Harrington on Holdem - Volume 1

by Dan Harrington

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Reviewer: Tiburon41

Without a doubt, this is the finest book ever written on Tournament No-Limit Hold’em. It was said that some players reacted angrily to the manuscript as it was shown to them before the book was published. Why, you ask? Because "Action" Dan Harrington put into words what it took many of the players years to learn, and made it available to the public.

You can't question Harrington's successes--the '95 WSOP Main Event Champion, back-to-back final table finishes in '03 and '04 in the largest fields in WSOP history (at the time), considered to be the greatest poker accomplishment of all-time--and you also can't question his style of thought and teaching in the first volume of his three part guide to playing No-Limit Holdem in tournaments.

Don't get me wrong, the book's concepts are also equally applicable to cash games, but the primary focus is tournament poker, and specifically the earlier stages of tournament poker (Volume 2: The Endgame covers later stages of a tournament including the bubble, short-handed, and heads-up play, and is in itself a fantastic book that presents concepts that really aren't covered anywhere else). From his easily understandable style of teaching and writing to his numerous real-world hand examples to illustrate each concept and make the reader truly understand what Harrington is trying to say, this book is another classic, meant to be on your shelves with Theory of Poker, and Doyle Brunson’s Super System.

If you play No-Limit Holdem, if you play tournament poker, or if you even just want to read a strategy book written in an easy-to-understand and easily applicable style, look no further. Harrington on Hold’em Volume 1 is the book for you.

Reviewer: Dino

This book has a vast amount of excellent information in it, but is largely geared for tournament play. It has some online tips, but I think that the online players are even looser than some of the plays he advises. The other side is that it teaches play that is conservative in nature, but with a lot of variance to keep others from finding out how you play. I suggest this book as a great starting point for tournament players, even online players, but if you plan on playing limit or cash games, you would be better off reading Advanced Hold’em by David Sklansky first. Harrington on Hold’em Vol. 1 has a lot of hand analysis, opening play strategy, and good information on odds. Odds is one topic which many people find intimidating, but I think Harrington does a good job of making it easier then others as most of the time he does not make it exact, and uses general math that is fairly easy to master. One problem that I encountered was that as I read the book, I was changing my play, and getting killed because I had not finished both books yet and Vol II. is needed to cover how to play as you progress deeper in the tournament. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to read both books completely and not play poker while doing so. The best feature of both books is that they are easy reading. I have found that other books are difficult to read for very long, but the two Harrington books are enjoyable reading as well as informative. As with most things of this nature, take it with a grain of salt. If you read these books and then think you can be Dan Harrington, you will be sorely disappointed. Using these books to improve your play (and maybe vary your play as well) is the best use for them. I highly recommend both books, as either one is not as good as reading both one after the other (and then read them again - you find a lot of stuff you missed first time around).

Reviewer: wayne_84

Harrington on Hold’em is summed up best by the sub-title on the front cover; “Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments”. The book is a must read if you have ever considered becoming a winning player in NL tournaments. There are three books to the collection and this review is for the first book entitled “Volume 1: Strategic Play”.

The book started off immediately letting me know how much of an amateur I was with its discussions on how different types of players see hands differently and what elements of a hand you need to pay attention to while playing. It then gives a sample of a real hand from the WSOP to show how these elements come into play. For me this instantly kick started me into wanting to study the book and improve my game. I wanted to be able to think like the pros do and this book definitely helped me do that.

The book then goes into discussing the three different types of players and goes into detail how to play each way. It lets you decide what style will fit you best and gives you insight into how the other types play. This is also helpful when you are varying your style to keep your better opponents guessing.

Next the book discusses tells, pot odds and hand analysis. The book lets you know some physical tells to watch for as well as to watch for information from betting patterns. It discusses how to calculate pot odds and use these numbers to determine which hands to let go and which hands to continue on with. When I was playing I didn’t even think about expressed odds or implied odds which the book opened my mind to.

Betting before the flop is examined next. This is by far one of the most important parts of playing poker. There are many different things to think about before entering a pot and this chapter looks at all of them. By determining which hands should be played in which situations before the flop will keep you out of trouble after the flop and make your decisions a lot easier.

After the flop you must examine the texture of the flop and see not only how it has affected your hand but your opponents hands as well. The book analyzes flops for typical hands and gives you insight as to which hands are worth continuing on with and which hands should be tossed in the muck. It also discusses the different types of bets you can make, each having a different purpose, some to get more money in the pot, some to give you information about your opponents’ hands that they could be holding. Betting on the turn and river are talked about next and the book gives you help with the different situations you will find yourself in on those streets.

The most important aspect with this book is the problems that are given after each chapter. It takes hands that happened in real life play and goes through them step by step. This allows you to use what you have learned and see how your decisions fare against how Dan would play the hand.

To sum things up this book is a good start to get you headed on the right track to becoming a winning player in NL tournaments. As shown above it leaves out nothing, teaching you what to do in typical situations you will find yourself in throughout a hand. I highly recommend this book to all. (Note: You definitely need Volume 2: The Endgame to carry you through the later stages of a tournament when strategies change and many other problems come into play.)

Reviewer: Wixx

I have been trying to get this book since most of the games that I play now are multi table no limit tournaments. The book did not disappoint. Harrington explains several different styles of play and how to play against them. This is very useful since no matter what style you play, you will play against many people playing other styles, and if you understand what they are trying to do and how to successfully play against it you will no doubt be much more successful. What he does is explain several key points to poker, such as position, chip stack, table presence and explain how the different styles of players or in particular how amateurs and professionals differ on how they interpret them.

He gives several hand examples and asks how you would play them. Then he goes into detail of not only what he would do in the situation described, but explains why and the thought process behind his theories. The book gives you a window into the mind of a true poker genius and allows you to not only recall, 'well the book said I should fold a straight draw against a bet that of that size,' but an understanding of how to read the situation and when to make that call instead of just folding every time you are in this situation. By far this is the most useful book that I have read to date, as it not only gives me some ideas and tips used by professional players, but allows me to begin thinking like a pro myself so that I am better prepared to handle a situation that is not covered in a book.

That fact that he gives several things to think about in each of his situations and is fairly clear at implying that there is never really a 'right' answer to his questions, just a more thought out or theoretically sound answer, is what clicked for me. The flop is random and therefore the game changes far too often to be able to remember a few chapters of a book and expect to consistently win tournaments, so I want to be taught sound advice and not simply what to do in several sample hands. Not only does he give you several strategies to think about, but he also gives details about the weaknesses of each strategy. This is important not only for finding a place to exploit your opponents, but also reminds you of the weaknesses that you need to guard against when you are playing a certain style. If everyone at VPP read this book, the freerolls would take twice as long to play!!

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