– Customer review on 11/03/2010

This book is the second installment in the authors’ excellent three volume ‘Harrington on Hold ‘em’ Tournaments series. Entitled ‘The End-game’, Vol. 2 provides an excellent reference on the closing stages of a tournament – around the bubble and the final table. The book is divided into six parts: making moves; inflection points; multiple inflection points; short tables; heads-up; and final thoughts. The authors have provided an easy-to-read, logical and interesting discussion on contemporary tournament play. There are many work-through problems and quizzes to help your learning of the concepts and tactics discussed. Harrington is known for his very conservative strategy, but for the beginner this advice to essential to stay out of trouble, stay in the action, and hopefully reach the money. There are a number of tournament specific elements that are not found anywhere else in print. When published, this book helped revolutionise the game, and it still is relevant today. The authors are professional, world-class players and have written an outstanding book. Take the time to buy, read and learn from this book. It is essential reading and a ‘must buy’ for any poker player, whatever your level or style of play.

– Customer review on 03/05/2007

Harrington’s second volume is a masterpiece

I, along with most other tournament players I know, had been eagerly awaiting the release of this second volume of Harrington’s work after being blown away by the first, and it does not disappoint. The first volume discussed only early and mid-stage tournament play, and this one completes the circle with excellent analysis of late-stage and endgame play. It helped me win a satellite tournament that won me a seat in the 2005 world series…hopefully it serves me there just as well! Understanding the thought processes of a master such as Harrington really leaves you in awe about the true skill difference between he and the amateurs he routinely runs over. If you have seen him play, it is like watching a man amongst boys, and this book brought me a step closer to understanding just why that disparity exists.

A couple sections I felt were overhyped as utterly revolutionary in the months preceding this book’s release, especially the concept of “inflection points�, described by editors as theory that had never before been put into print. I found this claim to be somewhat exaggerated. The fact is that in poker there are really only 3 decisions to be made: bet, call, or fold. That’s it. Every strategy has, at one time or another, been published, and sometimes I felt like the authors were just slapping a new name on an existing strategy. But I suppose I can confidently say that never before have many such strategies been covered so thoroughly, yet succinctly, with underlying reasoning explicitly laid out. The examples at the end of each chapter continue to be my favorite: they’re not just hypotheticals, but often actual hands that Harrington played in various tournaments, where he describes not only the cards but also the reads he had on other players, and how they affected his play. His is also one of the first books I have found that addresses the very real differences between live and online play (in fact, he pre-faces each of the example hands with a description of whether it’s online or in a live setting). I’ve found other authors to assume that online strategy is analogous to live play, which – as anyone who’s played online for a while will attest – is nonsense. Even an “old geezer� (as my son likes to call me) such as myself plays online these days. Another review here had a good suggestion to check out POKERCROAKER.com if you’re going to open an account online as they had site reviews and sign-up bonus codes for most major sites. In fact, most online sites have tournaments going around the clock, meaning you don’t have to wait for the once-a-day tournies most casinos run if you want to try out some of Harrington’s strategies. In summary, Harrington’s 2 volumes have set the standard by which all other NL tournament holdem books will be measured. The price is a pittance compared to how much it has improved my game.