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Doyle Brunson didn’t write the entire book for Super/System or Super/System 2. But he did write the sections about no limit Texas holdem in both books. It’s impossible for a simple blogger like myself to encapsulate everything Doyle Brunson has to share about no limit Texas holdem strategy in a single blog post. The Theory of Poker has long been recognized as the foundational book for all of poker no matter what the game, and at the time of this writing is still the best selling book in poker. But that book, while applicable to many aspects of no limit and pot limit poker was originally written mainly with limit games in mind.
Doyle Brunson (aka “Texas Dolly”) is arguably one of the greatest poker players of all time. His specialty is no limit Texas holdem. He’s won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker Twice. He’s also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame. He authored and edited both Super/System and Super/System 2.
But that’s only the beginning of his accomplishments. He’s also the first person to win over a million dollars playing poker tournaments. And besides his 2 Main Event bracelets, he has 8 additional WSOP bracelets.
Gus Hansen: Every Hand Revealed. There are few players to whom a “window into the mind.
Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 2: Endgame by Bill Robertie; Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Pla y by David Sklansky Multi-Quote Quote & Reply. Matt Janda’s Applications of No-Limit Hold ‘em is an exception. Janda’s book is perfect for players with an understanding of poker looking to improve their theoretical game. Playing in a game theory optimal (GTO) fashion will be especially helpful in higher stakes games against tough competition, as Janda formulates strategies that will.
Only Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey compare to the fame and skill of Doyle Brunson.
But here’s the thing about poker:
Anyone can play.
And if you’re dedicated enough, and if you have the right temperament, you can learn how to play no limit Texas holdem like Doyle Brunson.
Read Super/System and Super/System 2
Doyle Brunson didn’t write the entire book for Super/System or Super/System 2.
But he did write the sections about no limit Texas holdem in both books.
It’s impossible for a simple blogger like myself to encapsulate everything Doyle Brunson has to share about no limit Texas holdem strategy in a single blog post. You should read and study the insights he offers in his own words.
I suggest reading both books’ sections on no limit Texas holdem and taking notes in your own words. Multiple readings are a good idea.
Also, once you’ve read these strategies, put them into action at the table. But don’t do so in a passive way. Pay attention to what happens, and keep records of your play.
You should know your overall results for every session and for your entire poker careers. You should also be able to see what kinds of results you got when you brought your strategy more into line with Doyle Brunson’s.
Be Aggressive
The one thing I’ll never forget about reading Brunson’s advice on no limit holdem is his advice about aggression. He points out that he bets and raises a lot, and he does so for 2 reasons:
- He wants to steal lots of blinds.
- He wants to give other players action so that he’ll get action in return when he has a big hand.
The way he explains it, by aggressively going after blinds, he gets money into his stack that he can use to gamble on drawing hands. Since he’s stolen so many blinds, he basically gives himself a freeroll when he’s drawing to a big hand—those chips should have stayed in the stacks of the weaker players at the table.
Being aggressive in poker isn’t unusual advice, but Brunson’s perspective and advice on it is phrased uniquely enough that it’s well worth reading.
Hold Em Poker Game
I’ll add one piece of advice from my own observations at the poker table:
I’ve seen loose aggressive players win a lot of money, and I’ve seen tight aggressive players win a lot of money, too.
I’ve never seen passive players make much money at the poker table.
What’s the difference between a loose and a tight player?
A loose player gets involved in lot of hands. A tight player doesn’t play many hands at all.
Both loose players and tight players can be aggressive. Aggression refers to how often you bet or raise versus how often you call or check.
You can play only premium hands, and if you’re consistently betting and raising with them, you’re being aggressive.
On the other hand, you might be willing to play almost anything, but if you’re willing to raise with those hands, you might profit dramatically from all the dead money at the table.
This is especially true if you’re at a table with a lot of tight and/or weak players.
But if you play passively, you’ll let players with bad starting hands draw to better hands. You’ll also get little money in the pot when you do have a stronger hand. And you’ll never be able to get dead money, because people only fold in the face of raises and bets.
If you want to play no limit Texas holdem like Doyle Brunson, you need to be willing to get aggressive and bet and raise more often.
Loosen Up
It’s fair to characterize Brunson’s approach to the game as fearless. He’s loose-aggressive, not tight-aggressive. This doesn’t mean he plays junk cards. If Brunson’s in a hand, he usually has something.
But Doyle Brunson is more likely to bet and raise with a less-than-premium hand than many beginning players. This approach works for him for multiple reasons.
For one thing, Doyle Brunson is a famous Texas holdem player. Many players—even professional players—respect his bets and raises because of his reputation.
If you want to play more like Doyle Brunson, you’ll have to become willing to get some money into the pot with some drawing hands.
The first time I ever played live poker at an underground cardroom in Dallas, Texas, I saw a guy go all-in on the flop.
He got called, and when he flipped over his hand, he had 4 cards to a high flush.
The other player had top pair with a solid kicker.
The player who bet into the flush draw hit his draw and won the hand, and a lady at the table said, “Just like Doyle Brunson suggests.”
Here’s the thing:
The player with the flush draw was driving the action. He didn’t just call someone’s bet to stay in the hand. He tried to win the pot immediately by going all-in.
He wasn’t the favorite to win the hand, but when you combine the odds of his opponent folding with his odds of hitting his draw, it becomes clear that he made a profitable move.
Had he lost the hand, he might have faced a little bit of derision from his opponents.
But he would have also gotten plenty of calls when he got his next pair of aces in the hole.
Learn How to Play Pocket Aces
I have a playful running debate with a buddy of mine about how you should play pocket aces from early position in no limit Texas holdem.
Best No Limit Hold'em Poker Books 2020
The conventional wisdom is that you should always raise with this hand, regardless of your position.
But in Super/System, Brunson suggests that you limp in with those pocket aces from early position. Your hope is that someone acting after you has a pair of kings or queens and raises you.
Then you can put that other player all in when it comes back to you.
In fact, some aggressive players in late position will play hands like suited connectors and AK very aggressively. These players will have a hard time laying those hands down in the face of a re-raise, especially if their cards are high in rank.
I was playing no limit Texas holdem at an underground cardroom in McKinney, Texas about 10 years ago, and I got into this situation. I had AQ suited, and I was in late position. One of the players in front of me had limped in, so I put in a raise the size of the pot.
The limper before me re-raised me all-in, and I just couldn’t lay that AQ suited down.
That was a mistake, because he had pocket aces.
I was a huge underdog, and I lost my entire stack within minutes of sitting down. (It was the first hand I’d been dealt in fact.)
I sheepishly laughed and told everyone at the table I had to go to the ATM to get more money.
Then I drove home.
Learn to Read Other Players
Another key to why Doyle Brunson can play hands that other players should fold is because he’s an expert at reading other players. He suggests trying to guess which hole cards each of your opponents has. There’s almost a hint of belief in ESP in that section, which I suggest ignoring.
But when you can read other players’ tells, the game gets a lot more interesting.
Free No Limit Hold'em Poker
Brunson doesn’t go into much detail about reading tells in his books.
But you can find multiple sources for information on how to improve that specific skillset.
The best book I’ve read about poker tells is Mike Caro’s book, Caro’s Book of Poker Tells. It was written years ago, but the psychology behind it remains as strong as ever. It’s charmingly illustrated, and the pictures are dated, but the advice is as sound today as it was when the book was written.
If you take nothing else away from Caro’s advice on poker tells, remember this:
A player acting strong usually has a weak hand.
A player acting weak usually has a strong hand.
This doesn’t hold true for every player in every situation, but Caro estimates that it’s true a large enough percentage of the time that you can use it as a rough guideline while you get to know the other player.
Joe Navarro has also written a couple of books about poker tells. Navarro has some expertise in spotting liars, too, as he’s a former FBI agent. He makes information about poker tells available in both a series of books and a series of YouTube videos.
But when it comes to reading other players, nothing succeeds like success. You absolutely must sit down at a table and get some experience before you’ll ever be good at reading other players.
Conclusion
Can I tell you how to become as great a no limit Texas holdem poker player as Doyle Brunson is in a 2000-word blog post?
Of course not.
The man has been playing for decades. Brunson’s poker career is comparable to the musical careers of legends like Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra.
You can’t compete with that kind of experience and talent unless you’re willing to put in the time to get that experience. And you need to be born with talent—that’s not something I can grant you in a single blog post.
You can, though, absolutely improve your no limit Texas holdem skillset by examining and thinking about Brunson’s approach to the game. He’s shared a lot of his approach to the game in 2 books, Super/System and Super/System 2.
I’ve also read interviews with Brunson where he explains that he’s had to change his approach after everyone read his book, because that approach was no longer profitable.
And that’s as good a final tip for playing no limit Texas holdem poker as any:
You must be willing to adjust your approach based on conditions.
Being flexible and adjusting to the situations you find yourself in is probably the most important lesson you can learn from Doyle Brunson.
One of the best ways to improve your game is to read every bit of expert poker advice you can get your hands on. There are hundreds of books and eBooks on poker, so how do you know where to start? This list of must-read poker strategy books should help you select the ones you’ll want for your poker library.
If a book does not reside in the list below, we do not wish to infer that it is not a quality resource. We simply feel that if you are limited in the number of books you can buy and/or read, the books listed here provide you the best foundation for your game, whether you’re a novice player, or wanting to take your game to the next level.
Click on the link of any book to purchase it through Amazon.com.
Internet Texas Hold’em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro by Matthew Hilger – This book provided me with the biggest “ah-ha!” in my first year of playing online poker. I can’t promote this book enough. It is written in great detail about pre-flop starting hands as well as play on the flop, turn and river. Hilger also covers general concepts of probability, odds, bluffing, raising, and check-raising. He also discusses the differences in strategies between Internet and live play. To top it off, there are countless practice hands provided so that you can begin to put the concepts into action. If you only bought one book off of this list, this one should be the one!!
Best No Limit Hold'em Poker Books List
The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success by Matthew Hilger and Ian Taylor – The authors of “The Poker Mindset” are quick to point out that poker is a mental game, and what distinguishes the most skilled poker players is a specific approach to the emotional, psychological, and behavioral framework for playing at a superior level. The book analyzes all of the factors that could negatively affect your mental game. All those situations that distract us from what should be the goal in poker: to win. The authors do a good job of explaining how to deal with tilt. Starting with the various types of tilt that can affect your game, the two writers explain why and when a poker player is prone to tilt and how to avoid it. The book also explains how to manage your bankroll both from a technical and psychological standpoint. One of the chapters also provides advice about what it means to be a professional poker player and teaches the reader how to combine poker with everyday life. This book is a must-read, as it will help you to dramatically improve your game, teaching you how to “arm yourself mentally” and accept the reality of poker and how to use the mental game to your advantage.
Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 by Jonathon Little – This book came out in 2011. Jonathan Little is a successful poker player who has won over $5 million in poker tournaments over his career to date. In ‘Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker’, he explains exactly how to succeed in this highly competitive MTT field. It’s essential reading for anyone wanting to improve their No limit Hold’em tournament poker skills. This first volume analyses a number of different situations in tournaments, giving solid advice in an easy to read writing style. The two-time World Poker Tour champion advocates a LAG style of play, which is necessary to beat MTTs as it lends itself to winning tournaments not just making the money. The books deals mainly with how to play with different stack sizes during the course of the tournament. Whether it’s playing very deep stacked (125bb+), a medium sized stack (40-60bbs), and smaller stacks (12-35bbs).
Winning Low-Limit Hold’em by Lee Jones – A bible for low-limit players, this book provides a solid foundation on which you can build more advanced strategies. Pre-flop and post-flop play is covered extensively, as well as money management and patience, two virtues usually missing from many a low-limit poker player’s game. If low-limit stakes ($4/$8 and below) are where you play, this book is definitely for you!
The Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How To Think Like One by David Sklansky – This is one of the best poker books ever written. If you take poker seriously, you will get this book and study it like a bible. He goes over many advanced concepts that could apply to a wide variety of situations, including hold’em, five-card draw, seven-card stud, lowball draw, and razz. This book introduces you to all the important aspects of playing fundamentally solid poker including concepts such as bluffing, semi-bluffing, slow-playing, playing position well, psychology, heads-up play, game theory, implied odds, the list goes on.
Serious Poker by Daniel Kimberg – This book is very easy to read and is very useful. Serious Poker does not cover quite the number of advanced concepts that several other poker books on the list cover, it would be better suited for new or intermediate players, although still a good book for anyone. He has a nice section that would help make things go smoother if you have never played poker at a land based poker room before. Anyone who would like to feel more at ease before playing live poker for the first time would want this book.
Small Stakes Hold ’em: Winning Big With Expert Play by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth – Anything Sklansky is a part of will be a solid work and this book is no different. Ed Miller, the primary author, takes many of the concepts from Sklansky and Malmuth’s earlier works and applies them to the loose low-limit stakes games you find everywhere today. There are over 50 hand quizzes as well, which are great tools. One word of caution I will give is that these books are not as easy of a read as some others on the list. The concepts are fantastic and considered by many players as the foundation for their game, but in the hands of a novice player who does not understand the logic and math behind these concepts, these advanced concepts could lead them into trouble.
Reading Poker Tells by Zachary Elwood – This book came out in 2012. It’s the first major contribution to live poker tells since Mike Caro’s book on poker tells, which is a bit dated now. It would be a great addition to a poker library for any player who is making the transition from online to live play. A great deal of discussion is given to correlating the behaviour of players over time and forming a read based on that. It provides scientific analysis and doesn’t just say “this means that” and so forth. Definitely worth picking up!
Middle Limit Holdem Poker by Bob Ciaffone – This book is underrated and overlooked (so underrated Amazon doesn’t even have a picture of it!). It is a fabulous book that addresses the necessary changes one must make in their game when moving up from low-limit games to middle limit games. Ciaffone provides real-life examples (a feature, by now you know we love!) to support the theory in the book, which is arranged in a logical, thematic format. Do not be one of those to overlook this book!
$16 / Hour SNG Blueprint by Planet Mark – This is a free eBook course by Mark over at Sit and Go Planet. It comes over 4 e-mailed parts and shows you how to grind 1-table SNG tournaments for up to $16 profit per hour. Mark does not expect readers to be playing SNGs forever. The idea is to use these games to build your bankroll up, then move on to either cash games or tournaments. An ideal choice for beginning players looking to quickly make a steady income from online poker – and best of all, this book is completely free.
Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold’em by Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier – When you are ready to take on the Cadillac of Poker, No-limit hold ‘em, you need to be prepared with a new set of skills in addition to what you bring with you from the limit tables. McEvoy and Cloutier teach you those skills in yet another fine book in the Championship series. T.J. Cloutier is arguably the greatest no-limit tournament player in history with more no-limit and pot-limit titles than any other player. He not only shares his winning strategies but a number of personal poker experiences as well which add a great deal to the book.
Tournament Poker for Advanced Players: Expanded Edition by David Sklansky – As I mentioned earlier, Sklansky is not for the casual reader. His attention to the mathematics of the game can be lost on some readers, but his concepts are spot-on. This book is another that fits that bill, but I must give it some props because it provided me another “ah-ha!” with regard to my tournament play. Sklansky discusses the Gap Concept and this concept opened my eyes to a shift in strategy I did not make moving from cash ring games to tournament play. Since that time, my return on investment in tournaments went up significantly. This book covers more than hold’em in its examples, so if you do not play stud, you will have to wade through those examples.
Harrington on Hold ’em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play by Dan Harrington – I included this book in our list, because “Action” Dan Harrington is the player I most aspire to be like. He is a tight player who has managed to make the final table at the main event of the WSOP four times, winning in 1995 and cutting through nearly 2,600 players in 2004 to make it to fourth. I think that fact alone should warrant reading his book!
Super System 2: A Course in Power Poker by Doyle Brunson – I would be terribly remiss if I did not pay homage to what many professional players consider to be the bible of all poker play. Super System and now Super System 2 are comprehensive discussions regarding all poker games. You will want to read this at some point, if for no other reason than that many of your good opponents will have read it. Each chapter is written by a different contributor, all of whom are experts in the field of poker. Doyle’s chapter on no-limit is considered the gospel, but it is a VERY aggressive style and recreational players should use it at their own risk.
Best No Limit Hold'em Poker Books Online
Play Poker Like the Pros by Phil Hellmuth – Ah, Phil Hellmuth, the player everyone loves to hate. Well, love him or hate him, there is always action surrounding him. I read this book when it first came out and enjoyed it very much. In hindsight, there are probably several better poker books when it comes to no-limit strategy, but Hellmuth does a good job of touching on a number of hand situations. I particularly enjoyed his defining of the types of players you will face and how to beat each of them. He categorizes players as Jackals, Elephants, Mice, Lions, and the one we all aspire to – the Eagles.
Pot-Limit Omaha Poker by Jeff Hwang – If you’re a Hold’em player that is just getting into Omaha you will want to pickup this book many people consider it to be the bible for Pot Limit Omaha. The author does a great job of explaining the complexities of the game and how playing hands that can make the nuts will provide a solid foundation for playing at a winning level in most low stakes Omaha poker games.
Best No Limit Hold'em Poker Books 2019
If you can read and digest all the content in the above poker books, you are guaranteed to gain an edge against any opponent you face in the live poker arena or on the virtual felt. But for the best outcome, you should not just read these, but also see how each concept applies to real hands.