opinions on harrington's books?

I was getting ready to purchase Harrington's on hold'em vol. 1,2,3 and I just wanted to know opinions from anyone on here who has read them???thanks..Any if anyone who has a suggestion for books for tournaments??

They are good, don't get me wrong, they are what I started on when it came to poker books back in 2004. Although now, there are a ton of books that would be better and more geared towards today's tournament player. People are a lot more aggressive now than they were when those books were written. Also, they were written without thinking about the different dynamics of online play vs live.

I think Phil Gordon's books are a little more relevant to some of the tournaments today. And the books that I always hear good things about when it comes to tournaments is 'Winning Poker Tournaments - One Hand At A Time" Vol.1 & Vol.2 by Rizen, Pearljammer, & ApeStyles.

Your absolute best bet though....just read online and study. If you are starting with micro limit tournaments and/or freerolls, then the concepts in any book are going to be overkill not only for you, but for your opponents as well. People in those tournaments don't understand what raise sizes are supposed to mean, so you just want to play straight ABC poker at first. As you go on, you will learn about things like ICM and final table play(when you get there, Collin Moshman's SnG Strategy is a great book for this!), but you need to get the first stages of the tournament down first.

Hope that helps.

At the time they came out, I think they were the premier tournament poker books around, but since then the game has evolved a lot, especially online so even though its probably still a solid winning strategy that is presented, you'll need to adjust your game a bit IMO to play optimally online. But assuming you already know the basics of how to play hold em and want to take your tournament play to the next level, I think you'll be hard pressed to find a better place to start as I think they are one of the better sets of books around as far as organizing and presenting content. I like the way the books present a specific topic, then drill home the topics with real world examples before building on the concepts in subsequent chapters. Well worth the money IMO and lay the foundation needed before you can think of moving onto some other books.
Tournament Poker for Advanced Players and Poker Tournament Formula are some other good ones. I personally think "Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time" is probably the best book to really take your game to the next level as you really get into the minds of some of the better online tournament pros, but I'd definitely start with HOH before reading any of these other books.

While it's true the game has evolved since HoH came out, I think the books can be very valuable for low-level players. Not so much as a bible on how to play tournament poker, but more as an aid to improving your thought processes as you play. There are certainly more advanced books out there now, but they'll be more valuable if your game is ready for them.

Agreed, you don't want to dive into books that are going to be so over your head that they will more than likely just cause you to make more mistakes because you don't understand. That is why I would not suggest Tournament Poker Formula or Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, because they are more of a resource for people who already have a great understanding of what's going on.

FIVE STAR POST - you will not find anything better to show you how to think through a hand - although he does not directly show you this, the format, style and continuity of his writing shows you the way and will give you immediate results at the table just by having a thought process template.
Do the Harrington series then graduate on to the more recent stuff like Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time - in fact I don't think there would be a more appropriate follow up book to Harrington's.

After that you can ask again, because by then the answers might be different than they are today as new books come out and the game continues to evolve.

Build your foundation right. I started with the Winning MTTS one hand at a time VOl 1 and 2 and I didnt have a good grip on why they did things they did as such I didnt understand why people online did what they did. I have totally backtracked. Im going thru the HArrington books now and Im sure many of things in the book need to be tweeked but I also feel if I can play 1/2 the concepts in that book the right way before TWEEKING IT, then I should start making up lost ground. Once i finish the Harrrington books and UNDERSTAND them, Im not sure what to hit next maybe redo the WTOHAAT VOL 1 and 2.

ALso Totally agree with the poster above about reading through forums and if you cant fit the threads into your game, just ask crazy stuff like I do, ala (the ace-rag thread ) which started kind of a flippant tilt for me, I actually learned a lot of things that I havent thought of in ranges and such, so post or ask, hey they (forum folk) are gonna make fun of ya, but then suddenly between the nonsense, someone will post some real thought and BAM LIGHTS GO ON and things start clearing up a little LOL

A couple of other thoughts on HoH. One is that Harrington plays a relatively tight game, and his decision-making is appropriate to his style. This does not mean everyone should act the same way in similar situations. So the most important thing the books can help with is thinking more as you play, both when you make the same decisions and when you don't.

The other is that I read all three volumes three or four times, maybe 4-6 months apart. Each subsequent time helped me more than I thought they would.

just want to thank everyone for the suggestions..