Matthew Hilger: Internet Texas Hold'Em

[ZManODS]

Is this book worth reading? How bout if you read WLLH, SSH, HFAP?

What skill level is it supposed to be aimed at? I believe i heard its aimed at beginners?

Please let me know your comments on the book.

[Al Mirpuri]

Hilger writes well, the book is attractive and the advice is sound but not spectacular. Excellent beginner's book but probably not for you.

[Blarg]

It's not aimed entirely at beginners, but clearly SSH and HEPFAP assume a lot more knowledge on the part of players than ITH does.

The ideas are focused more on the sort of solid core play you keep as a foundation and then use ideas like those in SSH and HEPFAP to add variation, spice, and further depth to. The ideas in ITH are not at all abbreviated or trivial, though. They are certainly adequate and applicable well beyond the low limits.

I definitely would read it before SSH and HEPFAP, and it's a much better book than WLLH. In fact, it's better written than any of the 2+2 books.

It also has very useful charts and hand quizzes. The quizzes alone are worth the price of the book, I think, and the charts are the best ones I've seen.

Hilger also has a very nice web site with lots of contributors. It's not as active as this one, but the tone is a lot more mellow and less snotty.

Out of the trio of books you mentioned -- WLLH, SSH, and HEPFAP, and adding in Hilger's ITH, I would recommend without a moment's hesitation 3 of them -- ITH, SSH, and HEPFAP. To be read in that order, and re-read over and over again. They're all excellent books and real keepers.

And I would add in another book, reading it perhaps earlier in a study plan than SSH -- Theory of Poker by Sklansky. I would definitely read it before HEPFAP. The ideas in it are the foundation of the play discussed in the other books, but it's best to have the foundation of your own of a bit of experience and study before cracking the spine of TOP, because it's abstract and detailed, and TOP assumes some comfort with poker and knowledege of it.

Definitely I would recommend reading WLLH or ITH before SSH. The ideas in SSH are very strong, but not appropriate for someone who has little study or experience, and as the author himself notes, it assumes the reader will already have some hold'em background of his own.

Compared to poker, books are cheap! So stock up and read up.

[ZManODS]

Excellent post blarg.

I have read both WLLH, HEFAP, and SSH quite a few times and understand them in depth. I have also read a handfull of other books. My basic question was whether ITH would add to my knowledge. It seems SSH is the most comprehensive book of them all and i understand that.

[kiddo]

ITs a good book, like they say. You can get it for free at his homepage if you sign up at a pokersite:

http://www.internettexasholdem.com/