More Holdem Excellence

by Lou Krieger

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Reviewer: JakeRupe

This was the first book I read when I decided to take the plunge and learn the game through pages instead of my wallet. I had played pretty successfully online but with huge variances and decided to try out the local B&M game. Had the same results there. Won big pots but lost bigger ones and got trapped quite a bit. On the way home I knew the players at the table who I could take on but I couldn’t figure out why one or two guys were always in my pot and making me pay. 80% of my losses were to two players who always seemed to have me playing the wrong draws or betting into them with 2nd pair. Talk about being pushed around! Well I stopped at borders and looked through the books and this one caught my attention 1.) because it was short 2.) a chart in the back with starting hands.

The book starts out pretty much the same as any poker book, short bio, and history of hold’em and why the author loves the game so much. Same as everyone has written. Krieger does a really good job of explaining the way it looks like other games but why it is so different, something we all figure out while taking it on the chin.

Again like other books he goes into three chapters with starting hands in reference to position. His breakdown is a little cumbersome in that each position is then broken down into pairs, Ax suited, connectors, gapped suited etc. If nothing else this part really makes you look at the different nuances of the hands and the importance of position.

The book is an extremely easy read. I recall somewhere reading that Krieger was either a English professor or a journalist major and it really shows. I don’t know how well the book teaches how to play the game. He is very conservative and not extremely aggressive for my type of game, but then again I don’t play much limit anymore.

The thing that definitely makes the book worth the 20 dollars is what is inside the back cover. He has two charts he calls “Start Chart” which has all the possible starting combinations. One is for suited and the other for non-suited. It is then color coded as to what position is acceptable. This is the easiest chart to read quickly that I have found. For months I had it next to my keyboard for quick reference on borderline hands, it paid for itself with this chart.

Overall I’d only give the book 6 out of 10 but most of those points come from the chart alone. Like I said the book is an easy read and it still sits by the keyboard folded open from time to time so I can see those charts.

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