Poker Forum - A Review of “Hold’Em Poker For Advanced Players”

The first time I read "Hold'Em Poker For Advanced Players" (aka HPFAP) I felt a little like the first explorer from the West being shown the mysteries of the great Tibetan temples, wonders no man from the known world had ever seen.

After being ushered around to see the soaring towers and magnificent tapestries the monks take the intrepid explorer into a special room covered in gold and smoky with incense. From special cabinets in the center of the room they withdraw a huge book wrapped in cloth of silver threads. They unwrap the book, place in lovingly on an intricately carved pedestal, open it and invite the explorer to gaze upon the hallowed pages.

After many minutes of carefully studying the illustrated pages and sweeping texts the adventurer steps back smiling politely to the waiting monks. "Well, what do you think of that?" asks the high priest. Our fellow takes several moments, totally lost for words at first and then replies: "very pretty pictures but what does all that writing mean?"

Yup, that's pretty much what I thought too, what does it all mean? I'd never thought of myself as being particularly dense nor overly slow on the uptake but this book had me pretty much stumped. It's now a few years and a few readings later and I'm happy to report that I've managed to absorb some good percentage of what lies between WPFAP's covers but there's one basic fact about this book that hasn't changed: it is very dense material and if, at first, you find it quite impenetrable you're in good company. (If you don't believe me read the introductory page entitled "A Note on the English" and ask yourself why that page is there. It ain't there for decoration that's for sure.)

That said HPFAP is also one of the cornerstones of modern Hold'Em. If you want to play the game even halfways seriously you'd best absorb as much of the book as you can. Why? Because some if not most of your opponents have read it too and they're going to be using what they've learned from it to beat you and take your money, just like the book says they should. How's that for incentive?

At 350-odd pages the most recent edition of HPFAP, the "21st Century Edition", is getting a bit heavy in addition to being tough going. The book is divided into eight Parts but it really boils down to three major sections.

Section one, Parts One through Three, is the foundation material. The famous Sklansky Hand Groups are introduced and the First Two Cards are discussed in some detail because, as the authors put it, "the one area of hold'em play where strict guidelines can be given is on the first two cards." And they do give it the full treatment! Instruction on how to handle the first two cards in the various positions --Early, Middle, Late and Blinds-- is followed by a detailed section of "Strategic Concepts" and supplemented with "Miscellaneous Topics" including the "Semi'Bluff", "Getting a Free Card", "Playing Against a Maniac" and the value of "Waiting to Raise".

Section two of the book is a study of special cases. "Playing in Loose Games" and "Playing Short-Handed" are, of course, key to every players survival but the rest of the section, Parts Six: Playing in Other Non-Standard Games and Seven: Other Skills do a lot to flesh out the player's confidence and skill set.

The final section, Part Eight, is a Q&A that revisits the material already presented. While it is tempting to think this could be filler material to pad the book out I assure you it is not. In fact for the first-time reader of HPFAP this final section may be the most important of all because it's a great way to find out how much you did not absorb on your first pass through. It's pretty humbling to get one or two questions right out of ten but if you quizzed your average table of Hold'Em players with these questions that's about what you'd get. Suffice it to say that this section is worth going over and over and over again.

So how good is the book? Well awesome really, but you probably already knew that. Not to put too fine a point of it but as my granny used to say "you ain't much of a Christian if you haven't read the bible." Ok so the context is a bit different but I'd say it's pretty safe to say that you aren't a serious Hold'Em player if you haven't read HPFAP. And once you have read it you'll know how much you've got to learn. Again, how's that for incentive?

One last thing worth mentioning is that HPFAP does not, and may never have been intended to, stand alone. Throughout the text reference is made to Sklansky's "Theory of Poker" as the place to find the definition and/or explanation of many of the terms and concepts used. While I haven't read "Theory of Poker" I have read Sklansky's earlier book on Hold'Em and I have to say that it's not a good substitute. Those terms are briefly explained in the earlier book but not much more. In fact now that I've gone through the latest editions of the two of them I'd have to say that the first book, "Hold'Em Poker", is basically just an introduction to HPFAP, or perhaps an earlier trial run. In any case I can't think of a single thing in the first book that isn't covered better in the second. Buy whichever books you like but I'd say your money would be well-spent going for HPFAP and perhaps "Theory of Poker" to back it up.