Harrington on Hold'em

Harrington on Hold'em
Dan Harrington
Two Plus Two Publishing
2004
ISBN 1-880685-33-7
29.95

     Dan begins the book with the expectation that you already understand the basics of hold'em.  The majority of the book is a breakdown of individual hands, many of which are known as they have been seen on TV and gives you the thought process behind the plays made.  Dan will take a hand, give you the situation, ask you what you would do, tell you what should have been done, then go into why each player did what they did.  It is extremely insightful analysis.  He uses the hand analysis to advance different strategy sections.  Usually I don't like seeing hand breakdowns because they rarely mean much to anyone other than the players in that particular hand, but they are presented in a way to show why certain plays work and others dont.  Each example allows you to evaluate your own play in each situation.  There is so many hand examples for you to work out the riddle in your head for you own play, you cannot help but see where your own play is lacking.  When I first thought about reading it, I had many things going on and figured it would take me a couple of weeks.  The book is 375 pages long.  I had it done in days and found myself already going back through some of the hands. 
     From Dan's own words, "this is not a complicated book...I've tried to present the game the way I play it -with simple common-sense rules and a minimum of mathmatical calculation."  Well, I think he hit the mark with his stated goal.  He states the differences between the 'Concervative', 'Agressive', and 'Super Agressive' styles, giving pros and cons for each.  There should also be the understanding, as he does point out, that there are probably points where a better play is possible; However, he does not go into them, apparently because it may be confusing and one would really have to have a great read on the situation.  But that is poker.  Any situation could have similar endings with a different approach.  The proper approach more depends upon who your opponents are.

     I give this book a rating of 9 hearts out of 10.  I originally borrowed the book and bought my own copy a few days later, since it is a book I will review.  I run across hands that are similar to examples in the book in most games.  It is a book that could be read by anyone, but is more recommended for the closer to advanced player as I believe they will gain the most by it.  Intermediate players will get alot of information that might be too tough to apply until a certain level of understanding is reached, but it doesn't hurt to begin to hear the principles.  This book should be in the library of all serious players right next to Doyle's Super System.  This book is a straight flush!  29.95 is a bargain.