Written by two former WSOP main event champions (McEVOY in 1983, scooping 580.000$, Brad DAUGHERTY in 1991, 1.000.000$), this book won't, though, try to make you an expert player. It is aimed at beginners or people who come from Limit Hold'em and want to make the transition towards NL.
Indeed, when the book was first released, american casinos were only spreading NLHE in tournaments, ring games being reserved to Limit Hold'Em (there was that old fear that customers would go broke faster with NLHE, lowering the amount of rake they would have paid had they played hours of Limit).
At that time, there was a need for a book that would show Limit players how NLHE was played, how they should adapt their play..
Of course, with the WPT phenomena that spread around the word, and the rise of online poker, NLHE now rules.
You should be warned that the book treats essentially of tournaments, probably because the authors are known for their tournament successes and because NLHE cash games were not offered in american casinos (in Europe it's different, people have always prefered NL to Limit games).
Being more of a cash game player, I would have preferred the opposite, especially for a very objective reason: it is easier to adapt to tournament play when you already can beat cash games than the opposite, the reason being deeper stacks in cash games can make the tournament player make horrible moves. Once you are a competent ring game player, you would have to learn a few things to be at ease with tournaments: how to deal with raising blinds, always take into account the risk of being out (so, in addition to the EV of a move, you should always consider in a tournament the variance that this move creates for your chip position), how to play when you are near the bubble etc..





Table of contents:

Chapter		Comment
1.	Brad's Crash Course in No-Limit Hold'em for Beginners 8 pages	Rules of NLHE: dealing cards, blinds, antes, the 4 betting rounds.
2.	Shifting Your Thinking from Limit to No-Limit 5 pages	A few clues on how Limit and No-Limit are different: different playable hands, possibility to make the draw dearly pay etc.. Very basic. After reading that chapter, don't expect to instantly become a winning NLHE player if you were beating the limit games before..
3.	The 8 Winning Principles of No-Limit Hold'em 8 pages 1. You need a stronger hand to call with that you need to bet with 2. You don't need to win a lot of pots 3.You do not play as many drawing hands 4. Your style of play affects your chances of winning 5. Getting to know your opponents is very important 6.The button is position of power 7.The bluff is an important weapon 8.Don't despair when you get behind	Indeed, these principles are fundamental but, as the authors deal with them very briefly, the reader won't have learnt a lot . You won't be taught how to play/not to play your drawing hands, how to precisely adapt your play to your position etc.. Having decided not to include any math material (odds), it's indeed difficult for the authors to teach beginners how they should decide if they should play a particular hand or not. The suggestions sometimes look a lot like "in NLHE, it's more difficult to play your draws". Had they added a bit of theory, they could have said "if you take into account your number of outs, the number and style of your opponents, the pot odds, your position, then you can precisely decide whether you should play your draw or not, here are a few examples:...". And that makes a HUGE difference. The difference between having learnt (almost) nothing and now knowing how to play a number of hands in NLHE. Making the book a lot more insightful would not have been difficult: a few pages teaching how to count outs, calculate pot odds etc... would have been enough! So why they didn't do it???
4.	How to Determine the Strength of Your Hand? 12 pages	The beginner will appreciate the list of playable hands preflop, taking into account your position, on a ten handed NLHE tournament table. The choice of hands is really cautious (few playable hands) as it's better for a beginner to only stick to premimum hands.
5.	Determining How Much to Bet 16 pages	This chapter contains a few interesting advices for a beginner like don't minraise preflop with a premium hand when a couple of players have limped in. The authors include a table showing you where your stack situates you in a tournament. For instance, under 5 BB, youe have a "Move-In Stack" and should go all in preflop instead a making the standard raise (2-3 BB) everytime you consider playing a hand. The reason being you wouldn't be able to fold your hand in case someone would playback at you. Shoving directly shows your opponents they can't make you fold if they reraise you. You are told which hands you are looking for to move in when your stack has reached the move in zone. Once again, this chapter could have been a lot more insightful.
6.	Understanding Your Opponents 6 pages	...
7.	Knowing When and How to Bluff 12 pages	...
8.	Tournament Practice Hands 60 pages	You are told how to play a couple of key hands in NLHE: big pairs (AA-JJ), middle pairs (TT-77), small pairs (66-22), big connected cards (AK,AQ,AJ,KQ) in 34 scenarios. Once again, having not defined the concept of pot odds, they can't tell a beginner when to play/not play these small pairs. Indeed, "with these small pairs, you will be looking at the flop only if you can get it for cheap." isn't enough. What is cheap? What isn't? The advices are given for preflop and flop play, nothing concerns the last 2 streets, which would be an issue for cash games where stacks are deeper. Beginners may notice how conservatively Brad and Tom suggest to play AK (compared to what beginners often do), which should save them a lot of money.
9.	Tournament Practice Flops 61 pages	In 27 scenarios, Brad and Tom show how to play a number of "realistic" hands (i.e hands of the 4th chapter playable hands list) on various flops.
10.	Bluffing Practice Hands 20 pages	Same thing than the 2 previous chapters, 10 scenarios to show the different types of bluffs.
11.	How to Play No-Limit Hold'em Cash Games in Online Casinos 10 pages	When the book was first released, the only way to play NLHE in an american brick and mortar room was to enter a tournament. You had to play online to practice NLHE in a ring game, hence this chapter. This brief chapter is technically weak. It doesn't show enough how tournament and ring game are different species. The 3 scenarios are very -too- basic.
12.	10 Ways to Practice No-Limit Texas Hold'em 28 pages	In these 10 ways to practice one's NLHE game, the authors suggest that you enter online 1 table NLHE tournaments (the sit and goes or SNGs). In 7 (seven!) pages, they try to describe how a SNG plays, from the first level of blinds to the 6th. It looks like these 2 elderly gentlemen haven't played a lot online, because if they had they would have known that the structure of the tournament and the aggressiveness of the players depend greatly of the pokerroom you're playing at. Finally, you won't have learnt hardly anything. Though, the "method" to beat SNGs is rather basic and would only need 2 pages. The SNG chapter is a almost a waste of time.
Extra	Glossary of Poker Terms 12 pages	...

However targetted to beginners, this book should have started with a few points of theory that anybody is able to understand if explained correctly. Once you discussed outs, odds etc.. it is so easy to teach people when/how to play a number of hands. Explaining the adjustements you have to make when you play a tournament or a ring game wouldn't have been more difficult. In less than 10 pages, the authors could have made their readers save so much money when they play their first real money online games.

I didn't always totally agree with the analyses of the authors on a few hands (this said, they obviously are better than me) and they admit that, with more experience, other ways of playing could be contemplated (but they don't tell us what these alternative plays are..).

Though, this book wil provide a lot of insightful info to beginners. The 74 scenarios show how crucial it is to know your opponents. Depending on the way they play, you will try to trap them, or relase AK preflop when you face 2 very tight players etc.. That shows beginners how poker can be more a people game than a card game.

If you are a total beginner, you can buy this book. Its price (20-30$) will be saved quickly at the poker table, even if its technical content is too thin.

If you already know the rules, have played a few games with friends and already know the basics (calculating odds, playing tight and aggressive, taking into account one's position and the opponents' style etc..), I suggest that you directly buy Tournament Poker For Advanced Players by David SKLANSKY. That book will make you understand how tournament and cash game have to be played differently and, even if its reading is more complex, it's a book that you may want to read again in a few months, when you have more experience under your belt. By contrary, I bet you will never read again No-Limit Texas Hold'em as there's not a lot that you will learn re-reading it after you've played a few months.