A practical guide for the live cash player

Play the Decision

Live poker strategy for the player who keeps losing in the same few spots.

You know the rules. You have played for a year, or ten. And yet most of what you lose at a one-two game goes out the door in the same handful of spots. This is a 178-page book about those spots, written in plain words, with every number worked out in front of you. It arrives as a large-print PDF and an EPUB, so it reads properly on a phone, a tablet, a Kindle, or a computer.

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The cover of Play the Decision by Ted Harris

178

Pages

Chapters

Charts

Tables

I · The problem

It is not everything. It is the same four or five things.

Most recreational players are not losing money everywhere. They are losing it in a small number of recognisable situations, over and over, and nobody has ever explained the reasoning in words they can use at the table.

Before the flop

Too many hands, from the wrong seats

Calling wide from early position, limping into multiway pots, and defending the blinds with hands that have no plan for the flop. The cheapest mistakes in poker are made before a single card comes down.

After the flop

Betting out of habit, calling out of hope

The continuation bet fired on every board regardless of texture. The draw chased at the wrong price. The river call made because you have come this far. Each one has a number attached, and the book shows you the number.

Away from the cards

The session that got away from you

Playing one orbit too long, staying at a table you should have left, and the quiet form of tilt where you simply stop folding. The last part of the book is about the discipline that protects the first five.

II · What you get for $29.99

One complete book, in two formats

✓Play the Decision, 178 pages. Six parts and 32 chapters covering the whole hand: the frame, preflop, the flop, turn and river, the players at the table, and the long game. Supplied as a large-print PDF set at 6 by 9 inches and as an EPUB.
✓Opening ranges you can actually memorise. Written out seat by seat as real hand lists in plain notation, not as a chart image you have to squint at. No solver output anywhere in the book.
✓Every number worked out in front of you. Pot odds, outs, and breakeven bluff frequencies, with the division shown each time so you can check it rather than take it on faith.
✓9 charts built from real arithmetic. The price of a call by bet size, exact equity by number of outs against the rule of 2 and 4, what a bluff has to buy, and what the rake actually takes out of a small pot.
✓17 reference tables, including the opening ranges, the equity table, the sizing table, the river-call price table, and the player types you will meet tonight.
✓A Quick Reference section at the back. The key numbers, a four-question checklist for before you act, a before-you-sit-down list, a when-to-stand-up list, a hand-review method, and a twelve-month tracker.
✓A bankroll chapter about survival, not growth. Written around downswing tolerance and playing within money you can afford to lose, with no projections of any kind.

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III · What is inside

Six parts, in the order a hand happens

These are the real part and chapter titles from the book's table of contents.

Part One

The Frame

1The Same Four or Five Spots
2Decisions You Control, Results You Do Not
3Expectation, Variance, and Why Results Lie
4Choosing the Game Before You Choose the Hand
5A Bankroll That Lets You Keep Playing

Part Two

Before the Flop

6Position Is the Whole Argument
7What an Opening Range Actually Looks Like
8Raise Sizes, and What Limping Costs
9Defending the Blinds Without Bleeding
10Three-Betting: When, Why, and How Much
11Facing a Three-Bet

Part Three

The Flop

12Reading the Board Before You Read the Player
13The Continuation Bet, Honestly Assessed
14When You Miss
15Playing Draws Without Paying Too Much
16Big Hands on Wet Boards

Part Four

Turn and River

17The Turn Is Where the Money Moves
18Bet Sizing as a Language
19Thin Value on the River
20Bluffing Less, and Better
21The River Call
22Pot Control and the Medium-Strength Hand

Part Five

The Table

23Five Players You Will Meet Tonight
24What Live Tells Are Actually Worth
25Betting Patterns Beat Physical Reads
26Multiway Pots Change Everything
27The Limped Pot, and What the Rake Takes

Part Six

The Long Game

28Tilt: What It Is and What It Costs
29Session Discipline: Starting, Stopping, Sitting Out
30Reviewing Hands Without a Solver
31What to Work On Between Sessions
32Playing the Decision

IV · A look at the pages

Real pages. Real numbers.

Set in a large readable serif with clear headers, a printed contents page, and charts drawn from arithmetic rather than decoration. These are screenshots of the actual PDF.

The printed contents page of Play the Decision — The contents

A part opening page from Play the Decision — A part opener

A page of Play the Decision carrying a chart — A chart page

V · The honest version

What this book does, and what it will not pretend to do

Before you spend anything, here is exactly where it stands.

It teaches decision-making, not winning. There is no win rate in this book, no claim that you will beat the game, and nothing that suggests poker can be an income.
Variance means good decisions lose constantly in the short run, and losing months happen to players who play well. That is stated plainly in Chapter 3 and again in Chapter 32, not buried in a disclaimer at the back.
It will not replace time at the table. It names the spots where money leaks, explains the reasoning in plain words, and shows the arithmetic. Turning that into habit is your part.
It is a live cash game book, about one-two and one-three no-limit hold'em. It is not about tournaments, and it is not about online play.
It is not a beginner's manual. It assumes you know the rules and the hand rankings, and it starts from the reasoning instead.

VI · Is it for you

Written for a specific player

This book is for you if

You know the rules and have played live for a while
You keep losing in the same recognisable spots and you know it
You have never opened a solver and do not intend to
You want the reasoning in plain words, with the numbers shown
You play a few times a month and want those sessions played better

It is not for you if

You have never played poker before
You are looking for a system, an edge, or a route to an income
You play tournaments rather than cash games
You want solver outputs and frequency work
You want to be told that you will win

“I do not tell bad-beat stories and I do not listen to them. You will be a better player the day you stop doing both.”

Ted · Poker With Ted

Ted Harris has played low-stakes live poker for most of his adult life, mostly one-two and one-three no-limit hold'em in ordinary card rooms. He is not a professional and has never claimed to be.

He wrote this book because the same handful of decisions kept costing the people around him more than everything else combined, and nobody was explaining those decisions in language a recreational player could use on a Tuesday night.

VII · Questions

Before you ask

What exactly arrives after I buy?

Two files, immediately. Play the Decision as a PDF, 178 pages, set at 6 by 9 inches in large readable type, and the same book as an EPUB. You get a download link on screen the moment the payment clears, and the same link by email. Both files are yours to keep, and you can download them again whenever you like.

Which file should I use?

The EPUB for a phone, a tablet, or a Kindle, because the text reflows to fit the screen and you can change the size. The PDF for a computer, or for printing. Most people end up using both.

Can I read it on a Kindle?

Yes. Send the EPUB to your Kindle using Amazon's Send to Kindle, by email or through the app, and it will appear in your library like any other book.

Is checkout secure?

Yes. Payment is handled entirely by Gumroad, which processes the card and sends the receipt. The card details never reach this page and are never seen by Ted.

Is this a beginner's book?

No. It assumes you know the rules, the hand rankings, and how a betting round works. It starts from there and explains the reasoning behind decisions, not the mechanics of the game.

Does it use solvers or GTO theory?

No. The concepts that matter are explained in plain words, and there is no solver output, no jargon, and no notation to decode. Ranges are written out as lists of hands.

Will this make me a winning player?

No book can tell you that honestly, and this one does not try. It will make your decisions better and your avoidable losses fewer. What your results do after that depends on the games you sit in, the rake your room takes, and a great deal of variance.

Is it about tournaments?

No. It is about live no-limit hold'em cash games at one-two and one-three, which is what it says throughout.

What is the refund policy?

All sales final — but if a technical problem stops you from opening the file, reply to your receipt and we'll make it right.