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How to Read Hands at No-Limit Hold'em
Hand reading is the single most important no-limit hold€™em skill. If you can figure out what hands your opponents are likely to have, you will make consistently good decisions. You€™ll find bluffs other players miss. You€™ll find value bets other players miss. And you€™ll also be able to anticipate and avoid trouble before you€™re knee-deep in it. Some people say hand reading is a €œfeel€ skill. That you can only learn it through experience. They€™re wrong. Not that experience isn€™t vital. It is. But if you think that you€™re just going to figure it all out by playing hours and hours of hold€™em, you€™re likely mistaken. The learning curve is very steep. That€™s the bad news. The good news is that How To Read Hands At No-Limit Hold'em can leapfrog you up the learning curve. Not only will you be reading hands better from the moment you finish your first read-through, but you will also learn how to develop your skill during every ses
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 11, 2012
This book is written for the $1 - $2 and $2 - $5 no limit players who understand the math behind poker but long to improve their hand reading skills. Although Miller doesn’t say it, he assumes you know the power of position, can calculate outs and know how to figure out EV. If you have not mastered those concepts, pick up a copy of No Limit Hold ‘em Theory and Practice by the same author and David Skylansky or pretty much anything by Daniel Harrington.
Also, if you are serious about mastering the concepts in the book, you will need a pen and paper to write down the exercises. It’s in working through the exercises Miller scatters throughout the book that your game will improve. You have to put in the work away from the table to get good at the game.
For Miller, a lot of hand reading comes down to using his range of starting hands for the three types of players you will find at an average small stakes game:
- The Nit: conservative in nature is mostly worried about losing big pots
- The Regular: the standard player who fills out small stakes live action hold’em and usually does well in her home games
- The Fish: a loose player who likes to gamble too much to be worried about pot odds and plays a wide variety of starting hands.
Miller avoids the traditional descriptions of tight, passive, loose, and aggressive. Although he doesn’t say it, I think is the general point regardless of how players play, they stick to a range of starting hands. How they act on the flop, turn and river narrows the range of their hands, regardless of their style of play.
Three key concepts govern hand reading:
1) Players play a certain way for a reason. It’s up to you to divine that reason.
2) Most players don’t bluff at the correct frequency; usually they don’t bluff enough though a few players bluff too much. It’s easy to pick out the latter.
3) Big bets mean more than small bets, a concept carried over from a whole range of books.
Like most good poker books, Miller summarizes the key concepts towards the end of the book. In fact, like most poker books, if you skip to the key concepts and find that you know them all, you don’t need the book.
He ends the book with eight examples of hand reading in action. Again, you don’t need Miller’s book if you read the final hand reading examples and say, “Yeah, well I knew that.”
My bet, if you are playing $2 - $5 games and not making a living at it, you need the book. Consider it a reliable tell.
Also, if you are serious about mastering the concepts in the book, you will need a pen and paper to write down the exercises. It’s in working through the exercises Miller scatters throughout the book that your game will improve. You have to put in the work away from the table to get good at the game.
For Miller, a lot of hand reading comes down to using his range of starting hands for the three types of players you will find at an average small stakes game:
- The Nit: conservative in nature is mostly worried about losing big pots
- The Regular: the standard player who fills out small stakes live action hold’em and usually does well in her home games
- The Fish: a loose player who likes to gamble too much to be worried about pot odds and plays a wide variety of starting hands.
Miller avoids the traditional descriptions of tight, passive, loose, and aggressive. Although he doesn’t say it, I think is the general point regardless of how players play, they stick to a range of starting hands. How they act on the flop, turn and river narrows the range of their hands, regardless of their style of play.
Three key concepts govern hand reading:
1) Players play a certain way for a reason. It’s up to you to divine that reason.
2) Most players don’t bluff at the correct frequency; usually they don’t bluff enough though a few players bluff too much. It’s easy to pick out the latter.
3) Big bets mean more than small bets, a concept carried over from a whole range of books.
Like most good poker books, Miller summarizes the key concepts towards the end of the book. In fact, like most poker books, if you skip to the key concepts and find that you know them all, you don’t need the book.
He ends the book with eight examples of hand reading in action. Again, you don’t need Miller’s book if you read the final hand reading examples and say, “Yeah, well I knew that.”
My bet, if you are playing $2 - $5 games and not making a living at it, you need the book. Consider it a reliable tell.
December 6, 2022
I’m reviewing my poker library after re-reading each of the books and formatting them for ease of reference.
Poker player experience level required: BEGINNER
Original publication date: 2011
Reviewed: 2022
Game: No Limit Hold‘Em
Book information is relevant at time of review: YES
Content:
Ed Miller is one of the good content writers for the lower stakes no limit players. This book is no exception to his litany of material out there. In this book he engages the reader more with setting up exercises the reader can use in order to start thinking in terms of hand ranges and various post flop scenarios. While they can be a bit taxing, no poker player is going to get better if they don't put the time into studying. Where the book could be improved would be in the manner hand ranges are expressed. While he uses a conventional manner to list all pocket pairs, plus each of the suited broadway cards - [AA-22, KQs-K10s, QJs-Q10s, J10s] it would be much easier for the reader to view a standard 169 square grid in order to envision the card selection. That is my only disappointment in the reference book.
Otherwise, Miller hits on a lot of the common scenarios the lower stakes player will encounter and supplies solid advice. Some of the material is starting to become outdated, but not much of it at all.
Highly recommend for the beginner to intermediate $1/2, $1/3, and $2/5 player.
Poker player experience level required: BEGINNER
Original publication date: 2011
Reviewed: 2022
Game: No Limit Hold‘Em
Book information is relevant at time of review: YES
Content:
Ed Miller is one of the good content writers for the lower stakes no limit players. This book is no exception to his litany of material out there. In this book he engages the reader more with setting up exercises the reader can use in order to start thinking in terms of hand ranges and various post flop scenarios. While they can be a bit taxing, no poker player is going to get better if they don't put the time into studying. Where the book could be improved would be in the manner hand ranges are expressed. While he uses a conventional manner to list all pocket pairs, plus each of the suited broadway cards - [AA-22, KQs-K10s, QJs-Q10s, J10s] it would be much easier for the reader to view a standard 169 square grid in order to envision the card selection. That is my only disappointment in the reference book.
Otherwise, Miller hits on a lot of the common scenarios the lower stakes player will encounter and supplies solid advice. Some of the material is starting to become outdated, but not much of it at all.
Highly recommend for the beginner to intermediate $1/2, $1/3, and $2/5 player.
January 20, 2016
Intensely mediocre. Possibly Miller's worst book, 'How to Read Hands...' is simply far too simple to be worth the time it takes to read it for anyone but a rank beginner. That the book initially cost $70 is on the border of offensive. But for its usefulness to newcomers to the game, the book would be practically worthless; and still, I'm not sure I'd recommend paying more than $5 for it.
There is a vastly superior, free guide available here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32/...
There is a vastly superior, free guide available here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32/...
May 23, 2017
Recommended website for hand reading:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32/...
Poker hand reading math:
Pre-flop:
6 ways to make a given pocket pair e.g. A Club + A Spade/Heart/Diamond (3+2+1)
4 ways to make AKs but 12 ways to make AKo (4x3) => 3x more likely to have offsuit than suited cards
2x more likely to have AKo vs AA
Post-flop:
3 ways to make a set; 12 ways to make a pair with specific kicker (e.g. Qx on Qxx flop) and 9 ways to have 2 pairs
Case Study: Bayesian probability that someone has top pair or better at the flop?
Assume pre-flop put opponent on the following hand ranges: AA-TT; AK-AQs; AK-AQo
Flop: K, 9, 4
# of combos that is pair K or better = 6 combos AA + 12 combos AK + 3 combos to set K = 21 combos
Total # of combos = (21 combos of pair K or better) + QQ/JJ/TT 18 combos + AQs 4 combos + 12 combos AQo = 55 possible combos based on pre-flop range
Probability = 21/55 = 38%
More on Bayesian Probabilities
https://www.partypoker.com/how-to-pla...
http://www.suntzupoker.com/poker-odds...
Pre-flop
Group 1
AA; KK; QQ; JJ; AKs
Group 2
AQs; AJs;
Good hands: Group 3 & 4
Group 3
TT; 99; 88; 77; 66
AQ; AJ; ATs; KQs; KJs; QJs; JTs
Group 4
KQ; KTs; QTs
Medium hands: Group 5, 6, 7, 8
J9s; T9s; 98s ; 55; 44; 33; 22
Group 5
Axs; KJ; QJ; Q9s; JT; 87s
Group 6
AT; KT; QT
Group 7
Kxs; J9; T9; o/r suited connectors
Group 8
Ax; Qxs; Jxs; Kx; Qx; J8; connectors
The caller in a multi-way pot in a drawish board w/ sizeable equity is unlikely to have a very good hand. He is either drawing or has a weak kicker or middle pair. Why else would you not raise if there are many other players behind you. The exception would be the nut flush to draw other players or maybe a nut straight.
Flush draws > likely when suited board cards are low ranked
Rag boards produce few hands strong enough to call 3 streets (unless set - likely to re-raise)
Ace on flop hits many players' calling range
-ve EV to semi-bluff the turn and check river
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32/...
Poker hand reading math:
Pre-flop:
6 ways to make a given pocket pair e.g. A Club + A Spade/Heart/Diamond (3+2+1)
4 ways to make AKs but 12 ways to make AKo (4x3) => 3x more likely to have offsuit than suited cards
2x more likely to have AKo vs AA
Post-flop:
3 ways to make a set; 12 ways to make a pair with specific kicker (e.g. Qx on Qxx flop) and 9 ways to have 2 pairs
Case Study: Bayesian probability that someone has top pair or better at the flop?
Assume pre-flop put opponent on the following hand ranges: AA-TT; AK-AQs; AK-AQo
Flop: K, 9, 4
# of combos that is pair K or better = 6 combos AA + 12 combos AK + 3 combos to set K = 21 combos
Total # of combos = (21 combos of pair K or better) + QQ/JJ/TT 18 combos + AQs 4 combos + 12 combos AQo = 55 possible combos based on pre-flop range
Probability = 21/55 = 38%
More on Bayesian Probabilities
https://www.partypoker.com/how-to-pla...
http://www.suntzupoker.com/poker-odds...
Pre-flop
Group 1
AA; KK; QQ; JJ; AKs
Group 2
AQs; AJs;
Good hands: Group 3 & 4
Group 3
TT; 99; 88; 77; 66
AQ; AJ; ATs; KQs; KJs; QJs; JTs
Group 4
KQ; KTs; QTs
Medium hands: Group 5, 6, 7, 8
J9s; T9s; 98s ; 55; 44; 33; 22
Group 5
Axs; KJ; QJ; Q9s; JT; 87s
Group 6
AT; KT; QT
Group 7
Kxs; J9; T9; o/r suited connectors
Group 8
Ax; Qxs; Jxs; Kx; Qx; J8; connectors
The caller in a multi-way pot in a drawish board w/ sizeable equity is unlikely to have a very good hand. He is either drawing or has a weak kicker or middle pair. Why else would you not raise if there are many other players behind you. The exception would be the nut flush to draw other players or maybe a nut straight.
Flush draws > likely when suited board cards are low ranked
Rag boards produce few hands strong enough to call 3 streets (unless set - likely to re-raise)
Ace on flop hits many players' calling range
-ve EV to semi-bluff the turn and check river
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2016
Fairly basic introduction to ranges and reading your opponent's hand on Hold'em.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews