Getting Started in Hold'em

Getting Started In Hold'em By Ed Miller Published 2005 by Two Plus Two Publishing 203 pages, including index

Ed Miller has written the new standard by which any beginning poker book should be judged. His clear, incisive writing style so apparent in his Small Stakes Hold'em book is back and even better. You don't have to read the rest of this review, just buy the book.

Limit
Beginners books tend to be dry affairs with talk about pot odds, implied odds, how to play trips on the flop, blah, blah, blah. Miller takes a novel approach to instruction. Rather than lay a bunch of rules on the reader, he sits you down at a nine-handed $1/$2 Texas hold'em game and steps you through situations at the various positions. Each hand introduces new concepts and explains how they work at the table. The reader is getting theory with practical examples - the best way to learn poker.

No-limit
Although limit hold'em is the heart and soul of this book, the increasing popularity of no-limit hold'em has also prompted the author to include a good section on that game as well as brief sections on various styles of tournament play. The no-limit section offers solid beginner's advice with a straightforward style of play. In particular, the book lays out a persuasive case that beginning no-limit players should intentionally play short stacks. While this recommendation has already proved highly controversial among those who believe that playing larger stacks gives them the ability to bully others off of hands, Miller addresses this objection forcefully. Among NLHE primers, only the recent Harrington On Hold'em and the older Pot-limit and No-limit Poker offer comparably useful advice, and this book is much more comprehensible for the new player.

Tournaments
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Ed Miller is quickly showing himself to be a truly great poker theoretician. What he has over all the others is his unique ability to communicate his knowledge clearly and interestingly. With this book's publication, Two Plus Two Publishing offers a complete course of books on Texas Hold'em. Getting Started In Hold'em should be required reading for even an experienced poker player.

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