The Illustrated Guide to Texas Hold’em is a poker book written by Dennis Purdy, a famous character who moved to Las Vegas at age 25 to begin a career as a professional gambler. He retired in 1983 professionally fulltime however still his poker skills to supplement his income.

This is a book about basics covering several good topics with many illustrations that guide the reader through his principles and strategies of Texas Hold’em poker. The chapter Basics of Texas Hold’em demonstrates how to play the game from dealing to betting and reviews the different table positions. This chapter also discusses Limit versus No Limit Hold’em Poker. The pre-game preparations section also includes information about playing in an online poker room or in a brick and mortar casino, what to wear in a casino and even how to sign up for a game. The chapter titled The Rules of Good Basic Strategy shows a variety of play situations and topics: actual odds versus pot odds. There is also a great win rate chart of starting hands and a hand rank chart. The best part of the book in my opinion is the Practice Situations chapter. This chapter illustrates 150 different scenarios with actual hands and how they should be played similar to Dan Harrington’s books. At the end of the book there is a chapter on Hold’em terminology which I enjoyed as some of the terms seemed a bit dated, although funny.

My overall review of this book is good. I really enjoyed the Practice Situations section and felt the book covered some good overall winning strategy. I would recommend this book to both beginners and intermediate players of both Limit and No Limit Hold’em Poker. I learned a lot from the different scenarios in approaching and thinking through different starting hands. The Win rate chart of starting hands is also a good guide for beginners.