Cash Games (How to Win at No-Limit Hold'em Money Games) Vol. 1

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"Harrington on Cash Games" is a two book series that deals with full ring no limit cash games. Volume I deals with general concepts, preflop play and flop play. Part one of the book begins with basic ideas. Harrington recommends skipping this section if you are already familiar with the fundamentals of no limit hold 'em and I agree. This section of the book does not cover any new ground. Part two of the book deals with broad elements of no limit cash games. The section on stack size is excellent and explains how different stack sizes call for vastly different preflop and postflop strategy. The section on hand reading is good as Harrington goes through some of the thought processes required to break down and analyze a hand. There's a very brief discussion of metagame. This involves exploiting your image and making small costly plays which you expect will reap greater dividends in the future.

Part three is about tight aggressive preflop play. This is where the book starts to lose some of its shine. The book is stuck in what is conventionally referred to as "level 1" thinking, that is "What cards do I hold in my hand?". Different types of opponents require different strategies but the book plods on with many pages of "I have X hand in Y position. What should I do?". As a trivial example an opponent who is a "rock" and rarely tries to steal your blind requires a different strategy from a maniac who tries to steal your blind every time it is folded around. The book does not really address tailoring your play to your opponent preflop.

Part four of the book is about tight aggressive flop play. Once again the book falls short in a number of areas. To take an example, if you raise preflop and are out of position, Harrington recommends mainly checking KK on a rainbow K72 flop (that is you hold top set on a board without many draws). What Harrington omits to mention is how you should play your distribution of hands in this spot as part of a balanced strategy. For example if you are checking top set but continuation betting most of your hands that miss, this begins to create an imbalance that an opponent can exploit. All the examples are about "How do I play my hand" and the author does not address the question of "How do I balance my distribution of hands in this spot".

As in the preflop section, there is very little discussion of opponent type and this is where the book loses the most marks. Discussion of opponent tendencies is extremely limited. A typical example would be "Let's call 10 percent of the time and fold 90 percent, calling only against the loosest and most aggressive players". Given that you are supposed to randomize your actions using your wristwatch and that Harrington doesn't explain how to quantify "loosest and most aggressive players" these guidelines are difficult to follow. There are other quirks and inconsistencies that would be jarring to the astute reader. For example, after calling a bet out of position with 7h6h preflop and then leading out on a TT4 board and getting raised, Harrington recommends calling 10% of the time to "balance our value calls in other situations". To me this statement is rather obscure and although this volume specifically focuses on preflop and flop play, I feel it is an injustice to leave the reader in this predicament without at least a brief discussion of turn and/or river play. Another inconsistency occurs when at one point Harrington recommends raising with middle pair "to represent top pair" whereas throughout the rest of the text, Harrington recommends mainly calling with top pair. If your strategy is to mainly call with top pair, then it is difficult to try to represent top pair by raising. The last section of the book is tight aggressive play with multiple opponents. This is basically Harrington saying "Don't bluff, play more cautiously and people usually have what they're representing".

The book certainly has moments where it shines. The "problems" sections contains detailed and well thought out analysis. The text will provoke a lot of thought about the game even if there are some specific examples which seem unpolished or unfinished. Novice players will gain a lot from the text. Intermediate players should only expect to pick up a few gems every now and again. As a brief note there are parts of the text that apply to other forms of the game for example short handed online no limit. However these types of games have a lot of specific nuances that the book does not address at all (for example light 3 betting and light 4 betting preflop). Overall I still recommend this book as a buy even though the book seems to treat poker as more of "a card game played with people" rather than "a people game played with cards".

I just finished reading Volume 1 of Harrington on Cash Games and this books is AWESOME !!! I scored it off of eBay for a good price and I'm glad I did because they're still out of stock here =)

Harrington covers a lot of material in Volume 1 and with over 400 pages it makes it even better. I LOVE what they did in this Volume by first explaining how and why certain situations are to be played and than went on to show you actual examples. The first round of examples, just covering and analyzing Pre-Flop play, is 44 Pages !!! And that's exactly what I want from a poker book =)

Each section is a lot more than I expected, and even sections like Big Blind and Small Blind play are right to the point in the information they have. I really like how clearly Harrington shows that bets in No-Limit Hold'em can increase exponentially as the hand progresses. For player's transitioning from Limit Poker to No-Limit, this section will be a really fun read. He also covers Hand Reading and in a few instances he takes actual hands from TV shows like High Stakes Poker and analyzes them too. The opening of the book is something like 12 pages of pure analysis just from 1 hand of High Stakes Poker!!! That's another big plus for me. I want to see into the minds of the professionals that I watch on TV every week and the opening alone was a joy to read.

I would have bought these from Amazon for the discount they're offering, but I'm glad that I paid a little extra because if Volume 2 is as great as Volume 1 than I'm in love!

I read both volumes on Harrington on Cash Games "How to Win at No-Limit Hold'em Money Games", I also had previously purchased both volumes of Dan Harrington's much heralded tournament series ...

First Harrington again has done a comprehensive job of creating an epic, however I personally found him less of a revelation in the cash game series than in the tournament books. It could be me and my base of knowledge.

Volume I covers Pre-flop play and play on the Flop.

Volume II covers the Turn and the River as well as some sections on dealing with Loose Agressive style players, Tells, Beating Weak Games and Bankroll Management.

Bottom line, I wish he never wrote it... If a sucker has the brains and discipline to read it, learn it and practice it, he will be a better player. Harrington once again has wised up some suckers.

Lucky for us, 90% of all people who claim they play poker think they already play better than 90% of all poker players. Thank the good lord that these people are too lazy and are not sufficiently motivated to read and learn.

Mark "Big Daddy from Cincinnati" Hanna

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.

As a good-to-mediocre limit player, I searched a long time for a book that would improve my no-limit game given that I already knew a good deal about limit poker. This is that book. If you've never played hold 'em, this book is going to be over your head; you won't even understand the first few pages. If you've played limit hold 'em and want to become a solid no-limit player, this is the book for you.

The book is in depth on all betting rounds and promotes the kind of thinking that a good no-limit player needs to have. I also learned a few new ideas about randomizing my play and river bets that I hadn't considered before. At the end of most chapters, a thorough set of problems is presented that really drill the ideas well. Self-testing on those problems alone make the book fun and worth the price!

Like most poker books, the English is poor. Apparently something about playing poker well excludes knowledge of the subjunctive! It's still more readable than most poker books. The chapters on bankroll management and other miscellaneous topics in Volume 2 were unnecessary and thankfully brief. There were some minor inconsistencies in the book and maybe even some math blunders, but relatively few given that the two volumes together are around 800 pages.

I think that it's a rare player that wouldn't stand to profit from buying this book and reading it. The book isn't complete without both volumes.

In this book Harrington tries to describe the difference between No-limit tournaments and cash games. He has split his cash game strategy into 2 books. These books are divided into 12 different parts. This first volume will deal with the first 5 parts.

Part 1: He explains some basic ideas of no-limit holdem like pot odds, implied odds and outs.
Part 2: Harrington talks about how the stack sizes affect the game. Some other principles that he describes here are deception, balance, hand selection, pot commitment, hand reading, multilevel thinking.
Part 3: Differences between tight aggressive play and loose aggressive play.
Part 4: Teach you how to play on the flop when heads-up.
Part 5: How to handle multiway flop with two or more opponents.
Part 6: How to play on the turn.
Part 7: River play.
Part 8: Tells and observations.
Part 9: Basics of the loose aggressive style.
Part 10: Describes what weak games are and how to beat them.
Part 11: How to manage your bankroll and transitioning to live games.
Part 12: Interview with a great no-limit cash game player.

The style and layout of this book is very similar to Harrington previous books. He will describe a concept and then illustrate this concepts by showing it with example hands. He will describe in detail how the players were thinking and how they should be thinking. He got a lot of example hands were he tries to show all the different concepts involved in no-limit cash game.

If you enjoyed his previous book you will probably like this book as well. It often tries to compare differences between tournament and cash game no-limit games.

This is the worst poker book ever! PLEASE do NOT buy either of these books! PLEASE! Reading and studying these books are a lock to make you a better player, and I simply can't have that!

Seriously, these are probably the best books I've ever read, and I've got a fairly small library of poker books, but I love to read the subject. A lot of the information and analysis that I've been looking for as a fairly amateur player looking to take it to the next level is in here; loose-aggressive play, reading hands, betting strategies, etc. Honestly, there isn't much information here that is 'revolutionary', and anyone new to the game won't really pick up on what he's talking about. But I've been very interested in taking my game to the next level, and play cash games, and these books are the best tool that I've seen. But please don't read them, PLEASE!

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.

While expectedly falling short of the tournament series which was always going to happen do to cash games being a much more complex topic, these books are perfect for someone wishing to start the transition to cash games from tournaments from a tournament player's perspective.

I for one have been reasonably successful in tournament play for 2-3 years, but have always struggled with cash game play and could never figure out why. This book was very helpful to me in that it explains WHY the two types are different, and the adjustment in perception that has to be made.
If you are a tournament player this will definitely introduce some ideas that you will not be comfortable with and hands that you have been quite happy to get all in with in a tournament are now hands that are very often beat by the turn and beyond. But if you are open minded and try the concepts introduced here, I think you will see an improvement in your results...As with the previous Harrington books, the hand problems are fascinating and provide a lot of insight...
These books will likely not help the experienced and successful cash game player much, but everyone else should learn a lot. Coupling reading thse books along with Professional No Limit Poker Vol 1 will improve your understanding. Well worthwhile

I had great expectations on this book (and Vol II) but I have been a little disappointed. First part is quite obvious, pot odds, commitment and so on. Second part is an extensive but quite boring list of flop situations and how should be played...I would have liked more explanations and less percentages, but Harrington seems very fond of the latter. If you are a good player you'll not find anything new, If you are a beginner it will be quite useful.

All the advice given in this book and the hand examples are so ridiculously obvious. If you cant think of this stuff yourself, stick to tic tac toe. This book covers no new ground at all and is so basic and simple. Seriously, if you cant figure out what this book contains on your own, you should not be playing poker. How many worthless books can 2+2 publish?

I'm a relative beginner to cash games and I found this book very helpful. Given the amount of complete trash out there (written about hold'em) either blatant or disguised as "deeply theoretical" this book surprised me by its depth and really helped me to start thinking correctly about the game.

My advice to other authors: please don't write about poker unless your results prove that you are the top of the top. Save trees and our time!

As a low-limit, casual online player, I've been making a reasonable profit on tournaments only to be punished whenever I try to move into ring games. One thing Harrington does a good job of (not surprising given he literally wrote the book on tournament play) is clearly describing how and when the two games diverge. On just the first read-through of this book I was able to spot a number of gaping flaws in my cash game that I didn't even know were there.

I can see how the book would be less valuable to a more experience player, but it was exactly what I needed.

Whit this book, I improved my skills on cash games, and learnt how to avoid mistakes. Recommended reading for beginners.

I am fairly new to the game of poker and this book was very easy to understand. This is definitely a book you can re-read many times and use it as a quick reference guide. I would recommend it to anyone trying to master the game of poker.

This book is equally suited for novice and expert player alike. I have not finished reading it, but I can't put it down because every page is full of valuable information that is easy to follow and understand. Congratulations for a job well done!

I have all of Harrington's poker books and many, many other poker books by other authors; my husband and I play poker. Harrington, in my opinion, ranks amoung the best of the best poker authors. His books on poker, tournament poker and cash games are excellent!!!

This book, and Harrington's cash game vol. II, are the best I've found on the subject.

If you play poker, you understand, or should understand, that gaining poker knowledge, acquired from study and experience, is a life-long educational experience, and that it is far cheaper to learn things the "right way" the first time around with respect to studying the variation(s) of poker you play, as this will be the basis for your personal thoughts about and analysis of your experience (the games you most recently played). If you want boks offering good reasoning about and stratagems for cash games, purchase Harrington's books, and you'll not regret it.

One thing I have noticed, is that when those new to poker purchase a book on the subject of poker, any book, they seem to think, and often mention, that said book, is "great" when, in fact, they really have no basis for making such a judgement. Hey, we all have to begin somewhere. As a poker player progresses to higher levels of ability their choice of poker books becomes much more selective as they are better qualified to analyse the large selection of poker books now offered for sale. I've said all this to simply inform those new to, as well as those experienced at, playing either Hold'Em tournaments or Hold'Em cash games, that Dan Harrington's books are amoung the best of the best, according to my husband, and he, not to boast, should know, and he has recommended Harrington's poker books to a lot of people.

Poker is about making the best possible decisions based on available, although limited, information. Poker players who purchase Harrington's books are, in my humble opinion, making good decisions.

This book is the bible for Deep Stack cash game play. Highly recommended to anyone who plays cash games.

recommended for those of us, myself especially, who think that they're ready to excell at the cash tables. take the time and let this book river you out of $30, if that, and then take the time to learn, relearn, and over-learn all the book has to offer.

Muy buen libro, necesario para jugar al poker. Si no lo has leido, no te enteras de nada de lo que ocurre realmetne.

I am having a hard enough time making money playing cash Holdem. If you read this book (Vol 1 & 2) I may have to quit.