High-Low Split Poker
Seven-Card Stud and Omaha Eight-or-Better for Advanced Players
Ray Zee
Reviewed by Ozone on Aug. 02, 2005.
Overview
This book is a combination of two books authored by Ray Zee. The two books (Winning Omaha/8 Poker and Seven-Card Stud for Advanced Players) are both leading books for their respective topics. This edition is a combination of both of those books. Due to the fact that you are getting "two books for the price of one", High-Low Split Poker is relatively expensive compared to other books but worth it for the content.
Poker Advice
Ray Zee tends to preach an overly tight style of play for the lower limits. It is a strategy that relies on being patient and waiting for cinches, then jamming the pot like mad. This strategy can be quite effective against poor players, but it can also be quite boring. For advanced players, Zee lays out a good series of strategic concepts that can help one beat high-stakes High-Low Split games. This book needs to be read carefully, as a lot of the concepts and ideas presented might fly over the reader's head if he is not reading carefully. This is probably the best book you can read if you plan to play mid- to high-stakes Stud/8 or Omaha/8.
Presentation
It can be very difficult to give specific hand examples in Omaha/8 and Stud/8. With so many players holding so many cards, and the pot being split to two (or more) people, it can be hard to follow along with sample hands. Knowing this, Ray Zee does a nice job of keeping things as simple as possible. I had a much easier time following the sample hands in this book than I did in Phil Hellmuth's Omaha/8 and Stud/8 sections of Play Poker Like The Pros.