The Course: Serious Hold 'Em Strategy For Smart Players Paperback – April 28, 2015

I never wanted to play No Limit Hold'em. I've been playing poker for 35 years and, I estimate, that I've logged about 20,000 hours at the table. Most of these hours were spent playing limit Hold'em. I was pretty good at it and consistently, month after month, won money. About 10 years ago, I started getting my toes in the no-limit waters as the limit games started to become scarce. I didn't much like No Limit because, frankly, I did not know what the hell I was doing.About five years ago, limit games became all but extinct and I was forced to make the transition to No Limit. For 4 years I managed to survive using my poker savy and experience. Nevertheless, I still had to pay my dues.About a year ago, I finally got to the point where I felt that I was a competent No Limit player and began winning steadily. That's when I began to enjoy no limit. After about six months, the room where I was playing spread a limit game one day. The thought of playing limit poker again was nostalgic. I decided to sit down in the game and have some fun for a while.After about 30 minutes, I was so bored that I couldn't take it anymore and had to leave the game. It was like someone who smoked weed for 30 years and then, when weed became unavailable, they started smoking opium. At first, smoking opium was scary. Then, after a while, they became comfortable with it. Then, after smoking it for 4 years, they really, really liked it. Well, now, there's no way that they can go back to weed.Nowadays, for the most part, limit poker is gone. It is unfortunate because limit poker is like poker with training wheels. It's a great way for someone to start playing poker. With limit poker, someone can make big mistakes and it only costs them a small amount of money. However, with no limit poker, small mistakes will cost someone big money. This is why Ed Miller's book is so valuable. Simply reading it will not make someone an expert. However, it will provide someone with a fundamental understanding of the game. This, in turn, will save them a great deal of money while their expertise increases thru experience, thought, and study.A lot of what was in the book, I already knew from experience. I gained this knowledge thru trial and error. That's an expensive and slow way to get an education. I wish I had read at Miller's book five years ago. In fact, I wish I had read it ten years ago. But, better late than never.Ed Miller's book has brought my game to a higher level. For example, for the first time, I understand what Doyle Brunson meant when he said that if he had the button every hand, he could win without looking at his cards as long as his opponents did not know he wasn't looking at his cards.I'm already about halfway thtu another book written by Ed Miller, How To Read Hands at No Limit Hold'em. After that, I intend to read Playing The Player and The 1%. No Limit Hold'em is a game where someone can never stop learning more about it. As Ed Miller points out in his book, No Limit Hold'em is a more complex game than chess. This is why, although computers can easily beat people playing chess or limit Hold'em, computers cannot beat human's at No Limit Holdem.After you read this book, you will want to go back and read it again and again. In fact, you will need to read it again and again. I suggest you read with a yellow highlighter in your hand. Highlighting the parts that are important or meaningful to you will make it much easier to review later on. Good luck at the poker table.

Tommy Angelo in Elements of Poker, probably offered the single best piece of advice every written to becoming a good player, always play your “A” game. He never really defined what an “A” looks like, other than it was significantly better than your “D” game.The Course defines the “A” game for live low stakes no-limit Holdem. If you stick to Ed’s guidelines, you will become a winning player.I first encountered Ed over 12 years ago on the 2-plus-2 forums for his famous post, “Why You Are Not Crushing Small Stakes Holdem.” Ed had taken the time to write a long post about the skills necessary to beat the game and then took the time to answers questions. Since it was free, his only reward was helping other players get better.Ed went on to become the most prolific authors on small stakes Holdem. While I am sure he likes the money and fame, I think his principle motivations remain the same. A sincere desire to help people become better players.In The Course, Ed distills all the poker knowledge from his previous books and articles into a skill-by-skill framework to becoming proficient at 1-3, 2-5, and beyond. On any of one of these skills, there is more to learn but he provides the essential knowledge.Example, in Pokers 1%, he goes through the math of why calling and then folding too many hands is everyone’s biggest leak. In The Course, he tells you this concept, but does not spend too long on the why. To understand the why plan on reading his other books, they are all excellent and worth your while.Ed boils his advice down to advice that is very simply to remember and follow. Example, Don’t Pay People Off when they bet big is his second skill for a 1-3 level game. Just following that simple advice will enable many players to go from loser to break even. Vegas players have feasted for years on tourists never being able to lay down Ace-King when an Ace flops.To those thinking that’s “obvious”, set mining would not be profitable if most players, even supposed “good” ones would not pay you off.Later, at the 2-5 level, he explains there are times you need to violate this rule, as always folding to big bets at higher levels will become as big a leak as never folding. Next time I pay someone off, and it will happen; now I have a framework to decide if it was the right decision.Many people, who have read all of Ed’s books and articles, may wonder if this is just a repetition of previous work. For me, The Course reinforce some of the things I knew, and explained things in a way that finally got through my brain. The chapter on getting 3 streets of value from good hands was well worth the price of admission.This is one poker book where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When you go through the entire journey with Ed, from answering the question where does the money come to taking on the pros, you emerge as a better player. I have already read the book several times, something I normally never do. It is that good.For a serious player, The Course will become the one book you always reread on the flight to Vegas.