The first book in the Harrington on Hold’em series by Dan Harrington was an instant classic, much like SuperSystem in that it suddenly gave tournament poker players an analytical, structured way to approach the game. Tournament poker was popular at the time the book came out by there was very little literature in the way of books to teach people how to play a basic, successful tournament game until Harrington on Hold’em.

Dan Harrington’s approach in Harrington on Hold’em is simple and straight-forward: he breaks out the major facets of poker tournament play into sections such as “Hand Analysis,” “Reading The Table,” and “Betting After the Flop,” and then explores each area in detail with actual hand examples from tournaments Harrington had played in. Advice and strategy for each area is given, as well as the thoughts and insight running through Harrington’s head in regards to the illustrative hands, so that you can see the advice in action.

Harrington does touch on concept such as pot odds and calculating outs, but he avoids the heavy math that poker author David Sklansky seems to revel in, which comes as a relief for most readers. Instead of posing math lesson after math lesson, Harrington includes only enough math as necessary so that the reader understands the basic concepts and can apply the broader strategic concepts. Harrington’s writing style is also more casual and engaging, to the point that you feel you’re having a conversation with the author instead of having a lecture delivered to you by a college professor.

Harrington on Hold’em also introduced a very important concept that tournament players may have been aware of but never really quantified: the idea of a M number. Each player’s M is calculated by how many tournament chips they have relative to the blinds and antes, and gives a rough gauge to decide whether your stack is so small that you’re better off shoving all-in or if you can afford to make (or call) a smaller bet. This is one of the toughest decisions posed in poker tournaments, and Harrington on Hold’em not only explains the concept and considerations but gives players an easy formula to help guide them in the decision-making process.

The Harrington on Hold’em series is three books in total, although readers who buy and read the first one won’t miss out on much, as it covers all of the key concepts and ideas behind successful poker tournament play. Like most poker books, reading it won’t guarantee that you’ll make more money at the poker tables but it will give you a solid foundation for success when playing online poker tournaments as well as traditional live poker tournaments.