Matthew Hilger has been playing poker online successfully for the last few years. He has done well in live tournaments, ๐ too. He made the money and placed 33rd in the 2004 World Series of Poker and won the 2002 New ๐ Zealand Poker Championship. He started playing poker in college and improved his game while in graduate school.
When he took a ๐ job with Chiquita Foods in Costa Rica, he began playing in weekly tournaments at the local casino. Little did he ๐ know he played and even won against some of the best players in the world like Humberto Brenes. He started ๐ to play online after he transferred to Argentina, where gambling is illegal.
From those experiences to today, he shares what he ๐ has learned from playing over seven thousand hours online in his book, Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet ๐ Pro, which specifically focuses on limit Texas Hold'em. If you are thinking about playing on the internet, this is the ๐ book for you.
Hilger's book is roughly broken into nine sections. During the first three, "The Introduction," "Poker Concepts," and "Starting ๐ Hands," he gives a general overview about poker which is beneficial to any new player. He includes a few definitions ๐ and familiarizes the reader with internet jargon. The charts and graphs he includes are easy to read and he suggests ๐ printing them out and keeping them next to the computer while playing.
Hilger spends almost 100 pages discussing the flop. He ๐ breaks down the concept further by discussing flopping the nuts, sets/trips, two pair, top pair/overpair, middle/bottom pairs, flush and straight ๐ draws, overcards, and my favorite... trash hands.