Getting Started in Hold 'Em....a review for the micro forum

[droolie]

I can now safely recommend it to all my friends who are looking for a beginners book. It's very easy to read and is way better than WLLH (my first real poker book. "Play Poker Like the Pros" doesn't count...)

I have been uncomfortable with recommending SSH as first book for beginners because it is so long and dense and easy to misapply. WLLH is super easy to read and it teaches a style that wins at micros but needs to be unlearned later. GSIHE is just as brief and easy to read as WLLH but is simply better. Miller dumbs down many of the SSH principals but teaches all the critical TAG fundamentals in a way that will make sense to anybody. He hammers home such favorites as "raising pf for value (equity edges)", "positional advantages", "implied odds", "folding offsuit holding pf", "folding when the flop completely misses you and you face a bet and a raise", "saving pots not bets (protecting your hand)", "pot odds and pot equity", "the glorious free card", "semi-bluffing" and of course "calling down big pots". His pf recommendations are super easy to use and contain no CC's! (anything worth playing is a reraise).

The limit section takes a player through 9 sample hands played in order from BB to UTG. All of the TAG principals are brought to light over the course of these 9 hands and he even tells you when and where he has left out content and that to learn more you should go to SSH to get the rest. I loved it and only wish I had it when I started out.

There are also sections on no-limit and tournament play that even the best limit players here could find helpful if that's the direction you want to branch off to.

(I have to say I learned practically nothing from the limit section. I bought it because I'm teaching friends and wanted to read it before I recommended it. For you veteran posters out there who are considering buying it for the limit content but have studied SSH (and thoroughly understand it) you can skip it(sorry ed but it's true). Everything in GSIHE is in SSH but obviously not vice versa. For those of you struggling with SSH, GSIHE will help you a lot)