REVIEW
Bob
Ciaffone should be familiar as a poker
columnist and the author of several excellent
poker books. Jim Brier is a columnist
for Card Player magazine who is
known for writing quizzes specifically
about mid-limit Texas Hold'em. In Middle
Limit Holdem Poker these two authors
team up to write a book focusing on detailed
play of hands in, you guessed it, middle
limit Texas Hold'em poker games.
The
book begins by discussing some basic concepts
regarding Holdem poker. Even though this
is background, it's immediately clear
that this book targeted at experienced
players. The authors assume that the reader
is not only familiar with the game, but
also with a significant amount of poker
strategy. This is not a book for beginners.
In my opinion, it's not even a book for
intermediate poker players. The concepts
presented in this book are geared toward
experienced Hold'em players.
Middle
Limit Holdem Poker continues with
sections about the various decision points
in a Hold'em hand. Sections cover preflop,
flop, turn, and river play in considerable
detail. Following this are two sections
titled "Special Topics", which deals with
issues like bluffing, slow playing, free
cards, etc., and "Non-Standard Games"
which covers short handed play, hands
in which players post, and Holdem games
that have unorthodox structures among
other topics. Each section begins by providing
some basic strategic concepts before moving
on to extensive quizzes concerning the
topic in question. The book concludes
with tables presenting the mathematical
expected outcomes of some common confrontations
and a glossary.
I didn't count the total number of questions
in the book, but it's certainly several
hundred. The book is thick for a poker
book, and densely written. It's been quite
a while since I've read a gambling book
that took me as much time to read as Middle
Limit Holdem Poker. Certainly, in
terms of concepts per dollar, the reader
is getting an excellent value. Fortunately,
this book is also clearly written. There
is never any ambiguity about each lesson
the authors are trying to impart.
While
I consider Bob Ciaffone to be among the
very top echelon of poker writers, I found
myself disagreeing with a larger share
of the information the authors provide
in this book than in others he has written.
Of course, I can't think of any good reason
why anyone should prefer my recommendations
to those of the excellent players who
wrote this book, but I believe that more
of the specific recommendations made in
this book are debatable than in, say,
Improve Your Poker. The authors
do state that if circumstances are changed
even a little, then the right way to play
a particular hand might change significantly.
I also certainly agree that just changing
minor details about a hand, such as the
number of callers or a player's position,
can drastically alter correct strategy,
and the authors do a fine job of representing
many of these cases. Despite this, the
distinctions between some of the situations
described in the book is often pretty
fine. I would have liked to have seen
some sort of rating system to explain
which plays the authors think are a "slam
dunk", and about which plays they might
be less certain.
After
some of these questions and answers the
authors relate what was the final result
of the hand in question. Invariably, the
actual events support the authors' contention
about how the hand ought to be played.
While this is fine for educational purposes,
I found this level of certainty to be
tiresome after a while. Just once I would
like to have seen the authors write something
like: "Despite an incorrect call on the
turn, our hero caught his two-outer on
the river, check-raised the end, and hauled
in a monster pot." Or, maybe they could
have written something like, "After improperly
calling the raise on the turn and a bet
on the end with Ace-high/weak kicker the
turn raiser folded his hand without showing
it, indicating he was on a total bluff."
To the end of reinforcing the book's advice,
which is generally good, Ciaffone and
Brier have pushed my credulity out of
my comfort zone.
In
my opinion the book has some significant
flaws. Despite this, it has probably improved
my poker game more than any other book
I've read in a long time. The sheer volume
of the book is relentless in pounding
generally good advice into the reader,
despite the fact that I believe that variations
on the strategies the authors espouse
can be equally effective in the games
to which they're referring. I definitely
recommend this book for advanced middle-limit
Holdem players, but I caution the reader
to take their time with this book, to
examine it with a critical eye, and once
finished to read it carefully again.
Capsule:
While
I disagree with a larger percentage of
this book's contents than I would have
expected from a book co-authored by Bob
Ciaffone, it has probably improved my
Holdem game more than any other book I've
read in recent years. This book is not
light reading. It should take an advanced
student quite a bit of time to absorb
all the material it contains, and this
information should not be accepted uncritically.
Those folks who are not sophisticated
poker players or who confine their play
to low-limit games can probably pass on
Middle Limit Holdem Poker.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
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