The Course: Serious Hold 'Em Strategy For Smart Players

The Course is different from other poker books you may have read. It’s written for players who are smart and who know that to succeed, you have to be different. Because in poker, if you play and think like everyone else, you’ll also get results just like everyone else.

There’s a saying in the golf world that you don’t worry about the other players. You just play the course. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing in a big tournament against a hundred other players or against just one. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing against Tiger Woods or against Woody the Woodpecker. You can’t control what they do, so they can only be a distraction.

All that matters is the course. And the only thing you can control is how you play it.

This is a powerful idea, and it applies just as well in poker. Poker is full of distractions, and most players get hung up worrying about all the wrong things. The things they can’t control. The things that ultimately don’t matter.

The Course: Serious Hold ‘Em Strategy For Smart Players, cuts through all the noise. It’s a practical and effective, step-by-step guide to winning consistently at no-limit hold ’em. It teaches the game as a series of skills. The first skill is the most important, but also the most fundamental. Each subsequent skill builds upon the last. Master the first few skills, and you can win at the 1-2 or 1-3 level. Master the next few, and you can win at 2-5. And master the final skills, and you can hang at 5-10 among the best players at your local card room.

The Course focuses on the most important concepts that determine who wins and moves up and who doesn’t. And it ignores the distractions. It doesn’t waste your time and attention with ideas that don’t apply to the games you play.

Unlike many other books, this book is ruthlessly practical. The ideas in The Course transfer directly from the page to the felt. The book starts out by showing you where and how money is available to win. Everything after teaches you how to go get it. Skill by skill, you will learn to win more money and win it faster.

The Course meets you where you are. If you’re just beginning to get serious about hold ‘em, the book starts you with a sound foundational strategy. If you’re an experienced player looking to get over the next hump, the book lays bare the challenge and teaches you what you need to do. Unless you’re already the boss player at your local card room, The Course is the perfect companion to help take you to where you want to go.

Ed Miller is an MIT graduate and an acclaimed author of numerous poker strategy books. He's been playing, coaching, and writing about hold 'em full-time since 2003, and his books have sold over 250,000 copies worldwide.