A little over a month ago, Ammon from ITH offered me a free copy of Matthew Hilger’s book Internet Texas Hold’em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro in exchange for writing a review on my site. Since I always review the books I read and had wanted the book, I quickly took him up on his offer.

At the time, I had just started reading Theory of Poker (my review), so I didn’t start on ITH until last week when I was taking a break from the poker tables. I finished ITH earlier this week. It was really a quick read, even though its length is comparable to most poker books. I was able to read it so fast because I’m already familiar with most of the concepts discussed from reading TOP and Small Stakes Hold’em. That’s not to say that the book is all repeat information though.

ITH is a great book and one that I would recommend to anyone who wants to start playing poker online. Yes, I’d even recommend it before SSH in this case. What sets ITH apart is that the book concentrates on the differences between online and live play. Hilger gives you solid advice on how to beat the online game.

The book is broken down into chapters and the order was great. The jump from one topic to the next flows smoothly and would allow a beginner to easily follow along. Perhaps the best part of the book is the examples and how they are used to supplement the text. At the end of each chapter there are 15-20 real examples taken from online hand histories. The situation is laid out in plain English and then a question is proposed. Should you call? Is raising a better play? Right after each question, Hilger lays out what he believes is the correct play for each situation. Another thing that sets the examples apart from the other books I’ve read is that the author doesn’t use large card images to show you the hand and situation. He simple explains it in text form. This helps to cut down on a lot of space and flipping back and forth between pages.

ITH is not only a great book for the beginning poker player, but it can be a great resource for anyone’s online game. I’ve been struggling with my game over the past two months and the book helped to reinforce some of the concepts and strategies that I had forgot. There are other books I like better, but since the book does so well at what it’s meant for I have to give it an A.