Getting Started in Hold'em

I recently read another poker book. It was Getting Started in Hold'em by Ed Miller. It was pretty good.

At 200 pages with no equations it was an easier read than most 2+2 books. Which is what you would expect from a book targeting starting players. The content was good. Miller covers the key points while providing a good jumping off point to the more advanced 2+2 texts. Like many 2+2 titles the theme was more around live play which is fine with me. The section on limit hold'em was good. Also the collection of short essays in the miscellaneous topics at the end was a good read for pretty much any level of player.

So why would I read a starters book today after playing for a few years with at least break even success. Well there was a specific section in this book that I wanted to read. That was the part about short stack no limit. Miller describes this strategy well. So now I know a bit more about it. I thought it would be useful to know, it does fit into my plans around live play.

I've got a number of poker books lined up that I want to read. I'll be starting a new 2+2 title shortly.

Rounders

I saw Rounders on Netflix this week. It was really good. I quite enjoyed a movie about poker life. The poker scenes were very accurate and well shot.

There was a lot of great poker advice in that movie such as

• never lend to a degen
• never vouch for someone else's debts
• play within your bankroll
• do not borrow from gangsters
• don't let others play on your bankroll or credit
• pay attention to your opponents you can pick up tells

There was definitely a cautionary tale element to it. I think everyone who plays poker to some extent dreams of playing high stakes, taking a shot, being in the world series main event.

I enjoyed the use of the Socratic dialog technique in the film. The villain Worm expresses contempt for the quiet conservative tight players, ridiculing them as "grinders", "leatherass". Hero Mike is himself a grinder, content to grind 1 BB / hour long term profit - that is until he takes a shot and loses his entire bankroll on the first hand early in the film.

I love that saying "three stacks of high society".  Who knows maybe some day I will be able to use stack of high society as a unit in a real way.