[II] “Thanks for lending me the book”, Iggy the Improver said as he handed Sklansky and Miller’s No Limit Hold ‘Em Theory and Practice back to Stan the Stat.
[SS] “You’re quite welcome”, Stan replied. “Did you like it?”
[II] “Loved it. I felt like a new player tonight.”
[SS] “As you are every time you read a different book! But I actually had time to reread this before I lent it to you, and I think I got more out of it on the second pass.”
[II] “All night I kept reminding myself of his Fundamental Theorem of Poker. I tried to make the right decisions, but more than that, when I had multiple reasonable options, I tried to choose the one that would make future decisions easier. That was especially helpful later in the tourney.”
[SS] “What else did you like?”
[II] “Bread and butter hands1 when stacks are big. Opening up your range as they dwindle. Big pots for big hands; small pots for small hands. The hammer of future bets. Trading small mistakes for big ones.”
[II] “And my favorite hand of the night, even though it ended preflop… With the option in the big blind after five limpers, I picked up the pot with a bluff holding 7♦2♣. I would never have thought to do that before, but since you’re supposed to bluff with hands just below your calling range, the big blind option is a special case with nothing to fold.”
[SS] “Sweet. Did you show?”
[II] “I was very tempted to but didn’t on the off-chance I’d get to pull the same trick again later. I didn’t but did pull off more Check-Raises and even the ‘Call Bluff’.”
[SS] “We call that a Float now.”
[II] “Ah, I knew it seemed familiar. It’s a great weapon against players like Elias the Eagle, who continuation bets so much.”
[SS] “Yes, your flop call appears strong, so your turn bet will usually take down the pot unless your opponent actually has a good hand or draw. Was there anything you didn’t like about the book?”
[II] “They referred to Limit Hold ‘Em, which I’ve never played, an awful lot. Sklansky-Chubukov looked interesting as a heads-up push or fold strategy, but it’s way too much to memorize.”
[SS] “And the Push-Fold Nash Equilibrium is better anyway, although it’s almost as voluminous. But Sklansky and Miller had a chapter called ‘Calling Preflop All-In Raises’ just before the Sklansky-Chubukov rankings that was a little easier. It broke your opponents into six tightness categories and your calling ranges into three groups by the pot odds.”
[II] “Even that was way too much for me: 24 hand ranges to memorize.”
[SS] “Well, I can show you what I use before next month’s tournament; I just want to take another look at it first now that you have me thinking about it…”
| Title | No Limit Hold ‘Em Theory and Practice |
| Author | David Sklansky and Ed Miller |
| Year | 2007 |
| Skill Level | Intermediate to Advanced |
| Pros | Wide range of general advice, formulas, and examples. Advice not only what to do in a particular situation, but how to think it through yourself. Shorter Concepts and Weapons section reinforces the bulk of the book (Fundamentals). |
| Cons | A bit dated, with too many references to the now uncommon Limit Hold ‘Em. Too many pages spent on Sklansky-Chubukov, which wasn’t even that useful when it was new. |
| Rating | 4.0 |
Footnotes:
- Bread and Butter Hands are pocket pairs, Ace-King, suited Aces, and suited connectors down to 54.