Re: best books for \"player types\" & \"reading hands\"
 

Mike Caro's poker tells might be good.

How did you find the little green book?

Re: best books for \"player types\" & \"reading hands\"
 

Go with Little Green Book next. I think it is the perfect book for a transition from limit to NL. After that HoH 1.

Kill Phil looks interesting.

Re: best books for \"player types\" & \"reading hands\"
 

Ok I think it seems to be coming down to this:

Little Green Book vs. Caffione's Pot Limit and No Limit (for me to learn NL cash games)

and


King Yao vs. Caffione's Middle Limit (for 1 more limit book)

Thoughts?

Re: best books for \"player types\" & \"reading hands\"
 

As for the limit book, it really depends on what you are looking for. I've read both, and both are excellent.

The King Yao book is pretty similar to SSHE in terms of content and organization. Reading it helped reinforce the things I learned through SSHE, but I didn't feel like there was anything ground-breaking in there that wasn't in SSHE (except perhaps the short-handed section).

Middle Limit holdem is organized much differently. Like SSHE and Yao's book, there are sections on different aspects of the game, e.g., pre-flop, flop, turn, river, checkraising, raising, etc. However, that's where the similarity ends. Rather than having extensive discussions of each topic, each section in Middle Limit is simply two or three pages laying out general ideas followed by 20-30 hand problems where the author goes through the decision-making process as a hand unfolds. I found this format to be really practical and to help me put to use many of the concepts I learned through reading other books.

If I had to choose, I would say go with Middle Limit. This is no knock on Yao's book, but if you've already read SSHE I think you will get more out of Middle Limit. If you are interested in short-handed play, however, it might be worthwhile to get Yao's book due to the excellent discussion of this subject.

Finally, one caveat that other posters have touched on before: Middle Limit is a little old and wasn't written for today’s sometimes hyper-aggressive on-line play. So, some of the advice (especially the turn section) may come off as a little weak tight. I still highly recommend the book, but you should keep this in mind when you're going through the hand problems.

Finally, if you enjoy reading hand problems, another book to consider is RealPoker II by Cooke. This is a collection of his columns for Card Player and is excellent. It's not as comprehensive as Middle Limit, but I highly recommend it as well.

Re: 2 Book Ideas
 

Roadstar -

Little Green Book and Ciaffone's Book are both good. Read LG first.

Remember - you need to pay attention to the players alot in a nl cash game - you real edge will come from exploiting their mistakes. An obvious poker point, yes, but especially moreso in a nl cash game than in any limit game.

Re: best books for \"player types\" & \"reading hands\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
As for the limit book, it really depends on what you are looking for. I've read both, and both are excellent.

The King Yao book is pretty similar to SSHE in terms of content and organization. Reading it helped reinforce the things I learned through SSHE, but I didn't feel like there was anything ground-breaking in there that wasn't in SSHE (except perhaps the short-handed section).

Middle Limit holdem is organized much differently. Like SSHE and Yao's book, there are sections on different aspects of the game, e.g., pre-flop, flop, turn, river, checkraising, raising, etc. However, that's where the similarity ends. Rather than having extensive discussions of each topic, each section in Middle Limit is simply two or three pages laying out general ideas followed by 20-30 hand problems where the author goes through the decision-making process as a hand unfolds. I found this format to be really practical and to help me put to use many of the concepts I learned through reading other books.

If I had to choose, I would say go with Middle Limit. This is no knock on Yao's book, but if you've already read SSHE I think you will get more out of Middle Limit. If you are interested in short-handed play, however, it might be worthwhile to get Yao's book due to the excellent discussion of this subject.

Finally, one caveat that other posters have touched on before: Middle Limit is a little old and wasn't written for today’s sometimes hyper-aggressive on-line play. So, some of the advice (especially the turn section) may come off as a little weak tight. I still highly recommend the book, but you should keep this in mind when you're going through the hand problems.

Finally, if you enjoy reading hand problems, another book to consider is RealPoker II by Cooke. This is a collection of his columns for Card Player and is excellent. It's not as comprehensive as Middle Limit, but I highly recommend it as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great post there! I knew I'd get a decent response eventually!

How extensively did Yao cover short handed play (how many pages)? I do play a fair bit of 6 max online.

Thanks!

Re: 2 Book Ideas
 

[ QUOTE ]
Roadstar -

Little Green Book and Ciaffone's Book are both good. Read LG first.

Remember - you need to pay attention to the players alot in a nl cash game - you real edge will come from exploiting their mistakes. An obvious poker point, yes, but especially moreso in a nl cash game than in any limit game.

[/ QUOTE ]

So which one if you could only pick one? From previous reviews posted in this forum sounds like the green book is slightly more for beginners?