice from what two cards you should be playing with down to specific strategies that any good poker player should be aware of such as the free card and check-raising. Also, Warren offers solid tips on playing each segment of the hand, spending time on the flop, the turn, and the river. I also really enjoyed the mathematical aspects of playing hold'em. This is a must know for anyone who is going to win at hold'em in the long run. He covers pot odds and implied odds so you'll know when you should be calling on a draw or when it's not worth it. I also really enjoyed the little anecdote side of this book. Warren included things from his experience playing in live games. Things like who makes a good opponent based on their appearance and when you might want to tease someone and flash one of your hole cards at them. Also is a pretty cool history lesson on poker and nicknames for many of the common hands. I think this book is a must read for a beginning player and then move on to something like Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky and Malmuth. I think you will enjoy Warren's book though and it's definitely worth the money.
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Summary: very good, thoughful book
Review: Texas hold'em supposedly is the most popular poker game now in casinos...I had noticed over last few months on my cable several shows in ESPN and Travel Channel on Hold'em poker tournaments and the game instantly fascinated me. I already had two books on poker and read the chapters on Hold'em and found them lacking and bought this book and was very pleased. He explains in depth his logic with betting. Also, he emphasizes, as I have seen the air-on commentators do, the vital importance of your position at table and how that effects what cards you will bet with. I found it very useful for my online gaming, even though he doesn't specifically address that. Only criticism is that I thought he could have made some of this tables clearer, in fact I ended up making my own tables using his advice on betting depending on whether you were sitting early, middle or late in a large table game.
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Summary: Flawed copy
Review: This is my first book on poker I have ever read. However, my copy is physically flawed. My copy goes up to page 176 and then repeats itself back to pp. 129-176! So, one-fifth of my book is duplicated. (This is the sixth printing dated May 2003) I bought this from the "used" section and by all appearances, it looked "like new". Oh well. Mistakes happen.
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Summary: More complete than Sklansky
Review: I currently play Hold em for a living and this was my first Hold em book. Political incorrectness aside, this is still the most complete guide to playing Hold em on the market. I find the Advanced Sklansky book to be more of a strategic case studies book (thought provoking but very incomplete and very qualitative only) but Warren is more tactically complete (what to do and when to do it). He goes out on a limb and gives you more of a complete action plan than Sklansky, Krieger, etc. and therefore is more easily criticized for it. No book is going to help you on an advanced level, however, when you're ready for real time, expected value pot odds calculations, chapter 14 (Hold em odds) is worth the entire price. As a side note, the odds he presents do not match the odds I have seen elsewhere despite the supposedly same methodology, however, the relative strenghths of hands seem to be in line. Also, to address another critic, Warren's rhetoric re: the pro vs. cons between AA and AK are 100% correct and he never states that AK has a higher W% or EV, he only uses it as the classic example of why AA will lose more when it is beat (his way of explaining this aspect of game theory).
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Summary: Simple, well written
Review: This book helped turn me from a babe in the woods to a consistant winner pretty quickly. Jones focuses on the very basic concepts that are important to a beginning player. I maintain that basic concepts, well-presented are more important to the beginner. Slansky's tome-like, math based instruction is useful in taking your game to the next level, but this book is great as the base of the pyramid. I would agree with other more critical reviewers that the stereotyping of players by appearance is silly.
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