Daniel Negreanus Power Holdem Strategy
Considering all the aspects, this book is a little disappointing. What is most disappointing is the fact, that this 485 page book has little to do with the writings of Negreanu, which appear only in the last 200 pages. Unlike what was expected, this book does not focus on the unique style of poker of Negreanu.
The book has five chapters before those of Negreanu, and each one is written by a different pro: Todd Brunson, Evelyn Ng, Paul Wasicka, Erick Lindgren and David Williams. Evelyn’s chapter presents an interesting strategy for the beginners, which make quite a lot of sense to me. Also the fact that I hadn’t heard of it before, made it further good. However, the other four chapters by the pros were simply a waste of time. As it is, Lindgren, Brunson, Wasicka and Williams have all written about these very basic concepts, which I had heard about, a million times before.
The chapter by Lindgren dealt with online play. A major drawback with this chapter is that it has been written for players who cut their teeth in casinos (example Click here) and have moved to the online version. In actuality, I believe most of us would start online and then work our ways towards casinos in case we succeed online. This makes the whole thing going backwards. He provides a bit more of the actual in-game strategies than Brunson, but not too much.
All said and done, the chapter by Daniel is simply great and I feel that it is good enough to stand apart, on its own. Around 200 pages in length, an in depth description is provided for his small-ball strategy, the mathematical analysis that makes it work, as well as the art of mastering it. The reader is guided through the starting hand selection and moves all the way through flop, turn, and river play, making it a lot easy to understand the analogies in the way. Although I believe that the rest of the world of poker has caught up with Daniel’s methods ever since his phenomenal success in 2003 & 2004, the strategy is nevertheless, quite a useful weapon for a poker player.
On the whole, with all the disappointing stuff, the book should get just 2 stars.
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