In other words, they advise players to think about what kind of flops they want to see, how big of a pot they will want to play on these flops, and what kind of turn and river spots they may face before deciding what to with their pre-flop starting hands. Their central lesson is to plan your hand. Although nuance is very occasionally lost, the authors generally manage to deal with the conditions and exceptions in comprehensive footnotes that are easily accessible without intruding on the deliberately simplified advice.Īs was Flynn, Mehta, and Miller’s intent, their book addresses the elements of the game most likely to befuddle novice players: how to handle stacks of different sizes, how to weight pot odds versus implied odds, how to make the most with monster hands, and what to do with marginal hands in tricky spots. In Professional No Limit Hold ‘Em, Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta, and Ed Miller do an admirable job of breaking complex situations into discrete elements that beginners can digest and use. But poker, and especially no limit hold ’em, is a game of “sometimes”, “unless”, and “it depends”.
Beginners need straight-forward, practical, concrete advice that they can apply at the table.
Writing a book about poker strategy that will be both correct and useful to inexperienced players is a big challenge.
