Professional No-Limit Hold 'em Volume 1 Review Thread

[twang]

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It might help to think of SPR this way. It just IS.

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This is a very good sum up.

PNLH has helped me so much it's ridiculous. Admittedly, I'm not very good at the unlimited hold them, but I never really understood how serious my suckage was. To be frank, this book has thought me so much common poker sense that I'm almost embarrassed to admit it.

Huge thanks to the author team.

[mvdgaag]

Love the quote jeff... It's true and it's what a good poker book should do: learn to play by learning to think and understand what is happening.

A cookbook recipy style strategy will only get you so far and doesn't make you a better player, but hands you something that likely works better than a naive approach, but you'll never know why.

PNL is a great example of a book that makes you think and the recommendations follow directly from the theory explained in the book.

Although some critiques here are very legitimate, some show that the posters are really not looking to understand the game, but want a 'brian townsend recipy' that can be applied brainlessly instead and if something doesn't stroke with the recipy it cannot be any good. Too bad that's the best argument that we can see here, but very nice there are still people that think this way. They'll never learn and we'll keep some fish in the tank.

[eMbAh]

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When will Vol 2 be released?

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There is a sticky at the top of this very page, but since you are a n00b and all: March 15, 2008 [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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^__^ thx

[jsbjoe]

I finally went out and bought this book. It is absolutely terrible. God awful. Shocking.

I confess that I did not read the whole book. I just couldn't continue. Fortunately, I bought the book at a local casino which allowed me to return it for credit the same day...

I got to page 53 of Professional No Limit Hold'em, Volume One. I would (generously) estimate the TOTAL amount of substantive content through page 53 at one and a half pages. I have never before read a book, of any kind, on any subject, with less content 50 pages in. For this, blame must be given not just to the authors, but also to the publisher. I just can't imagine how Mason let this thing go to press this way.

In addition to saying absolutely nothing, the book is dressed up to look like it is just chock full of stuff. When you look at the book on the shelf, you see this imposing tome, thick and substantial. And what a name:
PROFESSIONAL No Limit Hold'em, VOLUME ONE.

Wow. Look at how thick the first volume is. It's Professional! And only Volume One ! Three authors !!! There's more to follow! This must be the definitive treatise on no limit holdem. I can't wait to start reading it!!! Yeah, right.

It is so incredibly insulting to pay for a book, and spend the time to read 53 pages of it, and afterwards realize that the book hasn't even made a single statement (unless you count that it's ok to bluff for small amounts).

I am not interested in having someone tell me that I didn't give this idiotic text a chance. NO BOOK should take the reader this far with fluff, filler, and grandiose statements about what the book is about to, but does not, deliver.

In addition to the "content" itself, everything about the book is designed to add as many pages as possible. I'm talking about a typeface that's too large, line spacing (the spaces between the individual lines of type) that is so huge it actually makes the book harder to read, idiotic and unnecessarily huge card illustrations (a two plus two tradition), silly mathematical equations that take up a third of a page and which aren't necessary to make a point (were a point being made in the first place), an absolutely first grade chart (that occupies a third of a page) that says nothing more than how many big blinds a small and large stack are (and this has already been fully addressed in the text, to the tune at least a page of filler), filler pages that "introduce" each "section" of the book, (the book is replete with hyperbolic prose that promises the reader everything that the book is about to, but does not, deliver).

Again, the publisher shares in the blame for all of this. WHERE IS AN EDITOR WHEN YOU NEED ONE ??? And this is a shame, considering all the excellent books that Two Plus Two has put out.

A godawful book that severely insults the reader. I am taking all wagers on whether Two Plus Two releases a "Volume Two" to Professional No Limit Holdem. My money's on the under.

[otter]

I'm about 74 pages in and so far I haven't really learned anything, but I'm not going to quit. I didn't expect to learn anything in the early chapter which is fine. A refresher on a couple points are always nice to read.

If you read the forward they say if you're experienced you may want to skim the basics. It looks like the book will get better as you move on and that's what I'm expecting.

I don't mind the bigger print.

[Jbrochu]

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However when reading the book I feel like I am being conveyed the message "all you have to do is to make sure to have correct SPR, then flop TP or overpair and bet pot until you are all-in".

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If this is what you got out of it you missed a lot of information and also probably have a reading comprehension issue.

[jeffnc]

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However when reading the book I feel like I am being conveyed the message "all you have to do is to make sure to have correct SPR, then flop TP or overpair and bet pot until you are all-in".

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If this is what you got out of it you missed a lot of information and also probably have a reading comprehension issue.

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I know it must be frustrating to Matt and Sunny to hear this sort of thing. Frankly I just don't understand it. I didn't get any such thing out of the book. I'm a little confused as to why there is so much of this kind of criticism. Enough people have said it, that there must have been something the authors could have done, in hindsight. And I know they have some ideas for improving it in Vol 2. But I certainly didn't have any such problem with the book. I suppose I chalk it up to preconceived notions, and trying to get something out of the book that isn't there.

This is basically a new way of thinking and looking at your NL cash hands. Even if some players already play this way intuitively, it's still the first time it's ever been in print. Isn't this enough to ask from a poker book?

[dubiousdrift]

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"all you have to do is to make sure to have correct SPR, then flop TP or overpair and bet pot until you are all-in"

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Well, that is all you have to do *if* that's your plan for the hand.

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I know it must be frustrating to Matt and Sunny to hear this sort of thing. Frankly I just don't understand it. I didn't get any such thing out of the book. I'm a little confused as to why there is so much of this kind of criticism. Enough people have said it, that there must have been something the authors could have done, in hindsight. And I know they have some ideas for improving it in Vol 2. But I certainly didn't have any such problem with the book. I suppose I chalk it up to preconceived notions, and trying to get something out of the book that isn't there.


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It can be very tempting to want a cookbook procedure for such a complex process as no limit holdem, heck - I've been guilty of wanting that myself. The trouble with any such procedure is that it becomes easily exploitable to observant opponents. "Play tight" they said - so I played tight and got bluffed off any hand where I didn't flop the nuts - and made very little on the hands where I did. "Don't go broke with TPTK", "Play suited connectors in cheap, multi-way pots", and the list of "rules from the wise" goes on. The thing is, all of these rules should be broken - sometimes. When? Our favorite answer as poker players is "It depends...". So the automatic follow up question from the frustrated student is: "It depends on what?"

And the truth is, it depends on a great many things. One of them is stack size. And now we have a book where we have a very nice discussion (though not exhaustively complete discussion) on *how* it depends on stack size. Which is neat because before I read this book, I understood that stack size was important (it was used to calulate implied odds afterall) but after reading this book, I have a much better appreciation for why and how it is important in the decisions I am trying to make in any particular situation.

- dubiousdrift

[SenecaJim]

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However when reading the book I feel like I am being conveyed the message "all you have to do is to make sure to have correct SPR, then flop TP or overpair and bet pot until you are all-in".

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If this is what you got out of it you missed a lot of information and also probably have a reading comprehension issue.

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I know it must be frustrating to Matt and Sunny to hear this sort of thing. Frankly I just don't understand it. I didn't get any such thing out of the book. I'm a little confused as to why there is so much of this kind of criticism. Enough people have said it, that there must have been something the authors could have done, in hindsight. And I know they have some ideas for improving it in Vol 2. But I certainly didn't have any such problem with the book. I suppose I chalk it up to preconceived notions, and trying to get something out of the book that isn't there.

This is basically a new way of thinking and looking at your NL cash hands. Even if some players already play this way intuitively, it's still the first time it's ever been in print. Isn't this enough to ask from a poker book?

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I have to chime in here with you Jeff. I don't know where some of these comments come from. I have read the book twice and I don't know how some of these lessons are taken as absolutes or that matt, sunny,et al meant for them to be.

Here is a tool, this is how you use it. The tool works best in these situations, sometimes you have to dump the tool midway , and sometimes this tool is not right for the job. When you approach a job this is a very basic tool and you should evaluate if it should be used here before you do anything else. You may decide it doesn't apply here, or you may start with this tool uncertainly, but it will force you to think about the job and how you plan to tackle it, with this tool or any other.

That's the way I read it. They could be talking about spr, taking a hammer to any construction job, taking a basic scraper to a paint job, whatever. sometimes it's exactly what you need, sometimes part of what you need, sometimes it's not needed, but if you are gonna do this kind of work you should own this tool, know how to use it, and always have it with you.

[otter]

when do you get to this tool? So far I'm 106 pages in and there is nothing new and it looks like it's geared towards a first day player. The material is very well presented for sure, but there is nothing advanced yet at all. Maybe it will start getting better w/ page 107..