Winning Low Limit Holdem

by Lee Jones

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Reviewer: Wayne_84

When I first started playing poker I was like a fish in shark infested waters. The problem was that the sharks were only suckers and I was only a goldfish. I came across a forum on the internet which referred me to the best book out there for beginner players. “Winning Low-Limit Hold’em” by Lee Jones opened my eyes that it is not profitable to play every good looking hand. From chapter to chapter the book is fully loaded with helpful tips for low limit players.

The most important part of this book, in my opinion, is the starting hand guide. The book lays out in detail which hands are good to play in all positions. It tells you what hands to fold, open with, call with, raise with and re-raise with and gives you reasons why each hand should be played that way. By following this list alone new players can be profitable - I was. For example, pocket pairs need to be higher the closer our position is to the left of the blinds. Although a pair of sixes is a very playable hand on the button, this hand should almost never be played in early position. On the other hand when you are in the blinds, especially the big blind, the range of starting hands is huge for reasons mentioned in the book.

Post flop play is very important if you want to maximize your winnings and this book gives you the ins and outs of this as well. It helped me to plug some leaks in my game that will save me tons of money in the long run. One of the most important points I learned is not to call with over cards almost all of the time. Of course there are certain situations when they are playable which the book will outline for you.

Another aspect of poker which is very popular is the sit-n-go (SNG). “Winning Low-Limit Hold’em” has a chapter dedicated to this. From what hands to play at the beginning of the SNG to what hands to play at the “bubble”, this book takes you all the way to first place. This chapter opened my eyes to the different aspects of a SNG and how each will and needs to affect my play. As the blinds go up and the opponents dwindle a player needs to be more aggressive to build up a healthy stack. “Bubble” time is the best time to build your stack as most players play very passive at this time.

All in all I really liked this book. For the reasons listed above I was enlightened in new ways that I had never thought of. I tightened up my game and became more aggressive with my good hands which is the recipe for a winning, profitable player. If you are a ring game low limit poker player this book is a must for you. It will help you improve your game immensely and will lead you to the next level. I highly recommend this book, not just as a starter, but as a book that will remain in your poker library to be referred to time and time again as you further your poker skills. I have already read it twice!

Reviewer: Wadofella

For those who don’t know, Lee Jones is the pokerroom manager at Pokerstars. Winning Low Limit Hold'em is his first and only book so far and is now over 10 years old and in its 3rd Edition.

This is essentially a beginner’s strategy guide to fixed-limit hold'em. It assumes that you know the rules of hold'em but not too much more than that. In my opinion this is an excellent first book to read (or second book if you don’t even know the rules of the game) and largely succeeds, with one or two small caveats.

The book is aimed at “low-limit” hold’em (stated as meaning up to $6/$12), however, I would suggest that it is more useful as a guide for the micro-limits (up to $1/$2) since the types of game it describes are generally very loose-passive and far more like the type of game that is encountered at micro-levels. Perhaps this anomaly arises because the book was written with “Bricks and Mortar” poker in mind and in a live card room $3/6 might be the lowest stakes game available and would therefore attract the softest players. With online poker a lot of $3/6 and above games are very tough and often do not fit the profile of the play described here. Once you are ready to move onto those games “Small Stakes Hold ‘Em” by Miller and Sklansky is more indicative of the type of game you’ll encounter.

Winning Low Limit Hold’em follows a fairly standard format; it begins with some introductory chapters discussing concepts such as Hold’em fundamentals and reading the board and then moves on to the play of the hand. The opening hand suggestions are fine and map fairly closely to the Sklansky recommendations (perhaps slightly more passive in one or two places). After that there are discussions of play on the flop, turn and river. Finally there are some chapters briefly discussing matters such as Internet poker and tournament play.

This book has received some criticism for teaching a slightly tight-weak style, however, for the average new player it has a lot of value, as long as you are playing in the loose-passive type of games described. As Lee Jones himself points out, in that type of game the simple fact is you usually have to show down the best hand to win. This book is clearly aimed at keeping a beginner out of trouble wherever possible (“if there is a raise in front of you preflop, look for a reason to fold”).

The book does a good job of introducing the newcomer to concepts such as correct pre-flop play, positional awareness and pot odds. It also teaches some standard techniques, for example buying a free card, raising for value and bluff-raising.

Lee Jones writes with a dry sense of humor and his style is engaging and very readable. The book is only 263 pages long and is a very quick and pleasant read.

In summary, if you are a typical beginning player then this book will likely make you a far better one. If you’re the type of player that cold-calls an early-position raise pre-flop with KQo then you should read this book.

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