How to Dominate...or Largay's book?

[GLEEBZ]

Can't decide between "How to Dominate $1 and $2" by O'Connor and "No Limit Texas Holdem; A Complete Course" by Largay. I've heard good things about both books. P.S. I'm a (beginner to intermediate) player looking to grind it out at the SMALL STAKES NL tables. Thanks in advance!

[JackCase]

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Can't decide between "How to Dominate $1 and $2" by O'Connor and "No Limit Texas Holdem; A Complete Course" by Largay. I've heard good things about both books. P.S. I'm a (beginner to intermediate) player looking to grind it out at the SMALL STAKES NL tables. Thanks in advance!

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No one else can tell you what works best for you and the way that you learn and the games that you play. You have to decide that.

Read reviews and discussions here and elsewhere. Go to a book store and read a chapter of each. Or (OMG [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] ) buy them both, and read both, and continue to study one or both.

[cjk73]

I recommend "No Limit Holdem: Theory and Practice"

[Packard]

Largay's book is awful.

I bought Largay's book and it has some absurdly awful information in it such as buying in for $100 in a 1-2 NL game and going all in with 82s preflop on the first hand against multiple opponents (I am not joking).

Buy and read any no limt book with Ed Miller's name on it.

[CasinoR7]

I agree that what you quoted from Largay is bad advice, but overall his book is still good.

I would not recommend Ed miller's "Getting started in Hold'em" for No Limit Hold'em cash games. His overall advice in the No Limit Hold'em section is really aweful, especially when your goal is to grow as a pokerplayer and eventually want to play higher stakes.

[ShaneP]

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Largay's book is awful.

I bought Largay's book and it has some absurdly awful information in it such as buying in for $100 in a 1-2 NL game and going all in with 82s preflop on the first hand against multiple opponents (I am not joking).

Buy and read any no limt book with Ed Miller's name on it.

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Well, you're kind of missing a bit...that is the example given, but it was him in late position calling a $20 bet (against a raiser and two callers with the blinds behind), and then calling the allin after 4-5 other people called the allin. What he was trying to get across is taking a slightly -EV gamble now for the opportunity to make future gambles much more +EV. Effective stack size is much higher, and you make yourself look like an idiot. All for about $10 of EV. And obviously the first call of $20 wasn't that much -EV, and the allin was for $80.

An example (though I think the guy just wasn't too good), I had a hand live where UTG I raised QQ, got a reraise right behind me, two callers, then I went all in (a few reads made me think I had the reraiser beat, and I wasn't worried about the callers). Other hands were JJ (reraiser), AJ, and T7s. I ran the numbers later, and found 18% for the T7, which means given $50 stacks (buyin is even smaller ugh...) in expectation he'll lose $14. Again, not great, but Largay's point is later if you hit that 20% or so, now you can play some of the other players at the table for (say) $400, and their mistakes are amplified. And in Largay's case, there were 6 total people in the pot--I don't remember the cards of the opponents, but (this is a guess) that might have almost been a 0 EV play--for a low hand to beat the possible higher pairs, it's gotta hit something pretty big and so probably doesn't lose a lot of pot equity versus the number of hands that are calling.


Shane

And keeping within the thread, I am halfway through Dominating..., and read all of Largay's book. At this point, I'd more recommend Largay's book, I found it a better and more enjoyable read. Although I've heard that Dominating... gets a lot better for the last 1/3 to 1/2, where the author really starts talking about how to play the way he recommends.

[jeffnc]

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Largay's book is awful.

I bought Largay's book and it has some absurdly awful information in it such as buying in for $100 in a 1-2 NL game and going all in with 82s preflop on the first hand against multiple opponents (I am not joking).

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You're being obtuse. No, the book does not recommend making that play. It uses that play as an example to explain several NL concepts. Big difference, and one that was lost on you.

The book is generally good. Dominate has some good points to it, but ultimately it has misleading or wrong information in it to (it ranges from getting probabilities wrong to bizarre advice like going home rather than playing in loose passive games.) Dominate might or might not be to your liking. It certainly is an entertaining read and has plenty of good nuggets in it.

Largay in general is more concise and maybe ultimately more helpful. In fact it lays out some of the strategy that Professional No Limit does, albeit with less rigorous theory.

[jeffnc]

Listen to Shane. He had the patience to describe the situation correctly here on this forum, and also had the patience to understand the author's point while reading. If you don't have that patience or willingness to understand, then no book will help you.

[MaxWeiss]

[ QUOTE ]
Largay's book is awful.

I bought Largay's book and it has some absurdly awful information in it such as buying in for $100 in a 1-2 NL game and going all in with 82s preflop on the first hand against multiple opponents (I am not joking).

Buy and read any no limt book with Ed Miller's name on it.

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Anybody who plays a LAG style, at 2/5 and 5/10 capped NL live games, will instantly recognize the pure gold that is Angel's book. If you play online or generally a tighter live style, it may not be right for you.

BTW, his 82s had +EV, if you read the whole story. And the image he gets with showing that is worth much more than any -EV on the hand. I use a lot of what he uses, and I get my all-ins called 75+ percent of the time. If you're into small ball, grinding it out type of poker, Angel's book is not right for you. But if you play for stacks, Angel is the way to go.

Before Angel's book, I would stack people when I got a great hand and they couldn't fold a good hand. Now I get stacks when I have a good OR great hand and they have absolutely nothing, or maybe a good hand. Seriously, I've gotten called all in preflop for 80+ blinds by: AQ, Q9s, 99, JTo, and more than I can't think of at the moment. The ace-queen and the nines didn't even think about it---and these were guys who SHOWED hands like jacks to other players and folded preflop, making that good laydown... but not against me. Then they proceeded to comment how lucky I was to have aces or kings each of those times, and continued to congratulate themselves of making a tough but right call that just happened to not work out. These are players who DON'T normally give action--except the queen nine, he was tilting.

Angle's book is gold for small and medium stakes capped NL live games. Period!

Also, while I really liked NLTAP and SSHE, it's pretty clear that Ed Miller just doesn't play much no limit and he's not going to be able to give much depth like Angel's book does.

[kabz]

well I think by now you would have finished reading both books, but fwiw, I would recommend Largay's book , I found it more helpful for NL players. I stopped reading How to dominate after 100 pages, same information over and over again.

p.s: comments coming from a limit player.