I wanted to make sure I didn’t get left out.  Word on the street is that people are moving to PLO and that this is the “future of poker”.  I want to make sure I know what to do, so I researched a little and picked up this book.  I researched because I don’t really want to read 20 Omaha books yet.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t get Omaha for Dummies or anything too boring either.  This book was absolutely perfect for me.  It gave me what I needed: straight-forward, scholarly, rational.

IThis book lays out a clear strategy for taking on all three games and win.  It explains the how to, the logic and also give some great teaching exercises.  FYI, Hwang basically shuns any low-ball apprach to Omaha, instead opting for a big-pot approach, but does explain the rationale for that stance.

would recommend this book for any hold ‘em player who would like to learn PLO, PLO8 or O8 (that’s what us in the know people call pot-limit omah high, pot-limit omaha high/low 8-or better and limit omaha high/low 8-or-better.)

It is hard to describe this book except to say that this is a poker book about everything to do with poker except how to play hands.  Tommy Angelo, a professional poker coach, talks about how to avoid tilt and how to get up.  He talks about etiquitte and when to show your cards.  His no nonsense approach is refreshing and I think it is helping my game already.  If no other advise in this book helps, the advice to take a break every 1 1/2 to 2 hours has made my play a lot better.

I highly recommend this book.  I’m starting to come up with a list of essential books for the new, but serious-ish, poker player.  This book will absolutely be a part of that list.

I don’t have a ton to say about this book.  That should not be taken as a sign that the book is not good.  It is very good.  In fact, I’ve read a lot of books at this point (see the past book review posts).  This book has had the most new information in it of any of the books I’ve read.  Every other book I’ve read has had a ton of overlap.  Harrington on Cash Games was excellent.  This book has a whole new thought process to layer on top of everything else.

It is really a long essay on why you need to plan your hands for commitment.  It shows you how to do the math to make sure that you don’t have to make tough decision.  I can’t really do it justice.  This is mostly because I’m having a lot of trouble putting it all into practice.  I’ll get there.  I may have to read the whole book again.

I strongly recommend this book to you.  Especially if you’re tired of re-reading the same thing over and over.

Harrington on Cash Games – Volumes I and II – Dan Harrington

So I read one more book. While I was getting killed in Montana at the table I realized I’ve mostly read books that teach you how to win tournaments. I figure it was time to remedy this. I bought Harrington on Cash Games Volume I by Dan Harrington. It was well worth the money. Reading it I realize that my cash game is terrible because I’ve been playing cash games like tournaments. Harrington starts the book by comparing the differences. I’m sad I didn’t read this book 5 days before.

There’s a simple difference that one needs to know when going from tournaments to cash games:

In cash games, playing small hands aggressively is an unnecessary risk because the blinds will not increase. Good cash hands are disguised big hands.

For this reason, a player needs to open up his starting hand requirements and play some more speculative hands. Playing 79s makes some sense in cash games (though not all the time). Top pair, top kicker in cash games isn’t worth pushing all-in with where every dollar you don’t invest in a hand is a dollar you go home with.

Harrington’s book drives this all home very well. He includes a large number of “problems” for you to work out, giving explanations for each answer he gives. This is the ideal book for a mainly tournament player who wants to learn the cash game.

The book is broken into 2 volumes. The first volume is the intro stuff and a lot of the overall strategy including standards like pot and implied odds (his explanations are as clear as I’ve read). Then he moves on to tight-aggressive play. In volume 2 he moves on to loose-aggressive play. The highlight for me was a whole section on beating weak games. That was worth the price of admission alone. I would recommend these books whole-heartedly.

So this time I’ll take a minute to talk about 2 poker books that were excellent reads. If you love poker, read both of these.

Positively Fifth Street – James McManus

This book is crazy. The story is that McManus, a Chicago family man and contributor to Harper’s magazine goes to Las Vegas to cover the murder of Ted Binion and women in the World Series of Poker (in 1999). He takes 1/4 of his advance on the article to play in a satellite and wins. This book covers just about everything all with the backdrop of the murder trial and the author in the tournament. In the morning McManus reads TJ Cloutier’s book and in the evening he’s playing against him at the table. In between he talks about just about everything else including: the history of poker, what constitutes cheating on your wife, the history of Las Vegas, his own family tree, game theory and just about everything else. The best part is the poker. If you’re like me you’ll find your hands sweating and heart beating when the author is forced to decide whether to call TJ’s all-in bet.

So here’s a story. A banker from Texas visiting Vegas sits down and plays poker with Todd Brunson. He enjoys himself but wants to play a big game. He loves heads up poker so he challenges the biggest pros in the game to play for the biggest stakes. He plays against a who’s who of old school poker: Doyle and Todd Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein, Ted Forrest and then some.  With Doyle Brunson playing the middle man, the banker ends up playing multi-day heads up sessions of limit hold ‘em against the best in the world with $100,000/$200,000 blinds.  The hands are amazing. The stakes are crazy. You can’t believe that anyone could play this big but the banker does very well. There’s a lot of color from the characters in poker. This is an easy read and a fascinating book.  Your heart will beat hard reading about $1.5M suck outs and bluffs worth more than your house.

This is the second part in my two-part guide to which poker books I’ve read. I’m doing them in chronological order based on when I read them.

Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold ‘Em -TJ Cloutier & Tom McAvoy

TJ suffers from the same problem as Phil Hellmuth. Great player, not a great writer. I learned nothing really new from this book, except that TJ is tight, very tight. He doesn’t really care much for big slick and he mostly advises what to throw away instead of what to play. There are some “stories from the road” that are supposed to be charming, but mostly they suffer from not being told at the poker table and me not having had any drinks before hearing them.

Small Stakes Hold ‘Em – David Sklansky

This is a book about limit hold ‘em–not no limit. I didn’t know this going in. The advice is very much directed to to limit players. You can extrapolate the advice to suit your no limit game, but it might not be easy. As with other Sklansky books (one of which I’ve read, others of which I’ve thumbed through) this book is dry and analytical. You can’t argue with his math. He’s definitely very smart, but I’m not sure I could begin to follow his advice at an actual table and certainly not in online poker, considering the speed of the game. I’d recommend this book to anyone who plays mainly limit hold ‘em, otherwise save your money.

The Theory of Poker – David Sklansky

This was described to me as “a must read for anyone serious about poker”. I don’t think I can agree with that assessment, but I can’t imagine anyone reading this book and getting something from it. Sklansky runs the numbers as well as anyone I’ve seen. His math is kinda sick. This book goes through what is common to all poker and analyzes every little iota of the game. The hard part is that he jumps back and forth between all the different games. With my limited experience, it was hard to jump into the razz examples or stud 8. He doesn’t bother with simple ideas like “what’s a good stud 8 starting hand?” Instead he focuses on the right pot and implied odds in any table situation and whether or not to bet or call based on the expected value. If you’ve already read a book that teaches you about every game, read this book.

I’m a little OCD. Let’s call it “gently restrained compulsion”. I have a short attention span for things, but while they have my attention I tend to devote a lot of energy and attention to them. Right now, this OCD-light is focused on poker. This being the case, I have read a number of books over the last 2 months or so to try and make sure I’m playing well. I tend to devour each book and I believe I have a good idea at this point what makes each unique and the merits of each. I thought I’d share a little book review of each to help everyone else. The following list is in order of when I read each.

Winner’s Guide to Texas Hold ‘Em – Ken Warren

This is a great book, especially for the beginner. The author builds up your knowledge starting all the way at the bottom with how to deal the game all the way to playing tournaments and jackpots. There’s a little something in here for everyone.

***

Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book – Phil Gordon

So far this is the best book I’ve read. Phil may not be the best player, but I think he might be the best teacher in poker. He tells you both what play to make and why. I don’t always agree with his assessment of what play to make, but his whys are always backed up with sound reasoning even to the degree of “if I make this play X times then I’ll be up 103% of my original stack. He’s not boring or dry like some other authors either. I’d highly recommend this book.

Phil Gordon’s Little Blue Book – Phil Gordon

I like this book almost as much as the green book. Like other authors, Phil’s second book is a collection of hand stories. Where this book beats out others like it is that he assesses the play in each hand. He gives both positive and negative examples. Read the green book first and then this one.

***

This Phil is a good player, but not the best teacher or author. What’s nice about this book is that Phil goes through all of the casino poker variations out there (except Chinese poker and the games you play against the house.) This book is good, but not great. If you love Hellmuth’s game and/or want a good primer on each game, read this.

***

This book is even more poorly written than the last one. It also suffers from a lot of Phil stroking his own ego about great plays he made. This is mostly boring stories from the table with occasional commentary that might help your game.

***