Danny Ashman Secrers of Short-Handed No Limit Holdem

American Danny Ashman is a poker player of the so called new generation. He plays mostly online and then the high stakes shorthanded (6 max) en Heads Up cash games up to $200/$400. Recent year he also is playing the bigger live tournaments, but has not been very successful in them till now. In 2009 he wrote a book, in which he explains how he beat the high stakes games online.

Structure Secrets of Short Handed No Limit Holdem
Ashman divided this book into 8 chapters for a total of 206 pages. The first chapters deal with the necessary attitude and discipline for becoming a successful poker player. After which Ashman discusses strategic considerations, like the difference between live and online poker and between shorthanded and full ring games. Subsequently he discusses poker preflop, flop, turn en river. Ashman ends with 3 short online heads up matches and explains his way of thinking and choices.

Writing Style Danny Ashman
This book is not meant for beginning players and they may have difficulties reading and understanding this book. The writer assumes a degree of prior knowledge and poker skills and therefore some parts may be hard to grasp for beginners. For more experienced players however this should not be a problem and I think that Ashman explain his strategies and way of thinking clearly.

Opinion Secrets of Short-Handed No Limit Holdem
This book is written by a successful online cash game player, whereas many other books are written by live players. He succeeded in explaining the differences between these two en why things like discipline are more important for online poker than for live poker. For instance, players create much more the habit to play robotically online than live. This habit costs much more money online, because online games are much faster and most people multitable.
Ashman focuses on discipline and a learning attitude instead of results. I completely agree with this and I think this is a point of improvement for many (beginning) players.

Ashman will not explain in this book how to play small pocket pairs or flush draws. He elaborates on factors which influence his decision making process in poker. He emphasizes hand reading and information obtained from his opponents, like bet sizing and timing tells. In his hand analyses he focuses on his opponent’s hand range and matching optimal action and this is something you won’t find in most poker books, as in these other books the weight is often on the own cards. The writer also disagrees with some common wisdoms, like playing tight versus loose players and vice versa.
In all hand analyses Ashman assumes he is the better than his opponent and that he can outplay him. Consequence is that he checks many hands behind, because he can outplay his opponent on later streets. This can indeed work well against players, who you can read well. However against good players this is more tricky, because they know you check behind a marginal hand en therefore they have an information advantage. Ashman does not discusses these difficult spots, also guessing games, and this is unfortunate, because everyone sometimes faces these spots.

All in all, I think this is one of the better books I have read on poker and I recommend it to anyone who plays seriously. Shorthanded and heads up games are characterized by many marginal situations, in which hand reading is crucial. Ashman describes his way of thinking in hands more extensively than you will find in most poker books. Many players can learn from this, because many focus on their own hand, without taking into consideration their opponent’s hand range. Danny Ashman convinces with this book that he is an expert in the shorthanded games.