Customer Reviews
Excellent - By: Dr D, 29 Sep 2008 
I thought this was brilliant, & a fitting climax after the other two volumesin the series, which I have also enjoyed. There is stuff here to learn that I have found so usefulin my own game. The sessions on bubble playin particular have helped me a lot. A fun way to learn that builds up to the climax - how you scored & Harrington's rating of your skills, & finding out where you need to concentrate your learning. As ever only use your learning against the good player. Against random internet low stakes players, your new knowledge will not help you quite so much. A frustrating fact of life I'm afraid.
Good facts, but the play is too tight for the lower leagues. - By: Warehouse, 23 Sep 2008 
I cannot fault the factual informationin this book, it is fairly well laid out & well explained (although the exercise diagrams, text & questions are split over several pages, which makes for frequent back & fourth).
But the truth is since reading this book, my game play has gone worse. Harrington is coming from the angle of 200-1000+ player tournaments, where you should sit & wait for suited connectors, pocket pairs & premium overcards. Unfortunately like most people I know, I play online &in pubs. Games contain 50 players or less & have rapid blind increases which means you have to make moves sooner rather than later. And whilst you are sitting around waiting for these super cards, a few chancers with some guts have cleaned up the table & are sat with a big stack waiting to grind you down.
In short, his style of play is too tight for the games I play in, & most of his advice & exercises uses the aforementioned hands as a starting point, which leaves the advice slightly vague & your high-tech plays completely lost against average opponents (usually landing youin the muck).
I've played his game a few times on the higher denomination tables, & you do start to feel some of the benefit. Buy this is you are ready to step up to the big leagues & play people who are one step ahead, but if you are looking to improve your game against your mates & turn a few extra quid on small value tables then this book will do you more damage than good.
Tournament Poker Sorted!! - By: C. Barnes, 24 Mar 2008 Well as Gordon Ramsay might say if he was a poker player,Harrington on hold em:expert strategy series is tournament poker DONE!! From total beginner to advanced player anyone & everyone can learn from these books.Harrington leaves nothing untouched as he takes you through every aspect of tournament poker from what hands to playin what posistion,against what kind of oppenents,to pot odds,to how to bet,when to bet & why to betin different situations.I have all threein the series & can not put it any more simple then buy,read,improve,read again,improve some more.If you want to know what tournament poker is all about well you will not find better then this.
Raise your game with Harrington - By: Mr. S. J. Downing, 12 Mar 2008 Harrington on Hold 'Em shows you how to eliminate the guesswork from poker. It's all about weighing up the game's various factors & probabilitiesin such a way that the decisions to check, call, raise & fold almost make themselves. That means a small amount of mathemetics, but trust me: speaking as a total non- number-cruncher, it's easy to digest. The writing is accessable & drily witty, which sugars the heavier pills.
This book is indispensible for established beginners looking to make that frustratingly elusive leap to intermediate & higher levels of poker skill. If terms like 'flopping trips' & 'suited connectors' mean nothing to you, then this book is not for you - yet. Other books presumably - & certainly the web - cover the basics of poker & poker terminology; once you have that covered, Harrington's meisterwerk is your next stop. The book overhauls & restructures your game, doing most of its good work as far as I was concerned, within its first few chapters. That said, it still has so much to teach after that, dropping nuggets of bankable poker wisdom with each page.
At the time of writing this, I'm two-thirds of the way through the book. However, those two thirds alone are easily worth the entry fee & the five-star review. I play regularlyin an amateur poker league at a local pub, & yesterday's game was the first live 'bricks & mortar' game I played since reading the book. I won. Without a doubt I have Dan Harrington to thank rather than my own natural ability (or lack of it). I can't think of a better personal endorsement than that.
Like Poker? Buy this book.
Quality Poker Book, Difficult concepts made easy... - By: Mr. M. T. Browne, 03 Dec 2007 For anyone who doesn't know who Dan Harrington is he won the main event at the World Series of Pokerin 1995 & reached the final tablein both 2003 & 2004. He has been at the top of the game for over 20 years. This is the first volumein his poker series & is a wonderful tool for the aspiring tournament player. The chapters are clearly set out & he covers some quite complex poker theoryin a clear & easily understandable language. The book is especially good because like a textbook it has end of chapter problems, these help test your understanding of the material covered & helps make sure you havein fact mastered the previous topic.
The only words of warning I would give are that this is just the first bookin his series & it doesn't cover all the bases such as; heads up play, or playing at the final table. So you will have to buy his second volume if you want to know more. This is a terrific book for both beginner & advanced players as he makes difficult concepts seem so straight forward & easy but it is a book solely aimed at helping you improve at tournament poker & therefore some of the topics covered will not be relevant if your are searching for a book on cash game play.
