5 comments about Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play.

1. Basically if you play tournament style hold 'em and you don't read this book you're either stupid or arrogant. But since either of those qualities is nice to have in an opponent, please don't bother getting this book, thank you.



2. This book may seem like heavy reading to someone who is new to hold 'em. After gaining a little bit of book knowledge (through lighter readings) and gaining some table experience, however, this book is exactly the type of resource needed to take one's game to the next level. Poker is complicated because of multiple players with varying styles, changing table position, a near infinitude of card combinations, and rising blinds. Analyzing a hand of poker to determine how to get the most value out of the situation is so much more than evaluating where a hand falls on a poker hand ranking chart. Fully analyzing a single hand of poker is so complex that most poker books focus on just a couple of aspects of a particular hand. Harrington's book gets much more in depth, opening the doorway to a much higher level of poker thinking.



3. Harrington's book is the best on tournament no limit poker i've read yet. Can't wait to get his other two books.



4. What's your bottom line? What were your results? My results after reading Harrington on Hold Em Volume One, I finished 22nd and 13th in the 1st two tournaments I entered. I like his style of play and I see a lot of what I do in poker as the same. I believe this book is worth every dime and finish in the money like I have and it's already paid for itself. Just started Volume II.
   
   Keep writing them Dan, thanks for the insight and go Sox!!!



5. This is the best poker book i've read so far. Very well written, cover all the aspects of the game, specially No Limit Tournaments and SNGs. Everyone who wants to play really well should read this.

5 comments about The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.

1. I received my scrabble dictionary very fast and it has been in use ever since....very speedy service...very happy consumer.....



2. This book is very handy, however we're looking for a different one. I do agree with the person who said that there are so many odd words that almost anything goes. I was a librarian and there were some words that I was convinced were not real "words" - Agentry for example! In other dictinaries they aren't listed but they are in this book. We bought the paperback version - not the large print. That was a mistake because it's very small print and it takes forever to find a word. However, we're big scrabble fans and use it often but since finding the word agentry we may throw it away. If you have great eyesight and like the strange words, then it's a good buy. However, I would recommend the hardback or the large print paperback.



3. I ordered this book to take on vacation in June. The whole family will be together and we like to play scrabble. I didn't want to take the huge webster's dictionary so this one looked small and just what we need. I haven't used it as yet in a game, but I have looked through it and I think it will help us when someone is stumped and needs a little word.



4. Generally helpful but, lacks in depth meanings of some of the words. Better than using the regular dictionary.



5. Our 9 year old granddaughter has trouble with spelling, so we are taking this dictionary and a travel scrabble game with us on a 3 week trip. This should help her with spelling words while playing the game.

5 comments about Kaplan GRE Exam in a Box.

1. first i will say that flashcards are best to learn these words and test yourself, which is why i got these cards. what i like about them: good word selection, synonims and especially sample sentences - they are very helpful to see exactly how some of these weird words are used. what i don't like: they are very small - the size of a business card - and very thin. i would have liked them maybe two times bigger and thicker/sturdier. overall, i definetely recommend them and will use them myself.



2. I used several study aids, including a software package (Kaplan GMAT/GRE/LSAT 2006 Platinum (PC)) which you might want to consider as well.
   As far as these flashcards are concerned... Well, they were EXTREMELY helpful in preparing for the verbal section of the exam. I always had a small stack in my pocket, and, anytime there were spare moments, I would run through them. They certainly brought my score up! Well worth purchasing!



3. Very Helpful. But you must also use other sources, so as to broaden your scope if you want to do well in the GREs.
   
   In fact, just read the review of the product itself. That is all you need to know. Its a great buy.



4. I think it is a very good idea for people who are lazy like me in writing and preparing their own flash card. There is word on one side and on the other side, beside the meaning of the word, synonym has been recorded too which I found it very helpful.



5. These cards are a helpful review, but if you have the time before you take the GRE you should memorize "root" words.

4 comments about Harrington on Cash Games, Volume II: How to Play No-Limit Hold 'em Cash Games.

1. I just 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 Aggressive 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.
   
   I posted this on my blog as well at [...]



2. This second volume is more useful than volume 1. In fact it speaks about turn and river play which is often underrated...many good problems explained by Harrington help the reader to develop a feeling for the different situations...it's far from perfect but more useful than volume 1...if you have to buy one buy this...



3. Harrington as usual has a thorough and disciplined approach to no limit cash games. You'll want to read this because a lot of us playing no limti cash games already have.



4. This is a fantastic book on how to make money playing hold'em cash games, it specifically covers the turn and river, and as always Dan Harrington does a magnificent job of explaining the concepts, as well as having a lot of problems to practice to let the concepts sink in.
   
   If you want to make money playing hold'em cash games, this is one book you have to have.

No comments about Keep on the Shadowfell (Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure H1).

5 comments about Every Hand Revealed.

1. You'll learn from this one. Reading it is as close as we'll ever get to actually tapping into one of the great minds of the game. As Gus himself says in the final sentence of the Preface: "Welcome to my mind ...."
   
   If you watched the 2007 Aussie Millions Tournament on TV you may remember that Gus Hanson stepped away from the table after practically every hand to speak into a digital recorder. Now we know what he was doing - he was recording his thought process for each hand. His thoughts have since been transcribed and this book is the result.
   
   When I saw what Gus was doing I felt vindicated. I began playing online tournaments a few months ago and quickly found that one of the most valuable things I could do was to think carefully through each situation and to record my thoughts. After the tournament was over I'd review my actions in light of my recorded thoughts. It has proved to be an invaluable tool in improving my game. Now we have the benefit of Gus Hanson's thoughts along with the outcome of each hand.
   
   In the non-stop Internet Age where the objective sometimes seems to be maximizing the number of hands played we've seen poker become somewhat of a lottery. However, it is thought and analysis - deep analysis - that leads to insight and expertise. And playing hands at breakneck speed is the very antithesis of thought and analysis. Gus has done us all a huge favor by sharing his hand-by-hand analysis of the 2007 Aussie Millions Tournament. This book reveals the thought processes of one of todays outstanding poker professionals and careful, thoughtful reading of this transcript can only improve your game.



2. The best poker book I have ever read. Gus Hansen walks you through his thought process on every hand he played on his way to winning the aussie millions tournament. I could not put the book down once I picked it up. Gus almost never bluffs, but he plays aggressively always. He shows the math behind his decision making, and writes in a style that isn't boring for a second. I can't recommend this one enough!



3. I agree wholly with every 5 star review. So why did I give the book 4 stars?
   
   I noticed a strange thing. After reading the book for a while and then going online right away to play some, I would lose and lose badly. This happened several times, so much so that while I was sorry to get to the end of the book, I was glad too so I could stop losing money. All in all, this book has cost me several hundred dollars.
   
   Several hundred dollars, I figure, equals one review star.
   
   Don't be a donkey like me. Don't think you can read some of Hansen and take it to the tables with instant results. Stick with your own game, very slowly insert a little Hansen and proceed carefully. No need to thank me for saving you a bundle! :-}
   
   PS -- Gratuitous tip (i.e. take it for what it's worth): This book has no index. Imagine how useful an index might be if you have 300+ hands thrown at you randomly. Solution: take less than 2 hours and categorize the hands. I was interested particularly in gathering all the same kind of opening hands together, since which hands to play are a big deal with Mr. Hansen. I created eight categories, and now I can easily look up the same kinds of starting hands in each category. For example, I can quickly find and compare all the hands which started with small suited connectors. I'm sure you get the point. It really is useful, but it's up to you.



4. I waited an awful long time for my Harrington on Cash books, and am totally happy with them. That being said, I put down Harrington as soon as I got Every Hand Revealed and didn't pick them up again until I read it cover to cover.
   
   Less of a strategy book and more of a diary of his 2007 Aussie Millions win, Gus goes into his thoughts during each hand he played from day one to the final hand. Each day is given it's own chapter with an intro from Gus about how he had planned to play each day.
   
   This book may not be a great tutorial for the average player, but there are still some things to be learned. Overall, a great book I would recommend to anyone that enjoys playing or watching tournament poker.



5. I have to agree with others here. This one of the best poker books to come along in a long time.
   
   While pros making videos of their poker tournament victories are common online, this is the first time a serious player has explained an entire tournament in print.
   
   The narrative is detailed and honest; it shows that even Hansen nods with some way-off decisions. This frankness only increases the usefulness of the book as other pro poker players tend to gloss over their trouble hands in their writing. Simply put, they often display the Phil Hellmuth attitude: "I'm great and when I needed to, I sucked out." You just know players like Mr. Hellmuth are getting uncanny reads on opponents' hands, but they don't explain the thought process.
   
   Then too, sometimes Mr. Hansen makes the right decision, but the cards don't cooperate. It's enlightening to see him handle this and go on to win without getting tilted off his game. (Is it just me or why is it that best online players are unflappable? There's a Chuck Yeager quality to their voices.)
   
   The book is easy to follow without making you slog through complex math, yet this player is always aware of the numbers involved in crucial decisions.
   
   I hope Mr Hansen and other world-class players do more of this "poker tournament diary" writing, IF they dare. Hansen says he's not worried that other players will now read him like a book, because he claims he can change gears at will. I hope he didn't give away the store with this groundbreaking poker book.

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

1. 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?



2. 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.



3. 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.



4. 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.



5. 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!

5 comments about Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.

1. I picked this book up at Logan International Airport in Boston after finishing a meeting at MIT. I had no backgound of the story, other than it involved a modified card counting scheme in Vegas. It was a compelling, fast-paced story that was made more fantastic given I had just left the campus. The book was finished by the time I landed at Dulles. I have a 14 year-old math wiz that I can see being drawn into the high stakes game. For Ben Mezrich's first outing in non-fiction, I feel he did a great job.



2. I saw the movie 21 and this was still a suspenseful account, with lots of interesting details about learning card counting that didn't make it into the film.
   Nice writing.



3. 21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions my review for the book is excellent. and this was my first time using amazon and i was very pleased.



4. I'm not much of a book reader, even though I enjoy buying books I hardly ever read one completely and almost never a non economics book. But this particular book has given me the opportunity to feel everything the author wrote as if I was there, I don't know if I'm growing into a book reader but this book has an excellent writing very friendly and easy to read, it keeps your attention, long waiting hours on the doctor, bank or anywhere become short while you read it. Also it's a great introduction for the movie 21: Blackjack. If you're interested in card counting this isn't a "how to" book, although there is a essay in the last chapter on card counting that makes a more in depth description on the subject, it's more of a novel based on real facts. As one of the praises for the book says: "Perfect for a read on the plane down to Vegas".



5. I saw the movie and was intrigued. The movie wasn't great by any means, but it did just enough to inspire me to want to know the "real story". The first thing I noticed about the book, was it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. The thing I remember about the book after having read it, is that it was too long.
   
   Frankly, I thought the book was too long and boring. There were parts that were interesting, and parts that kept me wanting to read more.... but "just barely". Most of the book was a chore to finish. I almost gave up a few times, figuring I've read enough. I did finish it, it wasn't horrible, but I'd rate it below average.

2 comments about Grand Theft Auto IV Signature Series Guide (Bradygames Signature).

1. The only reason this guide gets a second star is because this guide does what it's supposed to do. It is quite helpful for getting you through the plot when you're stuck and it does contain detailed maps of the game's many extras. It also lists the Achievements for Xbox 360 and helpful strategies for Multiplayer.
   
   I find the quality of strategy guides in general have gone down in recent years, and this one is no exception. Owners of stategy guides for the previous games in the GTA series (GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas) will be quite disappointed with this one. This strategy guide doesn't contain the expected list of vehicles that previous editions had (no pictures of the vehicles and not even a text list). It is also organized quite poorly. Most of the extras are contained within the Main Story Walkthrough (side missions, girlfriends, etc). You can't look up the extras by category. For example if you want to look up the girlfriends, one is listed on page 19, a couple on page 102, one on page 146, etc. All the other extras are listed in a similar manner. Since most of everything is listed within the Main Story Walkthrough, you always run the risk of seeing plot lines you don't want to see yet.



2. Contains all information to compleate game and even tells you if something is or is not required for 100% completion. Well organized if you read the table of contents and fold out map. If you want to cmplete 100% you will need this guide.

No comments about Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set, 4th Edition.