From the book lists at Adware Report:

All information current as of 19:19:57 Pacific Time, Monday, 21 February 2005.

Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro

   by Matthew Hilger

  Paperback:
    Dimat Enterprises Inc
    July, 2003

   US$29.95 

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Editorial description(s):

About the Author
Matthew Hilger is from Atlanta, Georgia and became an Internet poker professional in 2001. In his first full year he made over $100,000 playing online. He has logged over 7000 hours on the Internet, playing at limits from $1-$2 up to $30-$60 and many online tournaments. Matthew's live tournament achievements include winning the 2002 New Zealand Poker Championship and finishing 33rd out of 2576 in the 2004 World Series of Poker main event.

Matthew has written for Poker Pages, Poker In Europe, LiveAction Magazine, 5th Street Magazine, and other publications. He has been featured in magazines and periodicals including the Wall Street Journal, Slate, and the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

Prior to his poker career, Matthew worked in various accounting, finance, and consulting positions with Andersen Consulting (currently Accenture), Chiquita Brands International, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

He completed a Master';s degree in Finance at Georgia State University in 1991 and also a Master';s degree in International Business from Thunderbird in 1996.


Book Description
On any given night, thousands of players are playing poker for real money on the Internet. This book is an excellent tool for players at all levels to be successful at limit Texas Hold';em with specific topics focused on Internet play.

A comprehensive overview of Texas Hold';em is presented including general poker concepts such as probability and odds, bluffing, raising and check-raising. Various deceptive tactics are also discussed such as free cards, slowplaying, and inducing bluffs and calls. You';ll learn the correct strategies for starting hand play as well as playing on the flop, turn, and river. You';ll learn the intricacies of playing on the Internet and the differences in strategies between Internet and live play. Finally, you';ll be able to practice all of these strategies on over 200 actual Internet hands.

Poker is a fun game, but it is even more fun when you win. This is a book for players who want to improve their game to win more money. If you only play a few hours a week or strive to take your game to an advanced level, this book should serve as a reference for many years to come and help you become a consistent winner!





Reader review(s):

Yet Another Book On Basic Holdem Strategy, February 9, 2004
Let me be perfectly clear: This is not a bad book on how to successfuly play holdem. I would have no problem recommending this book to anyone who is interested in LEARNING how to play.

However, as a book that advertises itself as how to play and win online it is no better than anything else out there. Which is to say: it is a disappointment. 80% of the book is dedicated to the basics of holdem play and strategy. The remaining 20% offers sometimes useful insight into playing online but nothing that is particularly insightful or revolutionary.

I bought this book based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews that are listed here. I can only assume after having read the book myself that most, if not all, of the reviewers are personal friends of the author and are jazzing it up so that he can sell a few more copies.

If you want to win holdem on the internet I think that I can offer you a little advice and save you the price of this book (and the other internet books). First, if you already know how to play well then just keep playing, practice makes perfect. In other words, follow good strategy, be patient and don't go on tilt. Second, if you don't know how to play well then buy a few books (most of them say the same things), read them carefully and practice alot. Third, don't play over your head. Stay at low limits for a while and then graduate to no limits at small blinds. That is where you will make the money. Fourth, go back to your books frequently and follow the strategies, they do work.

So far the best internet poker book that I have read is "Killer Poker Online" It starts out assuming that you already know how to play and then outlines the basic differences between b&m joints versus online play (higher hands per hour and the lack of visual tells). I would also recommend a book on pure advice of philosophy like "The Tao of Poker"

Finally, don't buy this book in search of the "secret" to winning on the internet. It is simply not any better or different than anything else out there. It's a good BASIC book on holdem, nothing more, nothing less. I wish I could get my money back, maybe I'll sell it used.

Excellent all around hold'em book!, February 14, 2004
When I first started playing hold'em online about six months ago I realized that if I didn't study the game I would just become another gambling statistic. Though I like poker I'm risk averse at heart, so I hit the books hard, picking up reading recommendations from the 2+2 forums. The most frequently recommended trinity of hold'em poker books to start with seem to be: Winning Low Limit HOLD'EM [WLLH] (Lee Jones), The Theory of Poker [TOP] (David Sklansky), and Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players [HPFAP] (David Sklansky/Mason Malmuth). I've been through all of these, the latter two several times as they are particularly good.

However good TOP and HPFAP are I felt there was something subtle lacking which made the advice more difficult than necessary to put into practice. Not until I stumbled upon a copy of Matthew Hilger's Internet Texas Hold'em by chance did I realize what it was: hand examples! Remember learning subjects like math? Very difficult to solidify the concepts by simply reading theorems. Most people require the repetition of doing many examples to use the theorems with any facility.

Poker is no different and the "Test Your Skills" sections at the end of each chapter in this book are worth their weight in gold. The "answers" to the examples are perfectly concise and there is no pretension that they are set in stone. You will be challenged just enough to think about each situation without feeling bogged down. For this reason Hilger's book serves as more than just another book on hold'em theory. It is "workbook" that will help you to start thinking through typical hand situations rather than simply memorizing tables of starting hands and odds. Overall, your ability to recall strategies for common hold'em situations will be much better having thought through the carefully chosen examples Hilger presents up front.

For the beginning/intermediate player (I can't really comment on expert players...yet), Hilger's is the best single book on the subject. Make no mistake, Hilger's books is comprehensive enough to take you into the tougher, higher hold'em limits and I envision coming back to it many times in the future for a refresher. In comparison, Jones' WLLH (the most often recommended introductory low-limit text) feels threadbare: very few examples, loose starting hands, and not nearly enough on post-flop play. Do yourself a favor and substitute Internet Texas Hold'em for WLLH in the trinity. You will have to do much less experimenting at the tables and will be well prepared to integrate the topics covered in HPFAP and TOP.

Yup, you really can win consistently at poker..., October 23, 2003
After a trip to Vegas, I caught the gambling bug. But, as I soon learned, a little education can go a long way toward conserving your bankroll. Aside from card counting, full-pay video poker, or using coupons and comps, there really aren't any ways to get an edge at casino cames. Until you consider poker.

It wasn't really love for the game that first got me to try poker; it was the allure of knowing that a part-time hobby could become a money-generating venture. I studied the game and read some great books (Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em by Lee Jones and Poker for Dummies by Lou Krieger) and quickly learned how to get an advantage in poker. I started winning (modestly) and started to explore other places to play aside from Vegas.

That's where Internet poker comes into play. As Matthew Hilger thoroughly and completely explains in this book, you can really up your per-hour winrate by playing online. He takes the worry out of playing online, gives you a group of safe online poker rooms to visit, and he gives you the winning strategy you need to make money online (his basic strategy also works for land-based games). Matthew uses his personal experience to guide you through the learning process.

No one will become a winning player overnight. However, with a good library (that includes this book), you can fairly quickly become a winning player -- even with a modest bankroll.

Even if you already are well-schooled, this book provides some great advice that even seasoned players will find useful for Internet Texas Hold-Em.

I finally see the light!, December 30, 2003
Systematic, Complete, Accurate.

Most of the poker books I've read have a stream-of-consciousness format. Matthew's book is a revelation. Before I bought this book (two weeks ago, on a whim, because I laughed at the cover's illustration), I had been playing online for about six months. I'd read Sklansky, Malmouth, Krieger, etc., and had some success in $3-$6 online. I figured I knew the game better than most. But wow! I learned more from this book than I had from the other dozen I've studied. The starting hand chart is nothing less than brilliant in its design and research. It automatically adjusts your play for loose and tight games, by loosening your standards as the number of callers rises. It also adjusts your play for raised pots, and for playing in the blinds. The chapters on flop play showed me how much I didn't know about the game. I now find myself folding much more often on the flop than I used to. Matthew identifies several catagories of flops based on their characteristics (two-suited, triple-connected, etc), and cross references these with the hand you hold given your pocket cards (flush-draw, mid-pair, etc). He teaches how to play the hand on the flop given the number of opponents, and the preflop and flop action. I had recently been getting very frustrated by having a good preflop hand, and then almost always losing by the river! Now I understand why that was happening, recognize if a flop fits MY hand or is more likely to fit that of any of the five callers behind me. I now know when the reward will not compensate for the risk, and fold. This alone has saved me a lot of money and irritatation. In fact, it's fun to watch the play-out of the rounds after I fold flop-hands that just weeks ago I would have played, and see how much I'm saving.

A new outlook to this game, March 13, 2004
As a relatively new player to Hold'em, this book has opened my eyes. I finally understand why they say it takes a minute to learn this game and a lifetime to master. Matthew seems to be a master at taking this complicated game and presenting it to the reader in a very organized and logical manner which is easy to understand. My game has jumped leaps and bounds since reading this book. He fully explains some important poker concepts such as bluffing and slowplaying and when they are appropriate. He discusses each round of Hold'em in a lot of detail. What I like about his approach is that he explains why you should do things, not just what you should do. He gives over 200 hand examples which gives you a unique glimpse into the mind of a pro which helped me greatly into how I analyze different situations. If you are serious about poker you will probably read this book several times. As a beginner, I picked up a lot of new concepts but there is too much material here to fully absorb in just one reading. An overall fantastic book.

Deceivingly Advanced, March 2, 2004
I was a beginner to Texas Hold'em when I purchased Matthew Hilgers, Internet Texas Hold'em, Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro just over 5 months ago. I had a few ideas of how to play poker (K9 suited....awesome, I'll raise!)

I bought Hilger's book because it looked like a good book for a beginner. I learned a lot of basic principles that helped me find direction in my poker oddessy. Now, I've become a more advanced player, and thanks to Matthew's teachings, have risen in limits. Then, I've searched for some more advanced titles, and was dissapointed. Thats where I realized something. Hilger has accomplished writing a "Beginner" poker book thats is deceivingly advanced. His skill of writing seamlessly bridges the gap between simple and more complex topics, that it makes it very easy for a novice player to grasp these concepts.

I'm not saying you'll go from a home game donation machine to a Vegas Millionaire just by reading the book. However, read the book once, pick out the major topics, and you'll improve. Wait a month, read it again, you'll pick up a few more advanced teachings you didn't quite understand the first time around. Hilger's book has become my poker desk reference. While I have 7 poker books around the house, most look like they are fresh out of the Amazon bubble wrap. Except for Hilger's work. It looks like its been used and abused rather frequently, thats because its that good.

So...go ahead and purchase Hilger's "Internet Texas Hold'em." No matter what level player you are, you'll gain some valuable insights that will earn you more than a few Big Bets down the road.

Everything You Didn't Know You Needed to Know About Hold'Em, September 11, 2004
Matthew Hilger, author, and owner of the website InternetTexasHoldem.com, has accomplished the gargantuan task of taking a lifetime's worth of knowledge and synthesizing it into one managable volume of practical experience and exhaustive study of the game.

New to online Hold'Em myself (and poker, in general), I just wanted to learn how to play. This book starts with perhaps the most critical aspect of the game, pot odds, implied odds, and card odds, with thorough, illustrative, exercises for each. Had these chapters been at the back of the book, I may never have gotten to them. Since they are the first thing we are taught, they become the foundation from which we view every play, theory, and strategy, for the rest of our poker lives. Indispensable.

Each chapter contains a Chapter Review, encapsulating the important on-point segments of the preceding section, followed by "Test Your Skills," actual hand samples from online play that end with "What Would You Do"? The answer is then given by a professional (the author), with a detailed explanation for his choice and offering other options/possibilties that take into account the number and type of players in the game.

This book is extremely rich in depth, at the same time as being understandable to the total newbie. It has an excellent glossary in the back.

Following the odds section, each strategy chapter proceeds to lay out possible hands, our hole (pocket) cards, the variety of flops for each, and teaches us how to think through not only what we may have, but to examine what the other players may hold-- what flops are potentially dangerous to our holding, as well as give us the nuts, and how to bid accordingly, both to induce bids and to protect our hands. We become familiar with the types of players, categorized by their aggression, passiveness, or combination, and what impact this might have on our bidding process.

There's an excellent chapter on bankroll management, along with teaching us how to tell when we're ready to move up a limit. Though the focus of Internet Texas Hold Em, Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro is on the limit ring game, the basics and theories contained in it easily apply to no limit, sng's, and tournaments, as well.

I can't say enough about this book, and I've only scratched the surface here. It's worth every penny and trust me, you'll reap the purchase price many times over, with slow, steady application of the principles and concepts it teaches. In the meantime, hop on over the website and avail yourself of the awesome forum there. Great, helpful, generous, kind players... exactly like the author... heh.

A last point: less than a month ago I will tell you I didn't know a "hole" card from the cards laid out on the table being called the "board". What I won't tell you is how much money I've now made playing online poker, sensibly; how much my ever-increasing bankroll has risen; or how easily reading that board (and some fishes) have become. The only poker book I've ever read to date, is this one... woot!!

Playing everywhere as RiverCascade~

Good value pokerbook purchase, September 27, 2004
Just a note I put in all my reviews. I reserve 5 star ratings for only out of this world books. If there were a 4 and a half star rating I would have chosen it for this book.
I was going to wait to review this book after I had fully digested it and put the advice into practice and see what resulted. But since there is so much information it would take me years to do that.
The book delivers what it advertises. A solid piece on Hold'em in the internet environment. If you're looking for information on internet poker tells you can find it here. The author concentrates the work on Limit Hold'em almost exclusively. There are some pages devoted to Pot Limit and No Limit Hold'em, but Limit Hold'em is the star of this piece. The starting hands chart is a great guide for beginners at Hold'em or experienced players who are looking to trim the fine edges of their opening plays. I was also happy to see a section on a topic that many poker players do not know enough about, money management. The numerous hand examples in the book represent a variety of websites and stakes level.
The only thing that kept the book from receiving a full five stars in my mind was that there was not enough information on the emotional aspect of internet poker. No, you can't see the opponent who just bluffed you out of half your stack laughing at you, but emotional control is still an important factor in making profit at online poker. Maybe I'm just looking for that everything poker book. Actually, there isn't any maybe about it.
The final analysis? A good buy. Four and a Half Stars.

Finally! A "How To" poker book with ONLINE SUPPORT!, April 1, 2004
This book is great, for reasons I will detail below, but the really AMAZING thing is that this book comes with ONLINE SUPPORT!
Matther Hilger has a web site, http://internettexasholdem.com/ , which has a forum where he will answer any questions about the book which are posted.

How many Famous Poker Guys will give you tips and help you with thier book? This resource is AMAZING.

Other great things about this book include a fabulous "FLOP CHART" which shows you exactly what to do FOLD/CALL/RAISE in the betting round right before "The Flop", when the first 3 community cards are revealed. This is the CRUCIAL thing for any begginner to master.

I took my book to Kinkos and made wall sized copies of the FLOP CHART and stuck them to the wall behind my computer for easy reference all the time.

Get this book. Your bankroll won't be sorry.

Excellent book, September 14, 2003
This is an excellent book for players looking to improve their Texas Hold'em skills. The book starts out with important poker concepts. The chapter on odds and probability is a must read for any serious player. I now know how to apply mathematics at the table rather than just calling hoping to get lucky. The starting hand chapters are excellent which include some charts which are now posted next to my computer for easy viewing. The flop chapters are very comprehensive and at times cover advanced concepts that I am not sure apply at the lower limits, but useful nevertheless. There are a lot of interesting concepts about the Internet throughout the entire book. Any player with a little study should be able to win on the Internet with the advice of this book.


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