Texas Hold'em For Dummies

by Mark Harlan

Overview

Turn on the TV, drop by a newsstand, or just browse the checkout your local supermarket and you'll see firsthand that Texas Hold 'Em is the poker game everyone's playing. It's a game that's deceptively simple, yet within its easy framework you’ll find truth and trickery, boredom and fear, skill and misfortune—in other words, all the things that make life fun and worth living!

Texas Hold'em For Dummies introduces you to the fundamental concepts and strategies of this wildly popular game. It covers the rules for playing and betting, odds, etiquette, Hold'em lingo, and offers sound advice to avoid mistakes. This handy reference guide gives new and even seasoned players winning strategies and tactics not just for playing the game, but for winning. You'll learn:

• Rules and strategies for limit, no-limit, tournament, and online play
• How to "play" the other players
• The importance of your bankroll—recommended sizes and more
• Hands you should and should not play
• How to camouflage your play and dodge traps
• When, who, and how to bluff
• How to maximize your win with check-raising and trapping
• The different approaches for playing in private games, casinos, card rooms, tournaments, and on the Internet
• How to use mathematics to your advantage

Texas Hold 'Em is  a game of both skill and chance. But it's a game that can be beaten, and whether you want to make money, sharpen your game, or just have a good time, Texas Hold 'Em for Dummies will give you the winning edge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470046043
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/02/2006
Series:	For Dummies Books
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	132,857
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mark “The Red” Harlan was born in Rawlins, Wyoming, and has lived exactly the life you’d expect as a result. Armed with a degree in Applied Mathematics (from a university he loathes so much that he refuses to even utter the name), he fell headlong into a 20-year stint in the Silicon Valley’s computer industry.
Red’s professional experience includes human-interface work at Apple Computer, development of the bidding schema used by eBay, overseeing application development at Danger (makers of the T-Mobile Sidekick), as well as co-founding CyberArts Licensing (suppliers of the poker software seen on the MANSION and GamesGrid sites).
At the tender age of 8, he won a pinewood derby competition in the Cub Scouts, giving him his first heavy swig of victory that would forever warp his oh-so-soft-and-pliable mind. Under the influence of this experience, he started playing poker that same year (“might as well win money if you’re going to win”) and became good enough by 2005 to be a net money winner in that year’s World Series of Poker.
Red is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and has an extensive writing background ranging from penning InfoWorld’s Notes from the Fringe during the heyday of the Internet, to being lead author of the book he thinks everyone should own (his mom does): Winning at Internet Poker For Dummies (Wiley).
Red maintains a Web site of poker articles at www.redsdeal.com and welcomes non-spam e-mail at [e-mail] (be sure to include the +).

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Table of Contents

Introduction.

Part I: Everything’s Bigger in Texas: Welcome to Texas Hold’em!

Chapter 1: A Bird’s-Eye View of Texas Hold’em.

Chapter 2: Ranking and Reading a Hand.

Chapter 3: Just Tell Me How to Play: Texas Hold’em Basics.

Part II: Texas Hold’em: Play by Play.

Chapter 4: Beginning with Two.

Chapter 5: Flopping ’Til You’re Dropping.

Chapter 6: Taking Your Turn.

Chapter 7: Dipping in the River.

Part III: Movin’ On to Higher Stakes: Advanced Strategies of Hold’em.

Chapter 8: Playing the Players.

Chapter 9: Bluffing: When Everything Isn’t What It Appears to Be.

Chapter 10: Maximizing Your Win: Check-Raising and Trapping.

Chapter 11: Camouflaging Your Play and Dodging Traps.

Chapter 12: Considering Mathematics.

Chapter 13: Advancing Your Knowledge.

Part IV: Casinos, Card Rooms, and the Internet: Places to Play Hold’em.

Chapter 14: There’s No Place Like Home: Playing in Private Games.

Chapter 15: Opting for the Internet: Online Games.

Chapter 16: Harrah’s, Here I Come: Playing in Card Rooms.

Chapter 17: Competing in Tournaments.

Part V: The Part of Tens.

Chapter 18: Ten Differences between Online and Real-World Play.

Chapter 19: Ten (Or So) Common Mistakes.

Chapter 20: Ten Ways to Improve Your Home Game.

Chapter 21: Ten Bad Beats.

Chapter 22: Ten Things You Can Do to Improve Your Hold’em Game.

Glossary.

Index.