Harrington on Cash Games: How to Win at No-Limit Hold'em Money Games, Vol. 1

I have read many poker books and this is probably the best no limit cash game book I have read, especially for covering all stakes. Largay's low limit book is a good read for a very limited game and probably offers some more intensive coverage of that slice of the pie but Harrington covers most of what Largay does and much more in this book.I have read a lot of poker books where the hand examples are almost unbearable to read; in this book I found the presentation of them interesting and understandable. Whoever did the editing of the hand examples seems to have taken special care to make them more easily read than in most poker books, this alone is very helpful.

Wish I had purchased this a long time ago. I would saved myself a lot of grief and money. It was recommended by Brad Owen in one of his YouTube Vlogs. It's extremely smart and the writing style is excellent. Very relatable and easy enough to follow. Some poker books are tedious and cryptic in the way they are written, but not this book. Check it out.

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.I'd also recommend The Poker Tournament Formula and Poker Tips that Pay: Expert Strategy Guide for Winning No Limit Texas Hold em for readers that are looking beyond the Harrington series.

They say that 'luck is the residue of preparation'. This is especially true when it comes playing poker. So, plan to get very lucky after you read Dan Harrington's 2 volumes on cash game no limit hold'em.I've been a limit player for 20 years. Recently, I decided to devote myself to no limit because of the greater profit in these games. From my general knowledge, I knew that there were significant strategy differences in correct strategy for no limit so I read a couple of books. However, these books didn't really help very much. Then I got Harrington's books and it was like someone had turned on a light in a dark room. It made a world of difference in my game. I 'get it' now.To put some perspective on this, I'm playing in a $2/$3 blind no limit game with a $200 cap on the buyin, in a brick and mortar poker room. I mention this because some of the reviews of these books have critized them for being too basic. However, if you're playing in a small game, basic strategy is probably the BEST strategy. In the second volume, there is a chapter about playing in small no limit games. I recommend you jump ahead and read it first. Keeping this chapter in mind as you read everything else will really give you a great perspective on how to beat a small no limit game. With respect to beating the bigger games, I really don't know if these books will help because I'm not playing in those games yet. But if you are new to no limit, or you are just having trouble beating the small game you're playing in, these books are great.