Has anyone read this yet? And if so had it helped your online play? I haven't really heard anything about it. I thought about picking it up at the bookstore but I changed my mind and went with Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by Sklnasky instead, even though I think it might be a bit above my level of play right now. Unfortunatly they didn't have Theory there.

Thanks
Duff

I haven't read it, but have heard bad things.

/shrug

YMMV.

I've read it. You don't have to buy it. You can get it autographed & for free if you don't already have an account on party/empire/pacific http://www.internettexasholdem.com/poker-b...s-hold-em-book/.

It pretty much covers all the basics of fixed limit. It's strictly about FL Hold'em. It's a good beginners book I suppose but don't expect a revelation if you know your stuff already.

I agree with rkard that it's based on limit hold'em, I disagree that it's not worth attempting to get...especially if most of your play is going to be online.

Each chapter ends with a quick Chapter Review and a Test Your Skills section that contains great thoughts about why and how certain hands should be played. It accounts for your hand, your position, the play and betting sequences, and odds.

I think this is a good survey book. Go ahead and get it free if you don't have an account on one of the endorsed poker sites on www.internettexasholdem.com .

Matt Hilger has credentials too, he's not just another Johnny Come Lately trying to capitalize on the poker craze with his own book...he finished pretty high in the 2004 WSOP Main Event.

I never said that, re-read if you were disagreeing with me.

My apologies. rkard said "I've read it. You don't have to buy it. You can get it free..." by taking advantage of the deals for signing up at Empire Poker, etc.

I do disagree that I believe it is more than just a basic Hold'Em book. There are many topics covered and the subtleties in the Test Your Skills sections will be missed by most.

I think it's sort of a basic hold'em book as it has nothing in there for no limit and pot limit (in terms of near optimal play). Nothing conclusive about short handed or tournament play.

You'll learn almost all you need to know for a good _solid_ 10 player fixed game (and this is all you'll get), if you play INTERNET high stakes you'll need to be a bit trickier than the book suggests. You can go on and read more advanced books after this. It's a good book I recommend for beginning and average online players, I always recommend that people learn hold'em by playing full fixed limit ring games before they move onto PL/NL or shorthanded.

So far im reading this book and have been an avid online player who has won a lot of money playing 3/6. I think this book has further helped my game and is a lot more advanced than phil hellmuths book. Yes, it dosn't have anything about NL, PL or shorhanded games, but it is a great book for anyone who plays full ring games.

You guys have basically covered it. It was the first Hold'em book i ever read, and while it is great for beginning play and stategy, it wont take you much further.

You can only recommend it to someone who's just learning the game, but after that there are much more useful books that reference way more versions and situations of the game.

I do, however, really enjoy the hand quizzes at the end of each chapter. Every book should have those.

I bought the Hilger book, it is virtually good for nothing in my eyes.
I've read it and about 5 other poker books, and it just basically tells you stories and things you would know after playing online for 10 minutes.
He even admits he is just writing the book to diversify his money from only poker, which makes sense, but why buy a book from someone like that. If he was real solid, he would just focus on playing. This book is garbage.

I'm reading this now. And I have mixed feelings about it.

First I should say that I'm a real newbie to poker; I just started a couple weeks ago and this is my second book. (The first was Ken Warren's Winner’s Guide To Texas Hold’em Poker.) So I have a lot to learn.

I found the book hard to get through. I'd just find my thoughts drifting off, especially in the "check your skills" sections at the ends of the chapters. I'm too new to be able to visualize the hands as he describes them. I still have to stop and think about which position is the cutoff, for instance. Or what it means when a player cold calls (calls cold?).

While it would've made the book much fatter, having some kind of visual representations of the hands (or at least some of them) would've helped me a lot.

I'm not saying the book held no value because I have learned some things from it, but it wasn't something to read at the end of a long day. It was more like having a college textbook on poker. You had to really concentrate on it. So it wasn't a 'fun' read.

Warren's book, by the way, was a fun read, just for the shock value of some of the things he said. Like, to paraphrase, "Pick a table with beautiful women at it, because they never really know the game." I guess he never came up against Evelyn Ng, eh?

Here's what I got from this book, solid information from an individual that tries to take the novice to the next stage to intemediate.
There really isnt alot of books out there prior to that book dealing with "internet play" that examines and tries to aid the individual without risking to much of their bankroll. Quite frankly there was very little material on the subject. For most people, we dont have casinos downtown, or within driving distance to play cards, unfortionately all we have is online poker.
Granted there are flaws within this book, however there are flaws within all poker books. It's not fair to this author or any other to say who has a better book.
I would like you to know,I have profited very well following Hilgers advice. So much so, I was able to play comfortably in higher stakes poker and not sweat the small stuff.
To the orginal post asking should he buy it, thats like playing a hand that is a pair, you have no ideal how it stands up until you play it, in your case, you should buy it.

Yeah, Doyle Brunson's book must be garbage as well. And Dan Harrington's. I hear Barry Greenstein has a book coming out, but it can't be any good, either. If Greenstein were any good at poker, he'd just focus on playing.

Matt Hilger's book is the best introductory book on fixed-limit hold 'em there is, IMO. The advice is generally correct, it is well organized, and the hand examples are extremely helpful.

Hey all, first post.

If you're interested in this book, first check out Hilger's "10 things Internet players do wrong" (or something like that) articles on pokerpages. If you like what he has to say in those, check out the book. Personally, I've found it very helpful, and it turned me into a much more solid player. I think it's worth the money just for the starting hand charts. His advice is pretty standard, the internet is full of loose aggressive maniacs, who play bad starting hands and like to bluff a lot, so play tight aggressive and here's how, etc.

It's actually the first poker book that I picked up, and I thought it was a good introduction. I still refer back to it occasionally for some of the facts and charts. I was pretty disappointed that it only dealt with limit, but it's not a bad read if you're starting out.