[tikipirate]

Harrington On Hold'em: Vol I
Purchased from: http://www.amazon.com
Price Paid: $20

Harrington on Hold'em is a great book for the tournament player, there is no book I would recommend more. Vol. 1 teaches the basics, and covers perhaps the first 60% of a tournament. After reading just Vol. 1 I was shocked at how much better I was playing. If you fool around with Amazon.com you can get them to pair Vol 2 with Vol 1 and save a little bit of coin, get both, you won't be sorry.

Pros:

• Essential information for playing and winning tournaments.

• Explains concepts like pot odds, implied odds, etc as simply as I've ever seen. Also provides short cuts for doing the calculations.

• Provides problems at the end of each section which teach you how to use the skills discussed in each chapter. If you don't cheat, and look at the answers, you will learn what Harrington is teaching.

Cons:
I had only two gripes about the book. Neither should stop you from getting this book. They are minor.

• Some of Harrington's recommendations for starting hand selection is just too tight (for my style of play). He's a tight player, and advocates it. Not really a con but just keep that in the back of your mind when reading.

• On the flip side, on several of the problems, he advocates what I consider loose calls with the justification of "If you call this and you are beat, there's nothing you could have done". This is more common in Vol. 2 by it seemed strange to me.