No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice Q&A Thread

[Ed Miller]

Hi All,

David and I submitted the final manuscript for No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice on April 16th. This project was a challenging one for me, and there were times when I thought it might not be a top notch book (indeed, there were times I thought it might not even get done).

However, now that it's complete, I can easily say that I'm extremely proud of this book. I think it's excellent, and there's no book currently on the market that comes close to covering the material detailed in this book. I feel that it will prepare people to be terrific no limit players better than any other book currently available. I think it will blow a lot of people away.

Some basics about it. It takes a theoretical focus. The best description I have for it is "Theory of Poker applied to No Limit Hold 'em." It's doesn't have a lot of "do this, don't do that" advice (like SSHE)... it is mostly a book about how to think about the game. It's about how to evaluate decisions, and it teaches you what's important to think about and what's not.

It's divided into two sections: Fundamentals, and Concepts and Weapons. The Fundamentals section is just that... it's a comprehensive lesson in all the fundamental ideas necessary to play expert no limit hold 'em. By "fundamental" we don't mean "beginner," though... there's no beginner material at all in the book. We don't even teach you what pot odds or implied odds are... you're supposed to know that when you pick up the book.

But they are fundamentals in that they are the basic concepts for playing expert no limit. We don't tell you what implied odds are, but we talk about how to use them to make no limit hold 'em decisions. Fundamentals is a thorough lesson in no limit thinking.

Concepts and Weapons is a series of shorter (half a page to two page) thoughts about no limit. They are somewhat disjointed... presented in a "here are some important things to think about" way. Some of them contain general advice, and some are much more specific. There's a little bit of "do this, don't do that" advice in this section.

It's also neither a "cash game" book nor a "tournament" book. It's valuable in both kinds of no limit. Most of the discussion talks about deep stack situations... and the ideas are important both in cash games and early in tournaments (at least big buyin tournaments with plenty of play). Some of the discussion focuses on small and medium stacks, and these ideas are valuable both in cash games and in the later stages of tournaments. Overall, I think the book should be equally valuable to cash game and tournament players.

I'm extremely excited about the book. In January, I might not have said that, but now that it's done, I really think it's great. I think it's going to light a lot of bulbs and teach people what to think about and how to think about it.

We expect the date when the first books will be available to be around June 1st, plus or minus a week or so.

I hope you're as excited about it as I am, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you guys might have.

[amulet]

Ed,

Congratulation on finishing the manuscript. I am Looking forward to the book. Based on a comment that David made in the high stakes NL form a while back, I assume that this book is not going to be a "great" tool for the advanced NL player, is this still correct?

I am not trying to imply that it won't be helpful, but David's comment stated that the book might not be advanced enough for several of the better posters/players in said section. This surprised me because I think TOP is a great tool for advanced players.

Please clarify this.

Thank you.

[Ed Miller]

[ QUOTE ]
I am not trying to imply that it won't be helpful, but David's comment stated that the book might not be advanced enough for several of the better posters/players in said section. This surprised me because I think TOP is a great tool for advanced players.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the book will be helpful to 99.9% of no limit players. A few of the top posters in HSNL might not learn much from it, but almost everyone else will learn something. Most people will learn a whole lot.

[jdefoe]

will this book have a golden postflop section like that of SSHE? Because I think that just like limit hold'em, players in No Limit concentrate too much on preflop play and not enough on playing good after the flop.

[TheShootah]

Do you talk about any stylistic elements of the game like Dan did in HOH, comparing the different approaches to the game. Reach any conclusions? It seems like with such a large disparity in the playing styles of alot of successful NLHE players, that is warrants some space. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Ed Miller]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you talk about any stylistic elements of the game like Dan did in HOH, comparing the different approaches to the game. Reach any conclusions? It seems like with such a large disparity in the playing styles of alot of successful NLHE players, that is warrants some space. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

We don't discuss it explicitly ("These people play this way, and those people play that way, and here are the pluses and minuses of each style"), but there's plenty of discussion of different playing styles, both how to play against those styles and potentially how to play them yourself.

I think some of the "large disparties" in playing styles are, to some extent, superficial. That is, I think the thought processes that successful players tend to use usually align.

Player A like to play fast preflop and make lots of overbets with draws and big hands, while Player B might like to play tighter and play "small ball," but each player, if they're good, is thinking about roughly the same factors and using the same concepts during the hand. The book covers those factors and concepts without advocating either "small ball" or overbetting, or whatever.

[Duck Rabbit]

Will the book be made available through any of the online poker point stores (party or stars)?

Also, is there a section dedicated to shorthanded play or is the whole book geared for full tables?

[Ed Miller]

[ QUOTE ]
Will the book be made available through any of the online poker point stores (party or stars)?

[/ QUOTE ]

We don't control what the point stores do, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't get picked up by at least one of them.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, is there a section dedicated to shorthanded play or is the whole book geared for full tables?

[/ QUOTE ]

There's no section called "Shorthanded play." Again, the book is generally more theoretical than that. It teaches you what to think about when you play no limit, and those concepts will be valuable in full ring games, in shorthanded games, in heads-up games, in tournaments, etc.

[amulet]

without a rising blind structure there is only one correct style.

[Some Pig]

And that one correct style is shortball LAG.