harrington on holdem

[dscoot 0]

im halfway through the first book. does anyone agree with me that the hand by hand analysis at the end of each chapter is not really much helpful. it appears that about 1/3 of the entire book is this hand analysis, and having played tons of hands myself and running into each of these situations numerous times, im thinking about skipping reading this. should i?

[shinychicken 0]

No, because it will at least help you with your play by knowing how other people think. Will help you in the long run.

[Kentucky Slim 0]

The hand analysis can be very helpful, as times do come up when Harrington would play it in different ways than I would have. Sometimes he'll suggest one thing and the "player" will do something else. Sometimes it shows how you can play perfectly and still lose, or play terribly and win a pot. The value comes from just learning how Harrington thinks through all kinds of hands. This is especially valuable in the first chapter of the second book about making moves. Harrington shows alot of hands and gives situations where it's appropriate to try to take down a pot when you would usually just chuck the cards. Anyway, I say read the hand analysis. It won't take you that much time to read it and will give you insight on how Harrington thinks about a variety of hands in different situations.

[oumarch110 0]

im halfway through the first book. does anyone agree with me that the hand by hand analysis at the end of each chapter is not really much helpful. it appears that about 1/3 of the entire book is this hand analysis, and having played tons of hands myself and running into each of these situations numerous times, im thinking about skipping reading this. should i?

I actually think that is the most helpful part of the book(s).

[loogie 115]

The hand analyses have been bery, bery good to me.

[Tateisgo 0]

I actually think that is the most helpful part of the book(s).

[digitalmonkey 929]

Read it all. Read it all again. Memorize it! Then put it in a blender with some fruit juice. Eat it. Then save your dung. Fertilize your garden with said dung. Consume all foods grown in this garden. Do not share any of this food with other poker players; unless you're getting a cut of course.

[Ron_Mexico 4,219]

Harrington wrote a book? Since when?

[MarionSauce 0]

He's trying to show you how to apply his theories; if you're a gigantic genius then I guess you don't need it !

[speedz99 145]

Dan Harrington wears a green Red Sox hat.I like that in a poker player. I'd do him any day of the week and twice Sunday...I mean I'd read his book.

[turd ferguson 1]

Read it all.  Read it all again.  Memorize it!  Then put it in a blender with some fruit juice.  Eat it.  Then save your dung.  Fertilize your garden with said dung.  Consume all foods grown in this garden.  Do not share any of this food with other poker players; unless you're getting a cut of course.

How did you get that avatar?

[Suited_Up 2]

The hand examples are the most important part of the book. It wraps up everything you read previously, and shows you what to do in a lot of tough situations. It's very helpful.

[MikePatrick 0]

I find the hand breakdowns usefull as well. HOH 1 and 2 in my opinion are by far the best poker books on the market, but this thread isn't a debate on that.Granted, they are all situations that you'll have seen, but I found they really drilled the ideas of the plays into my head.Volume 2 is especialy good.

[Ron_Mexico 4,219]

I find the hand breakdowns usefull as well. HOH 1 and 2 in my opinion are by far the best poker books on the market' date=' but this thread isn't a debate on that.Granted, they are all situations that you'll have seen, but I found they really drilled the ideas of the plays into my head.[b']Volume 2 is especialy good.[/[/b]quote]It has two volumes?Man, where have I been?Next thing you know, Barry Greenstein is gonna write a book.(this joke used to work on people)

[UNCpoker 0]

I find the hand breakdowns usefull as well. HOH 1 and 2 in my opinion are by far the best poker books on the market' date=' but this thread isn't a debate on that.Granted' date=' they are all situations that you'll have seen, but I found they really drilled the ideas of the plays into my head.[b'']Volume 2 is especialy good.[/[/b]quote]It has two volumes?Man, where have I been?Next thing you know, Barry Greenstein is gonna write a book.Could be all that time you are pimping on women! (this joke used to work on people)

[iggymcfly 0]

I'm reading HOH Volume 1 right now, and most of it's helpful (well, the 10% that's not blatantly obvious anyway), but I can't understand why he keeps adovcating min-raises. He doesn't do it all the time, and he doesn't do it post-flop, but he keeps acting like a min-raise is a perfectly valid way to open a pot with a strong hand. Does this actually have vaildity? It seems like min-raises just kill your fold equity against relatively strong players, and put you in a situation where you get no information.Basically, when I see opponents open for min-raises, I usually peg them as a fish immediately. I guess now I'll have to revise that to "is a fish that doesn't know tournament strategy or just read HOH".

[iggymcfly 0]

Actually, the more I read the less useful I feel it is as an instructional tool. I find myself arguing with the book all the time, when it eschews good clever plays in favor of simple basic ones. Obviously, it has the right general idea, but the biggest point I'm getting out of reading it is that even pros make mistakes, and if I find myself at the same table as Dan Harrington in a tournament some day, there's no reason I can't kick his ass.(At least according to his book), he loves varying his bets based on the strength of his hand, regularly raising less with strong hands PF, and making smaller bets with marginal hands than with strong hands postflop. It seems like he should be exploitable as shit to a smart player. Again, I don't know if he actually plays like this, but his book gives bad advice in some spots. There are some spots I find useful, and it's a good read, but the holes here are a lot bigger than I expected them to be.

[dscoot 0]

I'm reading HOH Volume 1 right now, and most of it's helpful (well, the 10% that's not blatantly obvious anyway), but I can't understand why he keeps adovcating min-raises. He doesn't do it all the time, and he doesn't do it post-flop, but he keeps acting like a min-raise is a perfectly valid way to open a pot with a strong hand. Does this actually have vaildity? It seems like min-raises just kill your fold equity against relatively strong players, and put you in a situation where you get no information.Basically, when I see opponents open for min-raises, I usually peg them as a fish immediately. I guess now I'll have to revise that to "is a fish that doesn't know tournament strategy or just read HOH".

im done with both books. it seems to me he mentions opponents doubling the blind pf more often than he says doing it yourself. this is fine with me, however i dont think people do it as often as his imaginary hands make u believe. i honestly think most of his online play, which he derived many of the hand history situations from volume I, is from sng's on party poker. the small chip counts compared to the blinds makes sense. also making sense , is the fact that the book came out just a year or two ago, which means, it was written 6months to 2 years be4 that, which puts you at about 2001-2003, when party poker was the biggest thing going, and there were not as many other sites either. in late stages pp tournies, when the blinds are super high and everyone has a short stack, doubling the blind pf actually holds the power of a 2.5-3x bb raise.

[cubbybri 0]

I think this book was best for his second volume more so than than the first.I've only been playing for a year but I now have a lot of hands under my belt and playing money winning poker (although not much over). Volume one is good to see how someone else thinks about the game basics but I believe it was more meant for the just above beginner stage player.Volume two has more of the juice with making moves and inflections points as well as short handed and heads up play. I feel he may be a touch tighter than most online players but again it is nice to see someone else's reasoning for doing things sometimes.I consinder myself an just below average player now (hopefully underestimating myself) but these sections have really improved my tournament play. I needed to get over the hump of thinking, "I need to make a move or I'm broke" and change it to "If I make a move now, will it work with a sub premium hand or should I wait for a better opportunity".This chapter also made me realize I should be looking to make a move a lot sooner than I normally would.Good books altogether and I think that there will be a least one tasty treat in there for all different levels of players.

[Scotty2Hotty 0]

This book has helped me more than any other. Perhaps because I mostly play sit-n-goes online, it was particularly relevant. The pot odds section and easy calculations to make sure you are not giving people the correct odds to chase really helped me.

[bryan21 0]

of course I say that toungue in cheek because I have enjoyed them and think they are great. The hand analysis clears things up for me in the event something didn't make much sense in the reading. I loved HOH1 and just started on HOH2...

[Ron_Mexico 4,219]

This book has helped me more than any other. Perhaps because I mostly play sit-n-goes online, it was particularly relevant. The pot odds section and easy calculations to make sure you are not giving people the correct odds to chase really helped me.

I love your screen name. The wrestler used to kill me. Doing the worm in the ring. Funny stuff.