Probably the best poker book ever written for tournament hold 'em. Great insight and makes you think about the tournament game differently than cash games. If you play tournament poker, this book should pay for itself several dozen times over in the first few tournaments after you've read it.

The abc poker strategy explained with (some real) hand analysis. This is a perfect startup to embrace all the important topics of poker. Maybe some points may be outdated, but it's still good enough to get all the volums and get in touch with the whats real matter in poker.

Its a "must have" for all poker aspirants.

One of the few poker books that's actually good. Helmuth's book absolutely blew. That guy sucks.

Must-read for beginners and seasoned players alike


Easy to read. Great introduction to basic tournament skills. Some brief introduction to more advanced skills to prompt readers to more advanced readings. Affords solid insight into thought processes and tactics of a well respected champion and his not insignificant number of poker disciples. Can provide a solid foundation if studied, or help a more mature player refine their game on review.

A practial book for pokerplayers on all levels. I have read several from more famous players, but they talk too much about their too big ego, and not enough about poker and how to become better. Harrington take this part of the job very seriously. U will learn something.

A must read for any serious poker player.

Very interesting. Complete.

This is the best book written about poker tournaments. It's easy to read, easy to understand and gives you all you need to know to win.

If you like to play tournament poker this book is a must read. Harrington taught me how to play winning tournament poker through this book. With concepts like "M" and pot odds being explained in detail, but also easy for a novice poker player to understand it's definitely worth a read for everyone interested in improving their game. There are a lot of examples and the chapters are fairly short making it an easy read even for light readers.

Great book for poker 101, poker ABC. Concepts go beyond tournament only.

The Standard by which all other poker tournament strategy books must be measured. A classic.

This was a really good book. Harrington is perhaps a little too tight for my preference (ATo isn't that bad of a hand to play!), and I wonder if his style is more outdated now. Most of the preflop range charts I've seen are not as tight as he describes.

I also liked the MIT YouTube poker course, and Harrington reinforced a lot of those concepts. I'd say beginners should start with Harrington's book, but they should certainly know something about poker before reading; you have to have seen a few hands and felt what it feels like to be in a marginal spot to get some of the value from the book. I prefer Kevin Desmond's (MIT) framework for pot odds better than Harrington's: Desmond thinks about it as what percent would you have contributed to the pot with the call, and then your equity should be greater than that (estimated with 2/4% rule); Harrington uses the much more common ratio odds (4.5:1, e.g.). I just find Desmond's method more intuitive, as whatever the delta between your hand's estimated equity and the percent you contribute is your +EV or -EV.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this being your only source of poker knowledge, but it's a great place to start. His "problems" at the end of each section are really helpful, and it is a great reminder of how much of hand analysis exists beyond the cards you're holding.