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Harrington on Holdem Vol.1 Review

Rating: 10/10

Cost:  $23.48

The Nuts:  Awesome exercises in hand analysis.

The Muck:  No criticisms

Recommended for:  Intermediate players 

Once upon a time, the only way to learn how to play winning poker was to lose your money to more seasoned players until you (hopefully) figured out how they were beating you so badly. The televised poker boom that began in 2004 changed all that.  Now bookstores have entire sections dedicated to poker strategy from virtually every big name tournament player. 

Unfortunately, most of these poker strategy guides are next to worthless.  They’re sold as a glimpse at the inside secrets of pro players, but few really give you much more than very basic, generalized advice.   The problem with telling a reader how to play suited connectors, for example, is that every decision in poker depends on dozens of specific factors.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution.   

That’s why I was so pleased when Dan Harrington came out with Harrington on Hold’em Volume 1.  Harrington is one of the few poker players who offered real value to his readers. And he did it not so much by telling you what to do, but how to think about what to do. 

There’s a lot to get your mind around here – almost 400 pages worth of material.  Harrington starts by breaking down what elements make up a hand, and what you should be thinking about when you analyze your opponents’ play.  Beginners will be shocked to find out how many factors must be weighed to reach a decision. 

Harrington then moves on to describe the basic styles of play and their advantages and drawbacks.  Known humorously as “Action Dan”, Harrington’s own style is extremely conservative, which sets him apart from most of the other big name players who’ve authored strategy guides. This alone makes his work unique and special.  And it’s impossible to argue with his results – Harrington won the 1995 World Series of Poker main event in 1995 and amazingly made it to the final table two years running in 2003 and 2004. 

The real value of Harrington’s book is his hand analysis. Using easy to follow diagrams that show position, blinds, and chip stacks, Harrington covers a multitude of situations and problems and explains them in a very straightforward, logical manner. 

You really get a good look into Harrington’s thought process when he shows you how he narrows his opponents’ holdings to a range of hands and uses the probability of each likely hand he’s facing to calculate his pot odds.  Harrington laughs at the idea that poker pros are able to put their opponents on an exact hand, arguing instead that they’re simply good at doing rough calculations of probabilities very quickly. 

I can’t think of a better or more comprehensive strategy guide on the market than Harrington on Hold’em Volume 1. This is a book that you can and should reread to get the most out of it.   Most of all, don’t just skim through it and rush out the door to your next game..  Give great thought to each hand analysis before reading what Harrington advises.  You’ll learn much more this way.  And remember, this stuff doesn’t come easily, but the more you practice, the quicker and more accurately you’ll be able to make decisions in the future. 

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