Comments on: The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Texas Hold’em, 2nd Edition

By: Martha Frankel

Martha Frankel — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:17:38 +0000

The drawback about texas hold’em is that people think they can watch the pros play on tv and then go out and play themselves. But of course that’s the road to ruin. The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Texas Hold’em is a great book for the beginner. Very concise ideas, very well written, it’s THE book to lay the basics for hold’em.
Rating: 4 / 5

By: Bmac

Bmac — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:40:57 +0000

Before I read this I just tried to wait for good cards and hope for the best. The strategies in this book have finally made me a winning player — and helped me understand exactly what it takes to make money in this game and move up from the low limits I currently play. As long as you aren’t at my table, I recommend it!
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Jay Holben

Jay Holben — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:01:17 +0000

The Idiot’s Guide to Texas Hold ‘Em, while thoughtfully written and chock full of very useful information is certainly NOT for the novice player. While I’ve been a fan of the “Idiot” series and their chief competitor, this particular pocket guide is, unfortunately, written well over the Idiot’s head. Although it covers a weath of topics, it is unfortunately brief on far too many of them and tried to cover too much territory in too short a span. As a result the passages are often overly complicated, tangential and confusing. If this was the first book I had read on Texas Hold ‘Em, I’d be more confused than before I started it!

I would recommend this short work for anyone who is a fairly experienced amature player with a few hundred online hands under their belt and another book or two prior to this one. In that event, Randy Burgess’ thoughts and strategies – although as with any single author’s opinion are to be taken with a grain of salt and not gospal – are useful and insightful.
Rating: 3 / 5

By: Dangerousground

Dangerousground — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:11:23 +0000

The authors of this guide seem to be more concerned with showing off their knowledge of holdem rather than teaching the basics to novices. They use poker slang that is not contained in the glossary right from the beginning. They go off on tangents that will completely confuse a beginner, and there are several misprints in the book giving wrong information that will confuse him/her even more and LOSE YOU MONEY. The description about how to compare pot odds is the first one and their explanation is completely backwards. I sat there saying to myself "this can't be right" over and over again.

Then I bought two of Ken Warrens teaching books and he explained everything in a straight forward manner and I started nodding my head over and over throughout the books, needless to say I trashed The Pocket Idiots Guide. It has some great little odds charts in the back but with the amount of faulty info in the book I could never trust those charts.

If you want to DELAY your understanding of the game buy this book. Rating: 1 / 5

By: Postepay

Postepay — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:45:19 +0000

scrivo in italiano cosi’ mi capite ITALIANI.

Onestamente posso dire che e’ un OTTIMO libro,tutte le tattiche del gioco PRE FLOP,FLOP,TURN,RIVER e molto altro.

Molto facile da capire(linguaggio semplice).

CONSIGLIATO per i principianti e NON
Rating: 5 / 5