The title pretty much says it. I’m looking for one or more good books or web sites on Texas Hold 'Em.
I’m familiar with poker, but pretty new to Hold 'Em. I’ve played it twice now with friends (10 people, $25 buy in per game). The first lesson cost me $50 and I never won a hand. A friend was paying attention to my hands and did say that I had incredibly bad luck. The second time I felt like I got a bit more out of it. I finished 5th and 4th in the two games we played. Still, I could tell there was a big difference between my skill and that of a few of the players. Some of it will be practice and reading people, but I think some of it is just plain knowledge of the game. I would like to brush up since we are talking about going to a casino to play at a $2/4 table. I do realize that the game differs between $2/4 and no limit play, but at this point I think basics would help me.
I don’t mind buying books, so if you think several are needed for complete information, that’s fine. I know there have been some Hold 'Em threads, but I couldn’t find one that recommended anything specifically on game play, just books about tells. Any recommendations for a good home PC game would be appreciated too.
My husband and I have registered with www.pokerroom.com - we both played there last night, and it was fun. I lost about $350, and Jim won around $78. My handle there is featherlou (surprisingly enough) and Jim’s is calgaryjimbo. We were in the play money tables - there are also real money games. We won’t be going there for a long time. It’s good practical experience with no risk.
You wanna make a date to play some poker with my husband and I? How about tomorrow (Wednesday) night? Anyone else wanna come play? We can take over a whole room of ten players.
I also got started on Lee Jones’ book. It certainly doesn’t teach you everything you need to know, but it is a good introduction to limit.
For no-limit tournament play I recommend No-Limit Texas Hold’em: The New Player’s Guide to Winning Poker’s Biggest Game by Tom McEvoy and Brad Daugherty. It goes through the fundamentals and then challenges the reader with tons of sample hands. They cover many common situations and types of opponents you are likely to encounter. It is a good refresher even for experienced players.
I’m not sure I would read Theory of Poker or Super/System first. They are a bit advanced for someone who hasn’t played much.
Lou, you might want to talk to x-ray vision about it, but a number of dopers (myself and Otto included) are just beginning play in a Thursday night game in pokerroom, and if there’s spots open (last week there were. Even if we counted Otto, who was unfortunately on a different server than the rest of us), I’m sure you’d be welcome.
Okay, poker night is Thursday. Cool. I might even get good enough to stop losing so much at some point.
What I read in the other thread is way confusing, though. I may need a tutorial - not on the poker, but how to get in on the Straight Dope Texas Hold 'Em game.
We abandoned most of the confusion in the post. Simply put, pokerroom has a strange way of automatically playing blinds. So we were looking for convoluted ways to make it more realistic, but then realized it doesn’t detract in any great way from playing, so we just play by their rules. Once the games started last week, there was none of the confusion that the thread would imply. Just play.
I wouldn’t just “start playing” because you will most likely become accustomed to playing too many starting hands and find it disappointingly slow if you ever decide to become a winning player.
I would find a good starting hand chart. The best one is easily Matt Hilger’s in “Internet Texas Hold’em.” Shoot me an email and I’ll send you a PDF copy. His forums are also pretty good and so is his book:
For now, play the starting hands religiously and learn how to read the board for the best possible hand (http://www.poker-beginner.com/readtheboard.htm).
You can break the rules on starting hands once you’ve learned something. The great thing about rote starting hands, besides making more/losing less money, is that you can concentrate your time on learning post-flop play.
I read Sklansky’s “Hold em for Advanced Players” first but don’t recommend it because he doesn’t always explain why plays are good or bad. Later you’ll be able to figure out what he means, but not as a rank beginner.
Besides the the forum/site I linked to above, be sure to check out the 2+2 forums; they are the best on the web:
I started with the aforementioned Lee Jones book. From there, I went on to read Theory of Poker by Sklansky. Horribly organized and a bit dry to read, but the information is well worth it.
On top of either of those, my first pick now would be the recently released Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big with Expert Play by Sklansky, Miller, and Malmuth. It talks about playing low limit games and adjusting your play against folks who lack basic poker skills and play ‘no fold’em hold’em’.
On pokerroom.com if you are on a different server, just log off and log back on, it will usually put you on a different server. Me and a buddy were trying to find each other, and the rooms he saw in his lobby were totally different. He logged off and logged back on, and we had the same rooms (same server). It’s maddening, you can do a search for a player and it says ther are online then peek in every room and never find them.
Here’s what I understand so far:
Go to pokerroom.com
Click on “Texas Hold’Em - Omaha”
Click on “Private Tables” tab
Look for table called “Straight Dope”
Thanks for all of the replies everyone! I was worried this post was in the wrong place or something and it would fade into obscurity.
I was thinking about buying the Super System book by Brunson, but now I think I might wait a bit on that one. I’ll have to sift through these posts again and find the selections at Amazon to decide what to start with.
I guess it’s too late, since I have already played.
I’m not too worried about this though, as I’m pretty conservative when it comes to cards. I’m more worried about not being aggressive enough.
Done.
Thanks for the invite! This week isn’t looking good, but maybe I’ll shoot for next Thursday with the sd.com bunch. I don’t mind losing some play money (although I hate losing in general). I’ll follow the Thursday night thread for that. If that doesn’t work out, maybe we can get something going there with you and your husband and me and my GF?
Lou and Rouge: shoot x-ray vision an email to make sure there’s space. It hasn’t happened in the past two weeks, but if there’s more interest than one table’s worth, we’re gonna split up the players between two tables (as I understand the contingency).
Also, get AIM. It’s better for the social interaction than the pokerroom in-game chat screen, and it allows us to coordinate when not at a table.
AIM is a problem for me. I don’t allow AOL products on my computers. The last time I had AIM on a computer, it was a mini ad server. I’m sure when the time comes something can be figured out though.
This book is geared especially for low stakes limit poker and to make the optimum return from it, considering your opponents and their tendancies at this level of play. An intermediate level read.
