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The Illustrated Guide to Texas Hold'em by Dennis Purdy

Written by Haunted Poker for exclusive use.

In this highly visual book, Purdy goes from the basics of the game to some intermediate and advanced concepts. The text is based on fixed-limit hold'em ring games, and beginners will like the easy-to-see visual representations of each hand. Following the situation, Purdy will give his insights along with some useful essays on other poker topics. However, I disagree that a cardroom is the best place for a new player to start as I think it would be more intimidating and costly than starting at micro-limits online.

Overall, I feel like this is one of the best books that beginners can learn the game with and intermediate players can plug leaks with. While I didn't have extremely high expectations for this text as I felt like it might have been a late copycat into the Limit Hold'em strategy market, I was pleasantly surprised at the breadth of the content and the fact that it wasn't exactly like every other low-limit book.

Every other page will have a full table graphic and present you with a specific situation. This part is easy to understand and you should make your own conclusions before reading Purdy's explanation of what you should do. He gives a good amount of information on each situation and provides some good food for thought for beginners at the beginning and end of the book.

The price is still low on this book, and I think that it is an underexposed gem for new players and still informative for more advanced players. If you like to learn graphically or get a preview of seeing a digital representation of the table as you will online, you'll also appreciate the large graphics that accompany each hand.

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