2 Introduction

hands, many of the sophisticated plays used to manipulate
standard opponents into making errors do not work. This is
because many of these players are not aware enough to be tricked.
Also, the structure of some smaller games is proportionately
different. In spite of this, many ideas in the book will help you in
smaller games while you work your way up to the bigger ones. In
addition, the discussion on how to play in loose games will be
crucial for your success. As for the bigger hold 'em games, where
players are capable of thinking at many different levels, an
understanding of the information in this book, combined with a
great deal of experience and some hard thinking about the game,
is the only way to guarantee success. .
Before the first edition of Hold 'em Poker for Advanced
Pluyers was published in 1988, we debated for a long time before
deciding to release the information it contained. We thought the
strategies presented would make many of the games we played in
much tougher, and we both derived much of our income from
playing poker. However, after considering the avalanche of hold
'em books - most of which were inaccurate - that were
reaching the market, we believed it was only right to go ahead and
produce the text.
Incidentally, Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Pluyers is not
meant to replace Hold 'em Poker by David Sklansky. In fact, we
still consider that book absolutely must reading for anyone
interested in learning the game. However, we intend to discuss
many areas of hold 'em which that text either only touches on or
does not address, and we intend to discuss these areas at a level of
significant sophistication.
Six years after the first edition 'of Hold 'em Poker for
Advanced Players appeared we put out an expanded edition. To
our amazement, poker - and hold 'em in particular - had
exploded across the country. This meant that if you became
proficient at Texas hold 'em, there would be many good games to
play in and lots of places where these games can be found.
But the games had also changed from the time this text first
appeared. Specifically, players who just played tight didn't seem
Introduction 3
to be as prevalent as they were in 1988. Moreover, there were now
many more players who played very aggressively (perhaps overly
so), and loose, action play became much more common. In fact,
hold 'em pots frequently become quite large, with a great deal of
money sometimes going into the center of the table before the
flop. This was very different from the way we remember hold 'em
when both of us first began to play it.
There were probably.many reasons why this happened, but it
was clear to us that this text had a lot to do with it. Many of the
plays that we explained - and that we only rarely saw before -
were now commonplace. On the other hand, with numerous new
players at the hold 'em tables, many of whom came to "gamble,"
it was not surprising that the pace of the games had accelerated.
This change didn't really affect the strategies that Hold 'em
Poker for Advanced Players provided, but it did affect when
certain concepts came into play. Again, as we pointed out in 1988,
there is no substitute for experience, and to ensure success, you
should be doing a great deal of thinking about the game. So in
1994 we produced the second edition of this book. We gave more
examples and offered more detailed explanations. But the basic
concepts from the first edition remained the same.
It is now a new century, and we have decided to continue the
process that we began in 1994. But we have taken it one step
further, we are going to cover much new territory. Many of you
have complained that while Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players
was the "advanced" text, it did not explain in enough detail how
to play in loose, low limit games. This has now been thoroughly
addressed and those of you who are familiar with the so called
"low limit" texts will see that our approach is very different and
much more profitable. In addition, some of you felt that the
section on short-handed play was not complete; this has also been
addressed. We have also added many new concepts into the
"body" of the manual. And, as we have said many times before,
if you study hard, get a proper amount of experience, and do a
great deal of thinking about the game, you should be well on the
road to success.

4 Introduction
Finally, we would like to express our appreciation to Irving
Sklansky for editing this work. Thanks to him our ideas are now
more clearly stated and thus should be more easily understood. In
addition, we would like to also thank Charmaine Dadian for her
typing, proof reading, and assistance in the overall production of
this text.