Review: Getting Started in Hold 'Em by Ed Miller

For those of you who are new players and happened to stumble across my little place on the Internet, your first question is probably where to start? The obvious answer is Getting Started in Hold 'Em by Ed Miller, who is definitely one of the best poker authors around right now.

The book gives a thorough overview of hold ‘em poker. GSIH takes a shotgun approach, aiming for breadth rather than depth. It doesn’t try to focus on limit, no-limit, tournament or cash games, but covers the basics of each. This is perfect for beginners who may not have decided on what kind of games they want to play yet, or who have been dabbling in all of them.

By explaining the most critical concepts, the book does a good job of giving a novice the basic tools he needs to go from “fish” to winner in small-stakes games. And despite its broad approach and beginner audience, the book does highlight some more advanced concepts such as Ed’s no-limit small-stack theory. Ed has a great talent for explaining difficult concepts so that anyone can understand and apply them. Not only that, he makes them interesting.

If there is a negative to this book, it’s simply that Ed tried to go too broad. There are better limit books, better no-limit books, better tournament books, but no better novice text covering them all. For that reason, I think it’s the perfect starter book to provide a sound foundation for future learning.

One note on poker books in general: My opinion is that there are a few good ones and a lot of bad ones. But I tend to take the view that if I learn one thing from them that helps me win one pot (assuming their teachings don't also help me lose pots) then they've probably paid for themselves.

For those of you who say poker books are expensive, I'm going to tell you a story. I had an acquaintance not too long ago. I'll call him "Rick". Rick, like many players, started watching World Poker Tour (WPT) or the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on television and started playing. He started making weekly trips to the local casino. I'd usually run into Rick at the bar where he'd invariably piss and moan about losing $50 or $70. Rick couldn't really afford to keep losing that kind of money. I recommended a couple of books for him, and he said he'd take a look at the local bookstore. Next time I saw him, he'd just lost another $70 and told me the books were just too expensive. He couldn't afford them. Well, you can see where this is going. "But, Rick," I said, "You just blew $70 because you don't know how to play. Why not just buy the $20 book? If it helps you break even next trip, it's already made you money because at least you didn't lose it all!" As far as I know, Rick still hasn't bought any of the books I've recommended. Hopefully you will, and with a little luck, you'll run into Rick next time you're at the casino.