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Poker Books: "Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 1"
- 5-28-2008
"Harrington
on Hold'em Vol. 1" is a seminal poker book in the field of Texas Hold’em
instructional literature, and it details many strategies like the squeeze play,
longball and smallball, firing the third bullet, and other intricacies of the
game. I would dub it a must-read for any aspiring student of the
game. Harrington focuses on pre-flop hand selection, including the
influence of position of which hands to play and what hands to play in the
tournament's three stages, early, middle, and late. His conservative hand
choices don't belie his reputation as a "rock", indeed, he endorses
raising the standard 3.5-5 X the BB when dealt the large pocket pairs, but
being sparing in hand selection when under the gun.ÂÂ
He does,
however, endorse the occasional Negraneau-esque raise with a suited connector
from early position, to insert an element of unpredictability into one's poker game
and to make you harder to read by observant opponents. Thus, when your
opponent sees a 3 X BB raise from early position, he doesn’t know whether he is
facing a six-seven suited or J-J, etc. Also intriguing is Harrington's
devaluation of the Ace with a weaker kicker, due to extreme problems with
domination when an Ace flops. He metaphorically describes the dilemma as
"plummeting off a slope" in reference to the descending value of the
K-Q-J, and 10-kickers of the ace in ace-kicker...He also intriguingly recommends
the discarding of such "problem" hands as K-J and K-Q and Q-J from
early position, since if you are raised from late position you could easily be
dominated and are at most a slight favorite to win the hand. Finally,
Harrington points out that the "8" is pretty much the
"cutoff" kicker for Aces in terms of their playability from the
professional perspective, with A-7 and smaller being fundamentally too risky
and susceptible to domination by a stronger Ace. Also, A-2, and A-3 have
the potential to make hidden wheel straights on a rag flop, potentially winning
the entire stack of someone with a set or high pocket pair. These are the
basic hand selection guidelines that the conservative Harrington endorses in
his seminal work.ÂÂ
Harrington also explores the nature of the
texture of the flop as an important element in deciding whether to bluff, and
whether your hand is any good. Also, coordinated flops like 7-8-9 double
suited are particularly dangerous for the high pairs and thus should be bet
aggressively to shut out drawing hands like A-10 or Q-J of that suit.ÂÂ
Harrington, a risk analyst, among other things by profession, also
focuses prominently on pot odds as the key factor in making decisions, and has
a cogent introduction to determining hand probabilities based on the number of
outs, and using this information to know how much to bet to out price flush
draws for example. A flush draw is about 36% to complete by the river, or
a little better than 2:1 against, so you should bet enough to give your
opponent no more than 2:1 pot odds to call; a bet of 2/3 the pot is usually
enough to accomplish this out pricing.ÂÂ
To practice such intricate mathematical concepts, Harrington also has an extensive "Problems" section that includes sample hand analysis and how Harrington himself would have played particular hole cards, etc. Overall, I believe that this book is invaluable to the aspiring player and is a must-buy, in addition to "Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 2" and "Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 3". and the two works on Cash Games, Vol.s I and II.

