Harrington on Holdem - Volume 2

by Dan Harrington

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Reviewer: Dino

This is the Dan Harrington you usually see in the tournaments. In Harrington on Hold’em Vol. II he describes the end game and later play in No Limit Tournaments. A great wealth of information is available here, and is in the same easy reading format as the first volume. Along with great continuing hand analysis, he gives information on M and Q and how to try to keep from getting blinded out of tourneys (one of my old favorite tricks before reading this book) as the blinds go up and the stack sizes change drastically. Also there is an excellent section on heads-up play and the changes in starting hand theory for this part of the game. Many players do well until they get to heads-up, then they have no idea how to play anymore. As with the first book, this style of play may not be for everyone, and you will not become a WSOP bracelet holder before you finish (well, maybe you will, but I doubt it) the books, but there is a wealth of information and training here. Also, at the end of this volume, he has some actual tourney hands from one WSOP and a Phil Ivey Heads-up session. These two books are great reading and should be part of your library if you are a No Limit Tournament player..
 

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 second book entitled “Volume II: The Endgame”.

This book is a continuation of Volume 1, and you must read Volume 1 to fully understand this book and for everything to make sense that is discussed within. Believe me when I say I am not just recommending you read Volume 1 first, I am telling you that you absolutely must!

To win a poker tournament you must always be making moves and having the best possible hand is not always a requirement. The book starts out describing different moves that can be used throughout the tournament. It discusses betting to get information about your opponents hands through probe and continuation bets; how to slow play hands to get maximum value out of them and which hands can be slow played. Sometimes you need to plain old bluff and this book gives you many different ways to successfully pull off a bluff and which situations allow you to attempt the bluff.

The next section of the book brings up one of the most important concepts of NL poker tournaments, a concept called M. Q goes hand in hand with M (I am not talking James Bond characters here) and with these concepts you will know what type of poker needs to be played throughout the tournament. Harrington explains how to calculate your M and Q values and he discusses that as your M gets lower you go through different inflection points or zones and with this your starting hand requirements will vary. With this information alone you will be far ahead of many tournament players.

Since this book is about the endgame, the next chapter goes into playing as the table gets shorter. If you happen to make the final table, as players get eliminated from it, your strategy needs to change over and over. Big hands don’t come by very often and slow playing when you do get them becomes more necessary. Pot odds control a lot of your decisions of whether to play a hand or not. Prize money also now plays a factor as it goes up substantially the closer you get to number 1. Should you call with pocket kings if two players go all-in in front of you, or fold guaranteeing yourself third place money? The book will help you answer these questions and more.

The last section gets into heads up play and gives you some good advice on it. Starting hand requirements are almost non-existent at this point and most hands are played on deception. You must keep mixing up your play to keep your opponent guessing and this book details how to accomplish that. This section ends off with a classic heads up battle between a couple of pros and lets you see how they think and react in the heat of battle.

As in Volume 1, each chapter ends off with problems. These problems are good tools to help you decide what moves to make in different situations. It allows you to put your thoughts up against Dan’s and to see why he thinks a certain way.

To conclude, I highly recommend this book to people sick of just making the money and want to make the final table and beyond, which is where the big money is. I have placed top ten out of hundreds of players in many NL tournaments since reading these books and I know they will do the same for you.

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