| For today’s poker players, Texas hold ’em is the game. Every day, tens of thousands of small stakes hold ’em games are played all over the world in homes, card rooms, and on the Internet. These games can be very profitable — if you play well. But most people don’t play well and end up leaving their money on the table. Small Stakes Hold ’em: Winning Big with Expert Play explains everything you need to be a big winner. Unlike many other books about small stakes games, it teaches the aggressive and attacking style used by all professional players. However, it does not simply tell you to play aggressively; it shows you exactly how to make expert decisions through numerous clear and detailed examples. Small Stakes Hold ’em teaches you to think like a professional player. Topics include implied odds, pot equity, speculative hands, position, the importance of being suited, hand categories, counting outs, evaluating the flop, large pots versus small pots, protecting your hand, betting for value on the river, and playing overcards. In addition, after you learn the winning concepts, test your skills with over fifty hand quizzes that present you with common and critical hold ’em decisions. Choose your action, then compare it to the authors’ play and reasoning. This text presents cutting-edge ideas in straightforward language. It is the most thorough and accurate discussion of small stakes hold ’em available. Your opponents will read this book; make sure you do, too! |
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 A Sound Investment. |
| Review Date: August 10, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Bernard Chapin, CHICAGO! USA |
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 a Vietnam 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. |
The new Gold Standard for beating loose games at all levels
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| Review Date: July 15, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Dave Clark, Las Vegas |
| I have now read an advance copy of the book twice, and some sections more than that. I can safely say that those of you who are so looking forward to this book will not be disappointed. The book is excellent. Indeed, it addresses some topics so well that I wonder at the title. Calling it "Small Stakes Holdem" is really too limiting. The book targets loose games more than small stakes games per se. With loose games and poor playing opponents permeating B&M cardroom games from $3-6 through $40-80, this book really has something for everybody. Yes, newer players will get more from it than mid-limit veterans, but even the mid-limit players will find some critical ideas spelled out in a way that helps them improve their game. It is an excellent blend that helps the newer players take the next big step to being significant winners, while at the same time it expounds upon and extends HPFAP in a way that addresses the super-loose games that permeate today's cardrooms. In short, it's the book that many have really been waiting for 2+2 to publish for quite some time. I expect this book to quickly move alongside Theory of Poker and HPFAP as a definitive 2+2 work. I recommend it highly. |
Best book yet for the small stakes/low limit player
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| Review Date: July 24, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Daniel Kessler, Farmville, VA |
This book has instantly become my #1 recommended poker book for the player looking to advance from marginally profitable to stone killer. The text is advanced and readable. Miller explains complex concepts in a manner that is easily understood. Concepts such as pot odds, pot equity, playing overcards and many others are discussed clearly and concisely. While not necessarily a book for the brand new player, it is an excellent text for anyone with a few games under his/her belt who wants to really destroy the low-limits. Although this book is targeted at small stakes games (2/4 up to about 6/12), its concepts are easily applicable to looser mid-stakes games 10/20 and up. The first few chapters alone will earn you the cost of the book many times over.
Buy it. Read it. Sit at someone else's table.
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The best, most detailed analysis of limit hold'em ever
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| Review Date: March 18, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Dennis Littrell, SoCal |
The book is very good. It offers a wealth of information, strategy and "how to" for not just small stakes players but for players at almost any level of limit hold'em. The authors note that some of the strategies wouldn't be right for the big limit games, say, the $100 and $200, and certainly not right for pot limit or no limit hold'em; but I can tell you that most players up to at least the $30 and $60 limits would benefit from reading and studying this excellent book.
But a word of caution: the approach here is very aggressive with the authors recommending leading and raising with second pair in many situations, drawing to inside straights and playing drawing hands like they're already made, calling with third pair with backdoor possibilities, and in general playing a bit looser than might seem reasonable. Miller, Sklansky and Malmuth argue--convincingly most of the time--for some surprisingly loose and aggressive play justified by pot odds. Pot odds, current and implied, are one of their most important fundamental ideas along with "pot equity." They also go into depth about hands that are likely to be "dominated," and they introduce the reader to "reverse domination."
One problem with this approach is that most booked-up players in even games as small at the $3 and $6, especially on the Internet, play a bit tighter than the authors think they play. Miller is the only one of the three who regularly played games that small, and I don't think he was playing anything smaller than the ten and twenty when he wrote this book. This is the book's only real weakness: the authors have, I believe, mistaken the quality of the average small stakes player.
Regardless, the strength of the book is that every single play is illustrated by a concrete example showing exactly how much money is in the pot, who bet, raised and called, what their hands were, and what the board was. There is nothing vague about the recommendations, and many of the hands are analysized to a degree that will delight even the most erudite reader. In addition to the usual "afterthoughts" that are a trademark of Sklansky's books, there are 132 footnotes that work like afterthoughts. No doubt Malmuth, who can worry a subject to death, and Sklansky who likes to be precise, are responsible for many of these little addendums. Personally I find the detailed explanations and counter thoughts valuable. I like them a lot better than what I read in some poker books in which the world class player tells us why he likes AK better than AA, but doesn't fully make his case. Here nothing is left to doubt. Oh, we can doubt the strategy, and prefer a different way to play the hand, but we are not in doubt about why the authors like to play it their way.
Here's an example of a disagreement. On page 123 the authors claim that QQ with the flop, K72 rainbow, is "a strong hand (though it is on the low end of that category)." I beg to differ. If you have pocket queens and a king or an ace flops, you are in trouble. In the example, you can't backdoor a straight or a flush. You have an under pair. As the authors reluctantly allow, "If someone has a king..." you have two outs. Count them. And yet it's tough to release the hand.
Here's another: On page 162 you have AT of diamonds on the button. The flop is T86. The ten and the eight are spades, the six is a diamond. There are ten small bets in the pot from five players. The small blind bets into the field. One player folds. The other two call. What do you do?
The authors conclude that you just call because a raise is not likely to protect your hand since the small blind and the two limpers will most likely call another bet because they are getting good pot odds.
This is correct. But you should raise based on the VALUE of your hand. And if the small blind reraises it, the limpers might fold. One thing fairly clear is that the small blind probably doesn't have a better hand than something like king-ten or a flush draw. Otherwise, he would probably have reraised preflop. ...Of course he could have a set...or even nine-seven... Come to think of it, maybe just a call is correct!
But I'm quibbling. Here are a couple of things I learned that I think are valuable, and I've been playing for decades:
When the flop contains a pair, e.g., JJ4, this is recognized as a fairly good bluffing opportunity against one or two players. Most players know this, but why? Because there is one less card to pair, right? Yes, but it's more significant than that. As the authors put it, "When the flop is paired, only five cards [from your opponents' hands]...connect with the board, instead of...nine..." Check it and see. That's why bluffs into paired boards often work--and why you might want to raise the bettor!
Raising preflop with a fairly strong hand (say, AJs) against a field of players is usually correct even though you will win the pot less than half the time. Why? Because as explained on pages 237-238, you have a "pot equity edge" preflop. I'll leave you to figure that out--or better yet, do yourself a favor and get the book.
One more esoteric quibble: the authors mention "hidden outs" but they don't mention "hidden half outs" or "hidden one-third outs," etc. That would be when you have, e.g., zero, and your opponent(s) have you beat, but the river makes a straight or flush on the board and you split the pot.
Bottom line: the most detailed and most thorough small stakes hold'em book that I have ever read--easily. |
If you read this book, please stay out of my game.
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| Review Date: July 26, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Felson, |
I have been playing low-limit holdem for about four years and have been a small winner during that time. I read this book four days ago, and it has explained concepts to me that I haven't seen in print anywhere else (among my twenty other books on poker). I now have a much clearer understanding of the mistakes that low-limit players make. I am now in the process of correcting my own mistakes and exploiting the mistakes of my opponents.
The sections on postflop play are priceless, with difficult but crucial concepts. Miller explains when to raise the flop, and when to wait until the turn. The concept of raising the river to knock out better hands is also given thorough treatment.
In the past four days, the book has already paid for itself in bets I've won and pots I've saved, playing low-limit Party Poker. It is tremendous. |
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