A Review Of Tanenbaum’s Latest Creation

2008-07-15 Word Count: 1015 Category: Arts & Entertainment

Barry Tanenbaum, a well known player of cash poker games have presented a new face of poker strategies in his book Advanced Limit Hold 'em Strategy. The book contains the techniques to beat tough games of limit holdem poker. These techniques mark a significant contribution not only to that certain category of texts committed to limit holdem poker, but towards the superior overall knowledge theory and strategy of poker. While offering the most to the limit holdem players of middle and high stakes, the book also offers the other games to the players. This can be referred as a book for the serious players of poker games. By means of many helpful instructions and clear and careful presentations of complex concepts, the book deserves a special place beside others.

As it is already indicated from the title that this is not the book for the newbie’s starting their poker career. Tanenbaum has also advised the beginners not to read the book. According to him they should read those books containing some essentials and basic information and play for sometime. This is because he wants to improve their game, not to give one to them. In fact, he doesn’t claim to provide an innovative style to the players, but rather to instruct them to know how they can grow and improve upon their existing style.

Tanenbaum gives a specific advice relating to begin to think over certain initial hands of poker from definite positions might be striking one as ‘loose’ or ‘tight’ depends upon the view point of a player. Though, it would be inappropriate to characterize Tanenbaum as a person promoting a particular playing style. If anything, the style advocated by him is really superiorly illustrated as an ‘attitude’ or ‘orientation’. The main feature of this strategy is to always remain aware of several factors that affect the success of a poker player at the poker table, as well as the planning of his/her actions accordingly. He advised that one should always be aware of his/her betting, checking, raising or calling requirements.

Especially, the Advanced Limit Hold 'em Strategy is organized and presented in a way that it reflects many golden years of the author as a poker coach and his experience of writing more than 100 columns for the magazine Card Player. The book comprises into two sections i.e. the concepts and the stages.

In ‘Concepts’ section, the book primarily focuses on the problems and issues repeatedly faced by a player in several situations of poker gaming. This section of the book is particularly helpful for the players of limit as well as no-limit holdem games. The organization of the discussion moves around five key areas for emphasizing including the significance of position; organization of the tendencies of the opponents; to understand the time and way of using aggression; creation of dead money; correct assessment of images of own as well as of others.

The main theme of the advice of Tanenbaum is a confliction that the poker players earning huge profits are all habitual to force their opponents into what they are predicting to be performed by them while being impulsive towards themselves. As a way for the introduction of strategies for the achievements of such goals, he has evoked an old strategy of marketing i.e. ‘FUD’ to help for emphasizing the requirement to spread ‘Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt’ among the opponents of a player at the poker table.

The foremost way for the spread of ‘FUD’ is the creation of ‘Illusion of Action’, as called by Tanenbaum. This means to play in a way as well as with enough frequency to seem to be generating action, thereby attaining actual action in those circumstances when certainly the best of it has. A wide variety of plays are covered by the concepts i.e. the use of position, exploitation of weaknesses, and creation of dead money that might be falling outside usual arsenal of someone and are not recommended necessarily when playing against unobservant or unimaginative opponents.

His/other significant concept includes reading of hands, notification of tells of opponents avoidance of giving tells to them and maintenance of balance. Various suggestions are also there concerning various issues encountered by a player when he/she moves up in the limit as well as to highly difficult games.

The book presents ‘stages’ as per the four stages of a limit holdem hand of poker including turn, river, flop and pre-flop. It should be taken into consideration that a given hand is rarely discussed by Tanenbaum without thinking over that how its acts within a series of hands from which the ability of decision making is influenced by a huge number of factors.

The discussion regarding the gaming of pre-flop considers the hand values as well as the selection of hands, though it skips the offer of beginning hand chart in support to provide thorough, perceptive mini-lectures on the probable hands with the help of which one can enter into a pot. The terrific analysis of blind game is also included, which is a significant area where such a close attention if not often offered.

The book keeps the theme of instructing that one should always aware of reasons of betting, checking, calling, and raising. There are subsequent sections for all of them and every section focuses on particular and insists the necessity of a plan for every hand to be played. Some specific and common scenarios such as re-raising of the flop, playing of the turn out of position for fine effect, often his analysis are punctuated often with the highly informative examples.

Many people keeps on researching about play at poker instead of playing poker as said by Tanenbaum, proper thinking about the hand, the board and the efforts of the player for the maximization of profits and minimization of losses. The book helps the readers by providing itself as a host of the techniques and tools to become highly aware and extra thoughtful, and therefore much profitable as a poker player.

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