I don't play a whole lot of poker, but over the past year I've started to play a bit here and there with friends. I always thought that poker was a pretty fun game, but I wasn't hooked until I started playing no-limit hold'em. After watching parts of the 2004 World Series of Poker on tv I started to realize how complex and interesting poker can be, so recently I decided to work on my game and order a few books.

The first couple books I got were David Sklansky's "The Theory of Poker" and Mike Caro's "Book of Poker Tells". As each book arrived I dug in immediately, but about a quarter of the way through each book I could tell I wasn't ready for these books. Caro's book is obviously for people who know how to play poker and are looking to improve their ability to spot tells, and I'm not there yet. Sklansky's book is more along the right lines, but it's not hold'em specific, and so much of it is theory that I got the feeling the info wasn't going to sink in until I had a little more experience. So I decided to try some other books.

I bought both of Dan Harrington's books on "Hold'em: Expert Strategy for no-limit tournaments". Jackpot. I tore into the first book getting about a third of the way through in only a couple days. This book is perfect for anyone starting out in no-limit hold'em. Harrington breaks down the theories in easy to manage chunks, focusing on just the most important elements like playing strategies, calculating odds, betting patterns, and some basic reads on the table. He walks you through scenerios making sure you are thinking about the right things along the way. Best of all, each chapter wraps up with a set of problems which are brilliant. As you get further along in the book the problems become the bulk of the material, and rightly so because they offer enormous amounts of information about how to think about all the steps that happen in the course of a single hand.

Over the weekend I got my first chance to test my new found knowledge and it worked wonders. I could have just been getting lucky, but finishing first, then second in our two tournaments is about all I could ask for. I might have even won the second tournament if I had been willing to be a bit more patient, but it was 3:30 in the morning and I decided to push, which was bad because my opponent ended up getting monster hands in heads up play. KK and 33 (then flopping a set) in the span of about 4 hands. how?

I've only read through Harrington's first book and I am eagerly awaiting my chance to dive into the second book, but consider this a strong recommendation.