( 5 reviews )
-
( 3 of 3 found this review helpful ) Posted: Aug 23 2006
This is an extremely underrated book. I concede there may have been some errors in the hand ranking chart, odds charts and some pretty bad typos throughout the earlier printings of this book but in the edition I purchased these errors have been corrected. Anyway, if you can get past those (I know I don't need to be re-taught the hand rankings etc) then you will discover that this really is a gem of a book. Maroon is a very articulate thinker and covers a lot of ground in this book. He explains some complex and subtle ideas in very clear, simple language. The section on short handed play is EXCELLENT and is worth the price of the book alone- especially for someone like me who only plays 6 max tables on the internet. His sections on expectation, pot odds, standard deviation, bankroll requirements, playing after the flop, moving up in limits, playing for a living, plugging leaks etc are all excellent as well and all this information is communicated in a very conversational, easily understandable way. The book is also presented in a unique way with colored diagrams and an aesthetically pleasant layout. There are very few hand examples in this book but I think that's a good thing. I find sample hands really boring to read and would much rather get to work on understanding the conceptual ideas and considerations behind a given play than read hand examples. Maroon seems to me to be a great poker strategist and his recommendations seem well thought out and I imagine they would be very effective. I'm not surprised he has enjoyed the level of success that he has given that he obviously possesses such a deep understanding of the game of limit hold 'em. This is probably not the ideal choice for a beginning poker player (although they would be far better off reading something like this than say, Phil Hellmuth's lunacy), I would say intermediate and advanced players will benefit more from this book. I highly recommend it and consider it a shame that the publishers were so careless in the printing of this book because in doing so they have really tarnished a great piece of work. If this book didn't contain the mistakes it does I suspect it would be on the "must read" list of most players.
-
( 1 of 7 found this review helpful ) Posted: Feb 11 2006
This author is an arrogant, cocky, jackass who runs one of the best, most informative poker websites out there - yes, he is a dick, but his site is good! He is an above-average player and fairly knowledgable about the game. However his book is really nothing more than regurgitated material that can be found in every other poker book out on the market. Don't waste your money (unless you feel that it is a reasonable donation for the material that you get from his site). Some, including the author, have boasted about the section on shorthanded play being the "most advanced section ever written on the subject". This is ludicrous. It is indeed "short" (in length, that is), but not of good qualilty. It does NOT provide examples. It is general and watered-down. There you have it: The "good" (the website), the "bad" (the book), and the "ugly" (the author).
-
( 4 of 6 found this review helpful ) Posted: Dec 27 2005
I have only gotten to page 26 and like the other reviews have noticed many errors in the hand rankings. The hands are in order but the cards shown as an example are completely off and do not even match the text. A quick visit to mattmaroon.com will clear up the problem as the first thing you will see on the website is a link to "Book Errata" where he adresses all the errors mentioned by myself and the other posters. He cites publisher's errors as the reason and it is understandable as the pictures (put in by the publisher) do not correspond to what Matt actually wrote. He corrects the errors including the lack of formatting in the odds chart on page 245. You would expect thigns like this to be noticed prior to printing, but mistakes do happen. Other than that, everything has been excellent. His introdcutions have been clear and his examples completely illustrate what he is talking about. One thing I have particularly liked thus far is the table of contents. He is appropriately divided up the book into Poker Conepts, Limit Hold'Em Concepts and Advanced Concepts. He also touches on aspects which I have found underrepresented in other books such as psychology, deception, slowplaying and even things such as guidlines to play poker for a living. Furthermore, it is not dry reading. Some books of this genre tend to be really hard to get into/not count cracks in the wall while you are reading it, this book is holding my impatient attention well. (Aesthetically, the book looks great. It's sleek, modern and just nice to look at.) I will post final review when I finish the book, I just wanted to comment on some of the errors.
