Smash Vegas

Winning Low Limit Hold’em

Lee Jones

A great beginner’s book on hold’em.  The emphasis is on solid fundamental play to beat loose, low limit games.  It is an easy read and is particularly successful in pointing out the big mistakes which can cost a new player dearly.  A perfect choice for newcomers to hold’em.

Content

The first section “Hold’em : The Game” serves as an introduction and gives an overview of the fundamentals of the game.  Jones covers topics such as calculating pot odds and reading the board.  The focus is very much on bricks and mortar poker, so some adjustment to online stakes is required.  I would suggest that the games he is discussing would be roughly analogous to $0.5/$1 tables online.  The section ends with a quiz on the material it has covered.

The majority of the book is within the second section “Play of the Hand from Deal to Showdown”.  The author details the basics of winning play from preflop to showdown.  The advice will be no surprise to veterans (although they may feel it is not aggressive enough), advocating an ABC game of tight hand selection and betting for value.  I particularly like the preflop treatment - it’s a good introduction to starting hand selection, which is probably the single most important thing for beginners to learn.  There are preflop and post-flop quizzes, which I feel are both valuable.

The third section “Miscellaneous Topics” contains a number of short essays.  Some are more useful than others but I think the discussions of bluffing, bankroll, player types and discipline will be interesting to the new player.  For more advanced players the essay on implicit collusion will probably be the biggest draw.

Presentation

The book is well presented with an easy writing style.  Complicated concepts are well described, again making it ideal for newer players.

Perhaps not a presentation problem but unfortunately the book’s discussions of online play (or lack thereof) have not dated well.

Conclusion

A good buy for beginners.  However if you already play and win at small stakes then the book has less to offer you.  For instance Small Stakes Hold’em is much better suited to the intermediate player.