Winning Texas Hold’em: Cash Game Poker Strategies for Players of All Skill Levels

70 Comments

1. E. Schaiberger says:

   July 31, 2010 at 2:05 am

   I don’t normally give reviews, but the the first review is so ridiculous I had to chime in. I bought the book after reading the author’s poker blogs and thought it might be good. For clarification, this really is a LIMIT HOLD’EM strategy book.

   —The Cons:

   *I do agree that the book was sloppily edited.

   *The book’s subtitle is “Cash Game Poker Strategies for Players of All Skill Levels”. I feel it should have been more focused; it attempted to cover to broad a range like a lot of other poker books. A lot of the remedial stuff (a good chunk) just bore me to death.

   —The Pros:

   *I would particularly recommend this book to players who are interested in deriving a large portion of their income from poker and moving up the limits. He covers standard deviation, fluctuations and luck, hourly rate, bankroll requirements, proper money management, avoiding tilt, moving up in limits. You can tell he is a winning player and has an understanding for the game and what it takes to win in the long run. There is an underlying theme throughout the book on working on your game, analyzing your play, and how to get better. The author himself has worked his way through Party’s $5/10 up to currently beating the $30/60 game. I think a lot of internet players will be able to relate to the book.

   *The shorthanded games is the best I’ve seen in a poker book thus far.

   *The analysis on limit bluffing and inducing bluffs was also very good.

   In my opinion, Ed Miller’s Small Stakes Hold’em and King Yao’s Weighing the Odds in Hold’em Poker are better written and describe some of the concepts better overall. However, there is definetely value in this book and contains concepts not covered in either of those books. It certainly is making me think about my game and that’s great, and For 8$ it was a great buy.

   Overall, I recommend it.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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2. Colin C. Docherty says:

   July 31, 2010 at 4:12 am

   Although I’m now an experienced poker player after starting at .50/1 tables and have now moved through the limit, reaching 10/20 currently, I still found a lot of value out of this book.

   This is a fantastic book for all skill levels; exactly what the book propositions. This book should really take over from Lee Jones’s “Winning Low Limit Holdem” as the complimentary book to go with “Small Stakes Hold Em” by Ed Miller. Matt explains all the basic concepts, and goes into the psychology part and reading opponents hands quite well. He doesn’t bombard you with math that hardly ever used on the run; instead he merely makes you aware of what kind of thinking goes on at the poker table, and how to use that to make your best judgement. The psychology concepts would work very nicely with SSHE’s value concepts. One of my fears about most twoplustwo books, is although they’re juicey with information, is that they try to turn players into machines. If a + b = c then do d kind of thinking. Matt opens it up a bit, giving players a sense of individuality, which I really like.

   So what about advanced players like me? All the concepts are pretty basic for us, and nothing you wouldn’t find in most other books, although Matt puts on a slightly different spin, so its not a bad read for us looking to ‘get back to basics’. The real gem is the Short handed section. I really dislike this section, because now there’s finally a book teaching people how to play properly, and I’m not going to be making any money! But in terms of knowledge, this sections is wonderfull for moving into short handed. Gives you some ideas about how to play, why Short handed is different, and how to handle aggression. Read this alongside Sklanksy’s “Advanced Hold Em”, and you’ll be well eqiuped to tackle this tough game.

   Matt also hammers home about bluffs. Bluffing, although overused by idiot players, is underused by smart players. He proposes using psychology, varying play slightly, and exploiting the situation to drag home more pots. For more advanced players, its a great refresher course. Hell, some good players never apply these concepts, and its to the detriment of their own game.

   So to conclude, great book, something for everyone, very much worth the value. Ok, its editing is a little bit amatuer, the hand grading chapter is wrong at the start, and its format isn’t so much a resource, but all the information is very good and the book is cheap as hell (and looks nice too). I recommend it!
   Rating: 4 / 5

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3. Ad-man says:

   July 31, 2010 at 5:17 am

   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.
   Rating: 5 / 5

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4. N. Cavanaugh says:

   July 31, 2010 at 5:29 am

   While alot of this book is about the basics it still have alot of good information. The Short-Handed section is worth the $10 all by itself.
   Rating: 5 / 5

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5. unkletony says:

   July 31, 2010 at 8:19 am

   Let’s cut to the chase: Prior to Matt Maroon’s book, the only truly useful writing I’d read on the subject of short-handed (6 players or fewer) strategy in limit hold ‘em was Jennifer Harman’s brief but illuminating sub-section in “Super System 2.” Most guides to limit hold ‘em mention the topic in passing, almost as an afterthought.

   What a disservice! In brick-and-mortar cardrooms, one often finds oneself in short-handed games. But more importantly, no serious discussion of internet poker can neglect short-handed games. The popularity of cyber-tables designed for 6 or fewer players is absolutely booming. And it’s easy to see why; for those of us with limited patience and short attention spans — which is to say, MOST of the millions of us who have taken up the game in the past 2-3 years — the short-handed format offers faster action and more hands per hour. It is also potentially incredibly lucrative or ruinous, depending upon a player’s skill or lack thereof.

   IF ONLY FOR ITS IN-DEPTH EXAMINATION OF SHORT-HANDED PLAY, THIS BOOK IS WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD!

   Consider the rest of “Winning Texas Hold ‘em” a freeroll, roughly on par with other texts on the subject but distinguished by the author’s conversational writing style. And you can’t beat the price.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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