On the heels of his Hold'em Wisdom for All Players effort, Daniel Negreanu released a more thorough approach at poker instruction entitledPower Hold'em Strategy. This book takes a liking to the style of the legendary book Super System by Doyle Brunson in that Daniel gathered poker players with different backgrounds and accomplishments in an attempt to give a complete “How To” guide. The book guides the poker player through all facets of the game from beginner's strategy, to high stakes cash games, to playing internet poker, and all the way to playing those illustrious, televised $10,000 buy-in poker tournaments. The book's chapters can be read in any order, but was designed for a front-to-back reading. Evelyn Ng kicks off the book with the introductory Novice Tournament Players chapter.

Part One: Big Bet No-Limit Hold'em: A Strategy for Novice Tournament Players by Evelyn Ng

This section of the book by Evelyn assumes a very basic understanding of the game on the reader's behalf (what a flop is, who bets first, etc.), all of which can be learned for free on any of PocketFives’ promoted poker sites. The goal of this section is to take a beginner of the game and teach him/her to play in live poker tournaments against some of the toughest players around. She promotes a strategy that is designed to get you no further than the flop because either you will have folded or all of your money is in the middle. She begins with bet sizing; suggesting a standard opening raise of five times the big blind pre-flop if there are no limpers, seven times the big blind with one limper, and a cap of nine times the big blind with two or more limpers. While this strategy is far from optimal, the goal is to keep the play pre-flop or on the flop where expert players’ edge is decreased. She also has a “25% Rule” in place, which states, “Any time our standard raise represents 25 percent of your stack or more, you should go all-in.”

In order to teach the importance of position to players, Evelyn provides several visual guides that dictate opening requirements that are dependent upon your position at the table. Again these suggestions are sub-optimal, but provide the reader with a good feel for the importance of position and the level of play that it may dictate. If you are an intermediate player or better, you can completely skip this section of the book — she even says so in the opening of the chapter. This section is great for teaching someone with little or no knowledge of the game some of the slightly more advanced, beginning concepts that build the foundation of a winning player.

Part Two: Winning at High Limit Cash Games by Todd Brunson

Todd's section of the book starts off a little rough with some stories of him buying into uber-high cash games. He mentions how much to buy-in for in some of the largest games in the world, mentioning numbers like $50,000 and even more. While this is interesting, it’s not consistent with the immediate concerns of a beginning poker player. Well…..maybe the millionaire beginner. However, he does have some pretty sound advice in this chapter. He begins by discussing how much money you could buy-in for, but more importantly the affects that it may have on your table image. He also reflects on the table image of others based on how much they have bought in for. The idea he is trying to convey is that there are other factors other than your cards that come into play that can affect the game. Unfortunately, this point isn't very clear and would usually be understood only by a more perceptive, advanced player, not the guy who just finished reading Evelyn's chapter. He does, however, follow this up by giving his best advice to the novice player: “Never try to bluff an idiot. This is true all the time, but especially if the idiot is losing.” So what’s the point? Bluffing is over-rated. What more can be said? One point he makes alongside this is that if you do bluff, take the flop texture into consideration. “Never bluff into multiple opponents when the flop contains both a jack and a ten.” Again this is a concept designed to get the beginner thinking about information other than their own cards. Like Evelyn, Todd provides several visual aids to show the dangers and benefits to bluffing and what hands may or may not be good to do it with. While the chapter seems somewhat jumbled, there are some good bits of wisdom designed to get the novice thinking like an intermediate player.

Part Three: Playing No-Limit Hold'em Online by Erick Lindgren

In this chapter, Erick starts off by discussing the merits of doing what you and millions of other people are doing: playing online poker. Some of the benefits he outlines are that you can play at any time because there is always a game, you have a much easier time with game selection than you do live, and you can practice playing because, again, you can play any time. Erick delivers key bits of information to further extend the skills of the now intermediate player: “If you want to be successful, you must be disciplined. It's the foundation of any successful approach to internet poker.” Focus is key, according to Erick. By focusing, he means that you should be paying attention to your opponents at the table and their betting patterns, even when you are not involved in a hand. He moves on to discuss buy-in preferences for online cash games and their implications. This is a point that Todd was trying to touch upon in his chapter, however Erick makes clearer arguments regarding the amounts you buy-in for — how they affect your play, and your opponents’ play. He does point out that buying in for the maximum means you will be playing post-flop. What he doesn't make clear is that you must be a relatively experienced player to do this profitably. Erick, like Evelyn, discusses position and its significance in online cash games. He suggests even more liberal raising in position than Evelyn had, mostly because he is assuming that the beginner that read Evelyn's section is now an intermediate poker player.

Erick does not solely relate his chapter to just cash games; he also briefly discusses online tournaments. He suggests a style that counters Evelyn's advice in the first chapter by advising the player to play pots early on, when the blinds are small, with suited connectors and pairs in an attempt to double up. However, he does add that you should not be looking to gamble for large amounts early, but only when you can do it cheaply. Erick then quickly discusses late stage tournament play, how to avoid tilting, and a couple of other topics, but none too extensively. Erick's chapter is informative, but without much detail. It is a good overview for people looking to begin playing online instead of in home games.

Part Four: Short Handed Online No-Limit Hold'em Cash Games by Paul Wasicka

Erick's chapter on online play segues into Paul's section on one of the hottest styles of online games today: the short-handed cash game. Typically, games are played with nine to ten players at a time. Playing against this many players may seem like familiar territory. Probably because of your friend’s home games in his mom's basement or your debauchery filled weekends at the casinos, but what do you do when there are six or less players involved?

Paul starts his chapter off by giving bankroll guidelines for short-handed cash games. He suggests that since there is more aggression in these games, there is more variance, and as a result, there needs to be more bankroll! Also, because of the aggression, there needs to be more focus on the players, so Paul advocates playing less tables at a time (usually 3, 4 at most) to achieve greater focus. Some important points he makes are that you need to adapt your play based off of your image (how you played hands, what you have shown down, etc.), the relative insignificance of stealing blinds, why bluffing works less short-handed, and that you need to be aggressive. What Paul is laying out is not just a guideline for beginners or even the intermediate player, but also the advanced player looking to step into short-handed cash games and the differences there are as opposed to the 9/10 handed games. While this section is somewhat short and relatively void of example hands or visual aids, Paul lays out the guidelines that any player can use to step into the short-handed cash game ring and win!


Part Five: Mixing it Up by David Williams

This is where the book takes off and is in full speed! This chapter is not for beginners! This is for the intermediate and advanced players only! In this chapter, David discusses what the others briefly touched upon in other chapters, but he backs it up with numerous hand examples. The topics he covers in these examples are your image, your opponent's image, and the importance of… you guessed it, mixing it up! “In poker, you don't only play with the cards in front of you, you play for future hands and future pots. You build or play off impressions you've created from earlier hands.” This sums up all of David's chapter. It really is fantastic and unfortunately there is too much content to even discuss. The entire chapter revolves around carefully selected hands that David played against his opponents. He doesn't simply talk about the hand though. He talks about his image before the hand, his opponent's image, anything of significance that may have happened recently (i.e. – your opponent just got aces cracked two hands ago and is angry, but is still playing), how this affects his decision making in the hand, and how it will affect future hands he/she plays. What David Williams provides is excellent because this is the mind of a top-tier, professional poker player broken down for the reader in an understandable way. Once David shows us what an advanced player thinks like, Daniel actually teaches us how to play like one!

Part Six: Small Ball by Daniel Negreanu

This is it! The big sha-bang… the reason for the book. Daniel Negreanu, regarded by many as one of the most successful tournament players in the world, teaches us how to play poker at the highest level. The chapter that Daniel provides is extensive and thorough. He teaches players the little nooks of poker such as how checking for information can be better than betting, how to factor in pot odds, how to give off a table image, figuring out someone else's table image, and tons more. This section is not for beginners by any stretch, nor the intermediate players. This is for the advanced player looking to play like a world champion! Ok, I know I am jazzing it up a bit, but Daniel presents us with strategy that even the most advanced players could have trouble with. While Evelyn advocated a strategy for strictly pre-flop and post-flop play, Daniel flips that idea completely. “The key to the whole small ball concept is being able to outplay your opponents after the flop.” Daniel's key points about small ball are that pots should generally be kept small until you have a certain or, at least, an almost-certain winner and that you should play your pots in position while giving respect to players who have position on you. He teaches pot control so whether you want the pot big or small, he shows you how to control it with bet sizing and when to bet. The best part about Daniel's section is that he does not just throw these concepts at you and leave you guessing, he actually quizzes you too. He takes an example and gives you all of the information up to a certain point. You then write down what your play will be based on several factors including the turn and river cards, as well as whether your opponent bets at all, and if so, how much. He then breaks each answer down for you and tells you the correct plays and why they are correct. He helps you understand the game as opposed to simply memorizing it. This is certain to be some of the best poker advice out there.

Conclusion

Power Hold'em Strategy should be picked up by every player looking to improve his/her game, whether that player knows nothing about poker or thinks he/she is the next superstar in waiting. There is not just something for everybody, there is a lot! Some of the problems with this book are ones aimed at the beginner. Keep this book on your shelf and periodically re-read it, you will be surprised at what you learn each time. For the intermediate and advanced players, don't be surprised if you are disappointed with the chapters aimed at novice players. There is a lot of good information in those sections, but a lot of it is something an intermediate player has already learned. Things change quite a bit when you get to David's and Daniel's chapters. If anything, buy the book to read those sections, as they offer incredible insight to a lot of the “unseen” factors and plays that make up a winning player's repertoire. Power Hold’em Strategy will not disappoint!

Power Hold'em Strategy
By Daniel Negreanu
Co Authors: Evelyn Ng, Todd Brunson, Erick Lindgren, Paul Wasicka, and David Williams

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