Harrington on Cash Games: Winning Strategies for No-Limit Texas Hold'em Money Games Volume 1 | Poker Tournament & Home Game Guide

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 I haven't read the whole book so far, so this review will not be my 100% accurate review. However, I am slightly dissapointed, as of right now, with reference to some of the items on the book. I think that the hand analysis section of the book is a bit off and will possibly hurt your development in the long run. However, the beginning parts of the books IE (Pot Odds/Implied Odds/EV) still do hold merit to someone who is just starting to get a bit serious about the game. The issue is, however, that this book, AS OF RIGHT NOW (From what I have read, going into the Metagame chapter), won't really teach you the finer points of going up in levels aka starting as 1/2 and developing into a player who may be able to sucessfully get to 5/10 or so, even though they use 5/10 quite a bit as the level of play. However, I haven't finished the book yet. I will update my review as I go through the book.Update October 30th, 2012:I finished reading the book (I skipped some of the examples, because they were frustrating at times). To be honest, I am BARELY giving this a 3/5 stars, although it deserves somewhere around a 2.5-2.8 stars. Anyway, I am going to list the pros/cons of this book:Pros:Gives you a good way of mixing up your play at the lower level games as it will force you to obey the rules on mixing up your play.Gives good detail, on a smaller scale, of how to sucessfully play as a tight-aggressive playerReally beats home how you should mix your play up as well as gives you a basic understanding of hand reading.Cons:Mixing your play up this way will, in a cash game, not truely help you reach that next level, due to the fact you are ignoring table presence as well as not focusing on opponents that you will want to exploit more often (aka fish)This book will not significantly help you advance to higher level, although if you are wishing to stay at the 1-2 or 2-5 NL tables, this book will be a good guide to making you a decent winnerQuite a bit of filler information and unnecessary explinations. It dances around topics at times.The author assumes too much, at times, about his opponent's hands and why they bet. They do not really put as much thought into table image. They just blantantly generalize how to play an opponent.Overall, this book was one of the few books that were difficult to read. Granted, I have been reading QUITE A BIT MORE then I normally do, so that might have an effect on me. I really hope the second volume is better then the first. However, this book, I feel, is geared toward more players who are just getting into the game. If you play strictly by this book, you will not be as successful as you can be if you don't. Take some of the advice with a grain of salt. The main gist you will get out of this book is the following:Mix your actions up in reference to the strength of your handAlways ask why an opponent is doing a specific actionLearn to calculate Pot Odds/Implied Odds/EVYour stack size should dictate your play style.Overall, I would recommend this book to players who are JUST getting into poker. However, I would recommend it with caution. It will help you a good amount (as a complete beginner), but don't heavily rely off of it.I've played poker of one kind or another for 40 years. Before the "Moneymaker Cascade Event" that propelled tournament poker into the mainstream, I was playing tournaments...and doing well. Got the previous 3 volume series by Dan and immediately improved my tournament results. My cash rate from 2004 to current is 31%. That's up from the 20% I THOUGHT was pretty good! I credit Dan's books for a lot of that success.This last year, I've been so busy with business, a touring band I'm in, and other things, that I haven't had the time to play tournaments on either circuit. So, when I do have time, I've started playing cash games at a local casino that's 5 minutes from my home. While I generally do well, I was having some pretty big swings.Finished Volume 1 of Dan's new books, and headed to the casino to play. I feel like a kid in a candy store, and no one's watching me steal the chocolate! Last time out, I got myself seated at a table with 6 sharks and 2 fish. 3 hours later, I've tripled my stack. One of the biggest sharks folded to a raise from me with the statement "I can't beat this guy...he's killed me in every hand today", which was absolutely true. I was getting good cards, to be sure, but I only had the mortal nuts once all day. (Raised pre-flop with JJ, got reraised by KK, hit a set on a flop of J-5-2 rainbow, and got the case J on the turn which got the KK hand's whole stack on the river)Because of Dan's insights, I felt I knew where I was in virtually every single hand. And indeed, I had no surprises. Just started Volume 2 last night, so I'm anxious to finish it and see what fun I can have on my next trip to the aquarium, err...casino.Highly recommended.Taken together, volumes one and two of Harrington on cash games are the best books I have ever read on NL hold em. Harrington gets across difficult ideas in as simple a way as possible, with plenty of examples and questions (as in his tournament books).Very interesting exposition of the difference that stack size has on overall strategy, as well as the best section on hand reading I've yet come across.Not a lot to say about this book. I'd place it at an intermediate level, it has a lot of depth, and worth getting. Buy it, highly recommended (as are all his others)A classic of its time that is now out of date.The main problem with the book is that no-one limps any more and this changes the entire dynamic of the game.Excellent.I have had the book about a week now, and i am about to start reading it for the second time. Very readable, but so full of good points that i know that i have missed some the first time through.