Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play

Rating:
Summary: Bought it read it
Review: Hi, I bought this book, read it - It's a good book to be honest but not a great book. There really is no emphasis whatsoever on implied odds which is something that sklansky went over in hold'em poker almost a decade ago. It's a good book but not to be bought by itself - buy it with hold'em poker and hold'em poker for advanced players they are much better books.

Rating:
Summary: The new Gold Standard for beating loose games at all levels
Review: I have now read an advance copy of the book twice, and some sections more than that. I can safely say that those of you who are so looking forward to this book will not be disappointed. The book is excellent.

Indeed, it addresses some topics so well that I wonder at the title. Calling it "Small Stakes Holdem" is really too limiting. The book targets loose games more than small stakes games per se. With loose games and poor playing opponents permeating B&M cardroom games from $3-6 through $40-80, this book really has something for everybody. Yes, newer players will get more from it than mid-limit veterans, but even the mid-limit players will find some critical ideas spelled out in a way that helps them improve their game.

It is an excellent blend that helps the newer players take the next big step to being significant winners, while at the same time it expounds upon and extends HPFAP in a way that addresses the super-loose games that permeate today's cardrooms. In short, it's the book that many have really been waiting for 2+2 to publish for quite some time. I expect this book to quickly move alongside Theory of Poker and HPFAP as a definitive 2+2 work. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Best book ever written on the subject
Review: I have read many different poker books and none of them quite compare to this book for small stakes holdem. There are a ton of books out there on how to beat higher level games and how to play against good players, but no one has seemed to be able to write a book capable of explaining how to beat low level games where you frequently run into people that just call you down to the river every hand.

This book has instantly made me a winning player and for anybody who wants to win low limit poker must read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Departure For the Sklansky Crew
Review: I have to agree with many of the things AmericanDane said in his review. If you use this book as your 'poker bible,' and over extend yourself in an expensive (relative to your bankroll), tight and agressive game, you WILL go broke. If you try to invoke this books playing style without fully understanding the underlying logic or fundamental mathematics behind it, you WILL go broke. If you don't take the time to really think through the concepts AWAY from the book, to ingrain in your mind what data was explained to you and what details you will need to estimate and observe for yourself while at the table, you will go broke.

Basically, this book boils down to 'Call when the pot is large. If the pot is big enough, you don't have to win that often to have a long term positive expectation.' That's it. This is not to say that Sklansky and Malmuth don't pepper the text with their standard advice like minding your pot odds and an interesting new (to me at least) concept called pot equity. They do. However, if you aren't careful, this book can definately ruin your game.

With all of that said, I'm definately glad I read this book. It's advice is in stark contrast to that given in 'Holdem for Advanced Players' and rightfully so. The game has completely changed over the last few years and this shift has really thrown some players for a loop. Though I think that a lot of the assumptions this book is based on,(particularly those on an average opponents style Sklansky seems to believe that the average opponent is loose, passive, and fairly clueless rather than loose, very agressive) do not necessarily hold true for today's games, I still find the methodology valuable.

Any player who has read Hold'em and Hold'em for Advanced Players and finds themselves rereading the section on Maniacs trying to determine the best strategy for attacking the wild games they typically encounter these days should pick up this book. Last word of warning though - it's a take it or leave it style - you can't just incorporate certain plays or aspects of the text; It's meant to be taken as a whole or not at all.

Rating:
Summary: This book will change your poker-playing life!
Review: I've been playing small stakes hold 'em for years, long before the frat boys and TV posers started infiltrating the game back in 2002-03. But with that being said, I was an up-and-down sort of player for forever, never getting a consistant streak of quality winning sessions going, winning fairly big (for me, that is, about $400-$500 in the $3-6 and $4-8 games) some days and getting killed the next. I hadn't done very much study on the game until the World Poker Tour got big, and I started listening to interviews that successful pros gave, where they related who the best hold 'em authors were. I pored over Super System, and Lee Jones' book, and the basic and advanced Sklansky works, and my game improved somewhat, but the up-and-down swings remained. I still didn't feel that I was playing to the maximum of my abilities.

I guess I had always assumed that this was the way hold 'em was going to go for me, until last month (December 2nd, to be precise, a red-letter day in my poker development), when I picked up the new Miller/Sklansky collaboration "Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play". Almost every page was a revelation! The two basic things I got from this book were that, while Brunson and Jones' advice is techinally valid, their approach causes a player to 1) play WAY too many hands in less-than-ideal positions and 2) fail to aggressively push every single advantage, obvious or hidden, that a particular hand may have. Miller/Sklansky's prose and logic is dense, as you should expect from a 2+2 Press published book. But in the end their logic is crystal-clear and irrefutable.

But the proof is in the results, and here they are: After acquiring this book, I took a full week off from playing low-limit at Foxwoods in Connecticut, studying up on the concepts and knowing that book COLD cover to cover. I started going back to Foxwoods on 09 December. In a typical month (yes, I keep records), I was lucky to net $500, with many of my months ending up in negative territory. Check this out: Since December 9th, in 2-3 day a week sessions averaging 8.5 hours each, I've NETTED $3,874 SOLELY in the $4-8 and $5-10 (kill) games!!! This includes an initial win of $860 in my 09 December session, and two monster $1,000+ wins in back-to-back sessions on 17-18 December. My largest single-session loss in this period was $260. To top it off, I was out of town on Christmas vacation from the 23rd to the 28th and played no poker. So, essentially I've won nearly $4K in three weeks since reading this book! This is easily my most successful month ever, both before and since I started keeping records!

And I owe all of my newfound success to this book! I'm folding a lot more hands that I ever did before, as per their advice, but the playable hands I'm getting I'm hammering for the maximum return!

Mark my words - Brunson, he's a god. Lee Jones, an essential text. But you are a FOOL if you play low-limit hold 'em and you haven't read this book and followed its teachings! RUN, do not walk, TODAY, grab a copy and start learning the REAL stuff. You'll be as glad as I am. See you at Foxwoods!

Rating:
Summary: Valuable and dangerous
Review: I've read most of the poker lit and really like the Lee Jones low-limit book. It is accessible and provides pretty good advice on how to play the lower limit tables. Since most of the books out there assume you are playing good (read tight / aggressive) players, it was an important book for me. If you use the 'good play' paradigm at many loose tables, you play hardly any hands, and get bad beat too often -- so frustrating. Still profitable, but it always felt like I wasn't winning as much as I should given the (I believed) clear difference in game knowledge and good play practices.

I bought and read this book last week and was skeptical about much of its advice. It is not an easy read -- has the typical mathematic slant of a Sklansky book -- not in itself bad, but don't expect to breeze through this is an afternoon if you are not already familiar with calculating odds, etc. In my opinion the book often suggests raising on the assumption someone may be bluffing in a big pot situation and doesn't stress enough about factoring in your table read where you know you are beat (and therefore maybe just call or even fold). It also is short of detailed advice on turn and river play. The quizes in the back are good, but are light on a theoretically foundation of guiding play other than counting outs and a brief section on how to discount outs that may not really be there (get Ciaffone's Middle-limit Poker for this) I felt it was recommending WAY too loose guidelines and advice around staying in big pots when you KNOW you are beat (KNOW as in 'I've been at the table four hours and that guy only raises when he has the nuts -- I am beat).

Anyway, this weekend I went to the local Harrah's and played their 5/10 game (5/10 is the lowest limit), used the guidelines from Small Stakes Hold-em and proceeded to win 100 big bets in eleven hours. Wow. Of course, this is a sample set of one. And things generally went really well -- good cards, not too many river beats, etc. And the table makeup most of the evening fit the profile this book addresses to a tee. I didn't ignore my own reads at the table, etc. and played a bit tighter than the book recommended, but definitely the book influenced my approach to the game.

I still have mixed emotions about many of the suggestions in this book. I think that if you are an experience player used to playing tougher competition, this book should be viewed as filling out your knowledge in a poker niche of the highly-loose / somewhat-passive-hold'em variety. If you read this book as your first book because you are going to play low-limit and then run into a tight or aggressive table (whatever the limit), you are going to get killed. In other words this is a book for advanced players who understand 'correct' play. This book helps you optimize play for a certain specialty situation.

The book basically puts you on notice about this, but it is easy to lose track of while you read. Individually poor players when encountered as a group present certain challenges. The inmates are running the asylum and you have to get a little crazy yourself to a certain extent when you likely have the best of it. You do this knowing full well you are going to win fewer pots, but the size of the pots compensate. Judging the right and wrong time to join in (and stay in) is basically the specialty knowledge this book provides. It requires some sophistication and experience to understand these discussions.

I'm pretty sure a good many people are going to lose a good deal of money using this book as their bible. That's why I say this book is really valuable, but dangerous medicine. Don't make it the anchor point of your poker knowledge. Once you have that core down, this will help you win more when you play loose / passive small-stakes games.


Rating:
Summary: The definitive low limit holdem book!!
Review: Small Stakes Holdem takes you to the next level and teaches you expert play allowing you to DOMINATE the low limit game. When playing online you don't need to be playing the middle or high limits to make a nice living. Simply playing 2/4 or 3/6, and using multiple tables you can earn anywhere from $15-60/hr on Party Poker. Depends on how many simultaneous tables you can play and how proficient your play is.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated & Overly Optimistic
Review: This book is no better than any other low limit book. It also is unrealisticly optimistic about how stupid your opponents are, even for a low limit game. This book's advice is a great way to burn through a lot of money making plays that are just plain stupid. Yeah, let's all go destroy low limit poker making 100k/yr, anyone can do it, read a book, quit my job & play poker, just like on TV (note: sarcasm).

Edit: This book deserves 3 stars, but I've given it 1 to help try balancing out everyone else's infatuation w/ it.

Rating:
Summary: Not that good
Review: This book will only teach you to spew chips. I have been a winning poker player and i can tell you that there are better books on the market for low limit hold em. "Winning low limit" is a good book by lee jones. This book teaches how to raise without having a pair or a draw. If thats how you like to play poker you will like this book. Save your money and practice online and buy a better book. It is also poorly written

Rating:
Summary: My first review of a book
Review: This is the first time I have ever reviewed a book, but atleast this is an area I have some expertise.

I have won several tournaments at Foxwoods and generally know how to play Hold 'em pretty well. I've also read most of the books out there (I happen to enjoy reading almost as much as playing poker), and this book is by far the best book on Limit Holdem I have ever read. I am even a bit ashamed to admit that there were aspects of my game that this book helped to improve.

The strongest asset of this book is its advice on playing AFTER the flop. No other book on the market comes close. I can't recommend this book more highly.