Review: Harrington on Hold'em Volume 1

Each month I will take some time to talk about a poker related product and voice my opinion about it, for the good or for the bad. This month I would like to talk about Harrington on Hold'em, Volume 1: Strategic Play.

Harrington on Hold'em Volume 1, known as 'HoH1' through out the rest of this review, is written by none other than Dan Harrington himself along with Bill Robertie and is published by Two-Plus-Two Publishing. This is the first of what is now a three volume set and focuses on the following main topics:

• The Game of No-Limit Hold'em
• Playing Styles and Starting Requirements
• Reading the Table
• Pot Odds and Hand Analysis
• Betting Before the Flop
• Betting After the Flop
• Betting on Fourth and Fifth Street

Each topic is it's own chapter with the total book reaching a little more then 375 pages. Each chapter is broken down into sections starting out with your standard informative text then ending with what is known as "the Problems" - a series of actual hands discussed in detail that relate to the knowledge learned in that chapter. This gives you "real world" examples on what you should do, or should have done, in a variety of situations. Now that we covered what the book actually is lets take a look on if it's worth the $29.95 retail price tag.

As most "beginner's" books on Hold'em, the book opens up explaining the concept of starting hands and table position. What I like most about this book is that once you have read books by Sklansky and Brunson, this sort of "standard starting material" starts to get old and redundant. In HoH1 the book covers these sections in a manner that's more of a reminder then in an attempt to re-teach the material. In fact, many times throughout HoH1 Harrington will refer to other books for further reference if you wish to learn more about that particular subject. This may first come off as a negative vibe - a book teaching you something tells you to read a different book in order to learn it - however it's actually very refreshing. Harrington doesn't spend time trying to re-invent the wheel but yet spends the time on making the wheel better. One can only read 50 pages by a different author on how to play your starting hands so many times before it drives you to boredom before you even get into the meat of the book.

Another refreshing part of this book is "the Problems" which appears at the end of each chapter. This section gives you real world examples of players in situations that are relavent to the information you just learned. What I like about the way Harrington presents his problems is that he tells you what you should do, then says "well what you actually did was 'this', and now that caused 'this' to happen". Then he futher attempts to get you out of trouble or, in the rare times that your mistake turned into a possible profitable play, how to maximize your gain on the hand. I like this approach to solving problems. So many other authors set up scenarios and tell you what you should do in those situations and end their scenario right there. Well in the real world of poker you don't always make the right play and your put in a situation where you have to pull you yourself out of a messy situation - Harrington does this, and does it well.

The most informative parts of this book, for those who have read other poker books, definately appear later in the text, when it comes to betting later in the game. Harrington covers topics the the "Probe Bet" and "Continuation Bet" in detail, giving you a good explination on why these pays can be so profitable in a tournament. He also covers when it's the right time to slow play a hand and when a flop is too dangerous to consider slow playing. These topics should be ones that beginners should definately read up on and study, it can greatly improve their game.

In the end players should be able to know when you play a hand and when not to, when to bet and how much to bet, and when to lay down a hand - even if it may look like a great hand to you. I believe that if all poker players read this book and took it serious there would be a lot less "tv" play with online games. This is definately a must read for any poker player taking their game seriously and wanting to improve their skills. Even players who are already fluent in the game will be able to take something from this book - a great addition to anyone's poker library.

My verdict: Buy it