Book Review: Championship Hold 'em

Championship Hold ’em by (1) Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier. This book is so bad it’s hard to know exactly where to begin when writing a review. But here goes. As I see it, there are two

main problems. First, is that it is filled with much specific information that is just plain wrong and contradictory to other advice given in the text. For example on page 30 the authors write “Several poker mathematician types mentioned that you should average a certain number of bets per hour when you play poker. I think that notion is erroneous.” But two pages later the text states “If you’re a serious player, you have to figure that your time is worth X-number of dollars per hour and you should play in a game that will compensate you accordingly.”


Other ridiculous advice includes not to call in multiway pots with big-little suited cards such as K♠6♠, why it’s better to play low connectors unsuited rather than suited, why when you

have the kill you should never let the money you post influence the way you play, why you should not bet J9 (because of your bad kicker) when the flop comes J32 and you are in the big blind against four limpers, why in a jackpot game “you must constantly try to overcome the disadvantage of having all kinds of players take the flop with bad hands so that virtually any strong hand is going to go way down in value,” why when playing a flush draw in a multi-way pot “it had better be the nut flush draw,” why when you have a hand like A♠K♠ on the button and five or six players are in you should check after the whole field checks and the flop is J♠T♠2♣, why the size of the pot should never influence your last bet (particularly if it is a calling bet), and finally why you should often fold a set on the turn when there is a four flush on board.


But there is also another problem with this text. It is simply that the basic philosophy of how to play limit hold ’em is wrong. Timid players do not do well in this game. It is also true that some players are overly aggressive, but always being afraid of better hands when you don’t hold the nuts and adjusting your playing strategy because of this should prove very expensive. You will allow free cards to beat you, won’t extract the maximum whey your hand is best, won’t knock other players out when it is right to do so, and will fold hands that you should be continuing on with. I don’t believe that anyone can win playing like this unless your opponents are extremely weak and limit hold ’em should be a very frustrating (and expensive) experience for you.