
With his three-volume series on tournament no limit holdem:Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments – Volume 1: Strategic PlayExpert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments – Volume II: The Endgame ReviewHarrington on Hold’em: Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments- Volume 3: The Workbook and his two books on no limit holdem cash games:Harrington on Cash Games, Volume IHarrington on Cash Games, Volume II Dan Harrington revolutionized the way the average poker player approached his/her play in those disciplines. Now, he has attempted to do the same thing in his latest book, the recently published Harrington on Online Cash Games- 6-Max No Limit Hold’em. As the title suggests, this book focuses on a very particular subset of online games, and, in fact, is even more specific than the title suggests, in that he narrows his vision even more to teach the reader how to dominate at micro-stakes (.10-.25 blinds and lower) and small stakes games (.25-.50, .50-$1 and $1-$2).Before speaking about the content of the book, it is worth mentioning that if you don’t currently own tracking software, such as Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager, and have no intention of ever buying such a program, this book is not for you. Unlike his earlier works, which present an overview of poker strategies that are intended to serve the reader in both live and online situations, this book zeroes in on the types of players you will encounter online, and how to best combat them. As a result, the author makes it clear that, unless you are using tracking software, you are basically playing in the dark most of the time.Having said that, Harrington is at his thorough best teaching you, step by step, how to go about setting up a heads-up display that will give you all the necessary information on your opponents at the two stakes sizes that he wants you to crush. He describes the various options that are available in standard tracking software, and explains, in detail, which ones have the most value to you on a day-to-day basis and which will just clutter up your screen. For those who are not already well-versed in these programs, but have an interest in incorporating one into their play, this feature alone is worth many times the cost of the book.Once he has helped you set up your heads-up display, he then goes on to describe the type of note-taking that is most valuable to augment the statistics that you will be accumulating on your opponents on a hand-by-hand basis, paying particular emphasis to the types of hands other players choose to push all-in with, 3 and 4-bet with, and show down after taking other dramatic actions. He provides the reader with a useful shorthand notation that makes note taking efficient and informative, and gives examples of how they can be used to combat your opponents.From there, he focuses a lot of attention on one more basic concept, ranges and distributions. He explodes the fallacy of “putting someone on a hand”, which is at best a hit-or-miss proposition, replacing it with understanding, based on a player’s statistics, just what range of hands he is likely to be playing. By utilizing the information in the heads-up display, you can see just how often a player is voluntarily putting money in the pot, and how often he is coming in with a raise. This enables you to get a clear idea of what he might be playing, and decide what to do with your own hand based on your winning chances against his entire range. This concept be
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