Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker

by King Yao

King Yao explains how to play Hold'Em poker. Topic covered include sizing up your opponents, counting outs, figuring pot odds, the value of position, determining when to raise, call, or fold,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0935926259
• ISBN13: 9780935926255
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Pi Yee Press
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent text with much original material for advanced players

This has certain "basics" which you'll find in all good poker books (Pot Odds, reading the flop, starting hands, position). Additionally, there is a nice introduction to gambling theory (beginner level) that is often applied to sports betting but also applicable to Poker. While the explanation of this beginner material is clear and thorough, the greatest strength of this book is its explanation of many advanced concepts. This text offers a lot of new material which I've never seen in any published poker book. Some of his original content includes short-handed play adjustments, a chapter on online poker, and methods to analyze the hand when you're unsure of who has the lead. This last topic (i.e. you have a middle pair and someone bets to you) received a lot of mathematical discussion of when to call when you may or may not be beaten. There are also numerous tidbits thrown in throughout the book. The information conveyed in this book is so diverse and original that a short review simply can't do it justice. While 352 pages is a long read, it is packed with insightful analysis and practical tips. I've already read many poker books before this one, but none had as much original advanced material as this.

An Excellent Limit Hold'Em Book

If I could only read one book on Limit Hold'em this would be it. The book is quite readable and Yao goes out of his way to simplify the calculations required to "Weigh the Odds". Yao distills much of Sklansky's "Theory of Poker" into a very simplified format. He simplifies the calculation of pot odds and expected value. One reviewer made some completely untrue comments regarding Yao's DIPO (Do I Have Pot Odds) calculation. The calculation is a simplified version of Sklansky's method and required only knowledge of how to multiply and add or subtract. What I most liked about Yao's treatment was that he shows how he comes up with statements like "there is a 10.5% chance of drawing a particular hand". Other books just make the statement and stop there. Also, the calculation of 10.5% generally turns out to be very simple, requiring only a knowledge of the number of outs to make a hand and the number of unknown cards (both of which are discussed in detail). There are extensive exercises in determining the number of outs and many examples of DIPO and Expected Value calculations. Yao discusses: Types of Players, Expected Value, Pot Odds, Outs, Position, Starting hands, the Flop, the Turn, the River, Short Handed Games, Bluffing, Semi-bluffing and many other topics. This book is for Limit Hold'Em. Much of the approach does not apply to No limit games.

King is King.

I purchased this the other day after it sat on my wish list for many months. If you could ask my bankroll, it'd tell you there were 200 big reasons for why I should have bought it earlier. King Yao provides us with an engineer's eye view of poker as told by a master technician who had the tenacity to forego a successful career as an options trader to become a full-time professional poker player. There's no fluff or rhetoric in this one. It's fact after fact after fact and that's exactly what is most helpful to poker enthusiasts. The reader receives essential insight that is central to the game. Before reading this book, I thought I understood pot odds much better than I actually did. In the past, I was not calculating them effectively as I played. The method he uses for game determination of pot odds, DIPO, is extremely easy to practice while seated at a table or at a virtual one. Making quick, but accurate, determinations as to whether it is profitable to remain playing is essential to victory, and Weighing the Odds provides us with many tools with which to do so. His treatment of starting hands was masterful, and I'm not using hyperbola when I say so. The four pages of specific recommendations as to how to play each hand given early, middle, or late position are sterling. Helpfully, the author makes use of detailed charts and analysis to illustrate those hands highest in EV. Specifically, his discussion of AQ and JJ benefited me as they have proved challenging hands again and again. This one's for everybody, but an advanced player will examine it for a moment and immediately recognize its value.

Brilliant and methodical

I must say the hype of this book wasn't wrong. I first saw this announced by the author in a well-known forum dedicated to poker (www.twoplustwo.com), with an extremely impressive list of contents, and a sample chapter. Not long after, some players had received their copies and all, without exception, were giving rave reviews. Naturally, I wanted to see whether it was justified. Suffice it to say, they were 100% correct. The book should be on the list of must-reads for any hold'em poker player. Although it is especially written for limit hold'em players, speaking from experience, no-limit tournament players will undoubtedly get a lot from it as well. As another reviewer mentions, this isn't a first poker book for a player, and should be read after having digested a book such as "Getting Started in Hold'em" by Miller. A quick perusal through the book will immediately highlight two items: the extremely methodical layout of all situations, and a few lines of math with each and every strategic discussion. This may seem intimidating at first, but in fact it ends up becoming comforting instead. Yao explains in the very beginning that although he supports all of his discussions with math in order to verify the correctness of his explanations, one doesn't need to use this to benefit from the general discussions. It is there if you need or want to go through it. Thus, discussions on bluffing, semi-bluffing, raising for a free-card, etc. All have supporting math to show when it is correct to use these strategies, as well as when not to. Yao isn't so cruel as to force someone no longer familiar with such math, yet willing to learn, to try and figure it out. My case for example. In his early chapters, as he explains, he lays the foundations for his reader to be able to follow it. His patient and dilligent writing reveal him to be a talented teacher as well. Beyond going through the entire gamut of hold'em strategies and situations, he also includes extremely detailed examples of scenarios in which he takes you into the mind of a player such as himself, showing the different weighted factors, and how they influence his decision. I found this invaluable in understanding how one might deal with the strategy or situation discussed. As expected from such an author, there are tons of charts as well to provide as much information to the reader as possible. Not just the usual charts on outs, nor even starting hand charts, but other less common ones as well, such as overall chances of JJ (pocket pair of jacks) against hands of Ace-Queen or higher. On a final note, the layout and print of the book are irreproachable, and even have the rare (in fact I never saw this before) red ink for the suits for red cards. Without belaboring the obvious, if you are a hold'em player and don't have this on your reading list, you are missing out. I know for a certainty I will be rereading it.

Best limit hold 'em book ever!

I just received this book and have been unable to put it down. This book by Yao (a former derivatives trader) is masterful. It includes the best quantitative discussion that I have seen on calculating pot odds and on starting-hand match ups, with an excellent discussion of which hands play well against few hands and which play better against multiple-hands (thereby distinguishing between good calling hands and good raising hands). It includes a thematic discussion of different plays (the check raise, bluffing, semi-bluffing, etc.) as well as a discussion of common situations on the flop and beyond, all with excellent examples. This is not a book for a rank beginner, but should be accessible to anyone who has read the any of the currently-popular limit books (Jones/Miller). Unlike some of the books by 2+2, this book is organized and readable. It is kind of refreshing to read a poker book that has great substance and is also well written (with no apologies needed for the writing)!