King Yao's book -- Weighing the Odds in Hold em Poker (WOHEP)

[Greg J]

I'm stuck inside because of Katrina (I'm in Baton Rouge). So I thought I would write a few words about this book I just finished. I'm not going to offer a full review -- that would be pretentious and presumptuous. I just wanted to offer a few words about it instead.

In short, it's a wonderful book. I think it does a lot to complement SSHE, and should be the next book you get after you Miller et al. Is it as good as SSHE? In my humble opinion, it's awfully close. It lays out many of the concepts in SSHE and HEPFAP in a mathematical form, which I like as it helps me understand them on a deeper level. For example, even though Yao did not explicitly discuss reverse implied odds, his discussion of a hand that is ahead still having outs (even if it's like 40 or 35), helped me understand reverse implied odds on a deeper theoretical level. In short (and I might be about to commit blasphemy, and that's fine), this book is of a comparable caliber to SSHE.

This is like 2p2 books: it's a thinking person's guide to hold em. Is it good enough to be a 2p2 book? I may or may not be qualified to say this, but I will say it anyway: it's damn close. I do take some issues with the chapter on starting hands (Ch 12), as I think his recommendations are much too tight for most games. Other than that, I have no major complaints.

The focus of this book is a bit different that SSHE. While SSHE focuses on the betting and raising aspects of playing in looser games, WOHEP looks at when it is correct to play less aggressively, laying out why it is preferable in mathematical terms. (I wish SSHE did that more.) In a sense it balances out the message of proper aggression of SSHE with a message of proper passivity but laying out mathematically when it is correct to bet, raise, call and fold in certain situations. Good stuff.

I would love it if this book were somehow re-released by 2p2. A few issues would have to be addressed IMO: 1) The starting hands chapter needs a substantive overhaul. 2) There are several typos and some editing issues. 3) The cover looks too good. 2p2 books are supposed to be much uglier – they look like a 3rd grade class project. But in general, yeah this book is very close to 2p2 caliber.

The pot odds and implied odds chapters are great! He does not claim to reinvent the wheel here -- he gives proper dap to Sklansky throughout the book. He just explains these concepts by laying them out differently (more EV calculations and explicitly mathematical explanation, where Sklansky uses qualitative logic to the same effect). He discusses something called the DIPO method, which is an effective alternative to outs/odds calculation which some of you might like. (I am thinking of trying it out.)

The shorthanded chapters are also nice. As far as I know this is the first book that deals with shorthanded games this extensively. Sklansky, of course, discusses it, but that was before 6 max and 5 max internet games. I think SH poker certainly deserves a good book of it’s own, but this is certainly a good start.

Long story short: It's good. It will improve yr game. Get it!