There is no way to write a simple book for a complex game, and I doubt it is possible to write a complete book for Hold-Em. Things as simple as the publication of a new book change the dynamics that you will face the next time out. Warren's book is neither simple nor complete but, in comparison to others I've read, it is more easily understood by, and in my opinion more useful to, a new player. Part of this is because it is well organized and Warren uses language well. Part is because it is more forceful on what you should and shouldn't do, and it is more conservative in its advice. These latter strengths are, however, mixed blessings for the newer player and 1-time reader. I would agree that Warren appears to give some contradictory advice on first reading. But as you re-read this book, and read others and play more, you start to understand that what you are seeing are nuances, not outright contradictions. A bigger problem with Warren, in my experience, is that he teaches a strategy so tight that it is more appropriate to a middle- or higher-level game than the Low Limit game at which the book claims to be aimed. But, again, as you see more of the "real world," you can begin to make departures (some of which are suggested in those "contradictions") from the very tight line of play that he advocates for starting players. The bottom line on this book is that it will help you win if you follow it. But it dos this more by helping you keep from losing money than by showing you to wring every last penny of winnings out of the table. And since, as Warren points out somewhere in the book, a dollar saved is a dollar earned, that in itself makes it worth using this book as a jumping-off point. Thanks to Warren's advice, with average cards and against average opponents I have made money from the first Hold-Em game I played. I don't win every time I sit down at the table, of course, and I expect that I'll win less this year than next year, as I learn more about the game by playing it and reading deeper and denser texts. But to get this far I needed to make it past the starting gate in reasonably decent shape. Without Warren's book, that would have been a much harder and less certain thing to do.