Harrington on Cash Games: How to Win at No-Limit Hold'em Money Games, Vol. 1

This one is not outdated nor outdone.

This book has great information for advanced players. Most books spend too much time with basic strategy and explaining terms even novices know. Not this book. This book helps with bet sizing, pot commitment, how to read hands and how to randomize your hands. There are also a lot of great sample hands. This book will help your game and also help you see what and why other people are doing what they are doing. This is by far the best cash game book I have read.

Dan Harrington's three volumes on no limit tournament strategy became instant classics in the world of poker literature. No one before had ever attempted such a comprehensive discussion of optimal tournament strategy, with unique and extensive hand examples drawn from real-world play. Certainly no one with Dan Harrington's record and reputation had done so. Now, in this planned two-part series, Harrington tries to tackle cash game play in the same style and manner as his tournament books. In doing so, he has written a good, solid book, but not a great one, and certainly not another classic. Harrington was destined to fall short tackling this subject matter. To begin with, no limit cash game play has been written about extensively, starting with Doyle Brunson in 1979's Super System and carrying on through a plethora of Sklansky's 2+2 books throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Thus, while Harrington was able to discuss several unique and unfamiliar ideas on no limit tournament strategy (including the importance of blind structure, the M number, chip management, inflection points, among many others), there's not much new ground here to cover. In fact, this book only contains two new "Harrington Laws", and both of them are lifted from Sklansky (the gap theory of calling an early position raiser and the unimpressive observation that more people in the pot means that a player needs a stronger hand in order to bet). So basically there's nothing exactly new here. I agree partially with the review by Don Nguyen below; the book does indeed focus way too much on level 1 thinking (i.e. how strong a hand do I "need" given a particular flop and position). However, to its credit the book does indeed move beyond this level of thinking, at least occasionally, to discuss playing back at loose maniacs with marginal hands or taking advantage of a handful of "prime" bluffing/semi-bluffing opportunities. But mostly, the hand analysis is fairly straight-forward, conservative, and unimaginative in the extreme. Things are even further confused by Harrington's odd insistence on assigning an exact percentage to whether he would raise, call or fold in a certain situation (sometimes on the order of 80% fold, 15% raise, and 5% call). I understand the need to randomize one's play, and could see Harrington making a suggestion such as a player should "mostly fold, but consider raising as a bluff against some weak opponents", but the random percentages thrown out by Harrington seem arbitrary. And who exactly is really going to glance at their watch to determine whether they should perform the 70% call, or the 30% raise? In my mind it's much better to vary your play to your opponent rather than according to a random number generator. All in all, this is a good, conservative tome on cash game play that's comparable to much of what's out there in the poker literature. However, many readers may remember that Vol. I of Harrington on Hold 'em Tournament Play was also very by-the-numbers and unimaginative, emphasizing a more or less rigid, tight aggressive strategy. I have high hopes that the next installment on cash game play will feature some of the same level of insightful thinking we saw in Vols. II and III of the Harrington on Hold em series. I'd also recommend The Poker Tournament Formula and Poker Tips that Pay: Expert Strategy Guide for Winning No Limit Texas Hold em for readers that are looking beyond the Harrington series.

They say that 'luck is the residue of preparation'. This is especially true when it comes playing poker. So, plan to get very lucky after you read Dan Harrington's 2 volumes on cash game no limit hold'em. I've been a limit player for 20 years. Recently, I decided to devote myself to no limit because of the greater profit in these games. From my general knowledge, I knew that there were significant strategy differences in correct strategy for no limit so I read a couple of books. However, these books didn't really help very much. Then I got Harrington's books and it was like someone had turned on a light in a dark room. It made a world of difference in my game. I 'get it' now. To put some perspective on this, I'm playing in a $2/$3 blind no limit game with a $200 cap on the buyin, in a brick and mortar poker room. I mention this because some of the reviews of these books have critized them for being too basic. However, if you're playing in a small game, basic strategy is probably the BEST strategy. In the second volume, there is a chapter about playing in small no limit games. I recommend you jump ahead and read it first. Keeping this chapter in mind as you read everything else will really give you a great perspective on how to beat a small no limit game. With respect to beating the bigger games, I really don't know if these books will help because I'm not playing in those games yet. But if you are new to no limit, or you are just having trouble beating the small game you're playing in, these books are great.

I've played poker of one kind or another for 40 years. Before the "Moneymaker Cascade Event" that propelled tournament poker into the mainstream, I was playing tournaments...and doing well. Got the previous 3 volume series by Dan and immediately improved my tournament results. My cash rate from 2004 to current is 31%. That's up from the 20% I THOUGHT was pretty good! I credit Dan's books for a lot of that success. This last year, I've been so busy with business, a touring band I'm in, and other things, that I haven't had the time to play tournaments on either circuit. So, when I do have time, I've started playing cash games at a local casino that's 5 minutes from my home. While I generally do well, I was having some pretty big swings. Finished Volume 1 of Dan's new books, and headed to the casino to play. I feel like a kid in a candy store, and no one's watching me steal the chocolate! Last time out, I got myself seated at a table with 6 sharks and 2 fish. 3 hours later, I've tripled my stack. One of the biggest sharks folded to a raise from me with the statement "I can't beat this guy...he's killed me in every hand today", which was absolutely true. I was getting good cards, to be sure, but I only had the mortal nuts once all day. (Raised pre-flop with JJ, got reraised by KK, hit a set on a flop of J-5-2 rainbow, and got the case J on the turn which got the KK hand's whole stack on the river) Because of Dan's insights, I felt I knew where I was in virtually every single hand. And indeed, I had no surprises. Just started Volume 2 last night, so I'm anxious to finish it and see what fun I can have on my next trip to the aquarium, err...casino. Highly recommended.

... Cash Games (Vol. I) by Harrington and Robertie has already improved my game. Previously I tended to play 90% of the time too tight, mistakenly mis-using what I'd learned from reading books about tournament play (3 of which happen to be by H & R). The other 10% of the time I was mainly getting too deep & big into small hands like top pair/good kicker, 2-pair and better hands, however devalued by threats on the board. Early on my cash game was profitable only because of a short streak of beginner's luck. After that brief period of 'invincibility' ended I watched my bank roll steadily drop and drop and drop, even as I backed off my initial loose-weak play and (wrongly) applied tournament principles to my cash game. I remembered thinking, "I'm doing well in small tournaments; why am I losing money in cash games?!?" I've read H & R's tournament volumes (just about to finish Vol. III) and credit Dan and Bill greatly for helping me to consistently place in online sit-n-go's and small, 1 or 2 table home tournaments. After receiving an email notifying me of the availability of this new cash game series, I ordered on the spot. Now, after reading less than a quarter of the book and applying the initial principles covered in just those pages I've enjoyed 2 profitable no-limit cash sessions and feel much more confident in my game. Although, tempered by experience, I don't expect to improve further until I read further, .... So, I'm looking forward to finishing Cash Games and pre-ordering future volumes. I highly recommend Dan & Bill's books, and can't advise you to get this particular book more strongly.

Book is in good shape.

I haven't read the whole book so far, so this review will not be my 100% accurate review. However, I am slightly dissapointed, as of right now, with reference to some of the items on the book. I think that the hand analysis section of the book is a bit off and will possibly hurt your development in the long run. However, the beginning parts of the books IE (Pot Odds/Implied Odds/EV) still do hold merit to someone who is just starting to get a bit serious about the game. The issue is, however, that this book, AS OF RIGHT NOW (From what I have read, going into the Metagame chapter), won't really teach you the finer points of going up in levels aka starting as 1/2 and developing into a player who may be able to sucessfully get to 5/10 or so, even though they use 5/10 quite a bit as the level of play. However, I haven't finished the book yet. I will update my review as I go through the book. Update October 30th, 2012: I finished reading the book (I skipped some of the examples, because they were frustrating at times). To be honest, I am BARELY giving this a 3/5 stars, although it deserves somewhere around a 2.5-2.8 stars. Anyway, I am going to list the pros/cons of this book: Pros: Gives you a good way of mixing up your play at the lower level games as it will force you to obey the rules on mixing up your play. Gives good detail, on a smaller scale, of how to sucessfully play as a tight-aggressive player Really beats home how you should mix your play up as well as gives you a basic understanding of hand reading. Cons: Mixing your play up this way will, in a cash game, not truely help you reach that next level, due to the fact you are ignoring table presence as well as not focusing on opponents that you will want to exploit more often (aka fish) This book will not significantly help you advance to higher level, although if you are wishing to stay at the 1-2 or 2-5 NL tables, this book will be a good guide to making you a decent winner Quite a bit of filler information and unnecessary explinations. It dances around topics at times. The author assumes too much, at times, about his opponent's hands and why they bet. They do not really put as much thought into table image. They just blantantly generalize how to play an opponent. Overall, this book was one of the few books that were difficult to read. Granted, I have been reading QUITE A BIT MORE then I normally do, so that might have an effect on me. I really hope the second volume is better then the first. However, this book, I feel, is geared toward more players who are just getting into the game. If you play strictly by this book, you will not be as successful as you can be if you don't. Take some of the advice with a grain of salt. The main gist you will get out of this book is the following: Mix your actions up in reference to the strength of your hand Always ask why an opponent is doing a specific action Learn to calculate Pot Odds/Implied Odds/EV Your stack size should dictate your play style. Overall, I would recommend this book to players who are JUST getting into poker. However, I would recommend it with caution. It will help you a good amount (as a complete beginner), but don't heavily rely off of it.