poker books and do they help

mikes poker night

hey all i was woundering if u could help me im having a bit off a war with a poker pal of mine about the helpfull nese of the many poker books out there today. iv been playing for a number of years and not really read many books alll what i have learned has been from at the tables with bad plays and wrong calls eg . know my freind has spent houndreds if not thousands on books i play with this buddy all the time at home games and at very high stack games all over at the casinos. he swears that they have altered his game but remember i play with this guy have noticed that his game is suffering abit the silly cards the guss hansen calls and so on. what is ur guys oppinion on this .:)

pkrfce9

i find books to be helpful. maybe to understand the theory or the math behind some of the plays or how to deal with different types of players.

beanie42

Books help people who can understand them, learn from them, and adapt their game. Not everyone can learn from books, and not everyone who can actually understands/adapts correctly. Many adapt incorrectly due to misunderstanding something from a book, or not knowing how to apply it. Books are very helpful, but not for everyone.

mikes poker night

thnks guys yeh what u r saiying makes sense. me my self has been better at hands on rather than the theory i was the same at uni better at the hands on stuff than the reading and wrighting stuff so yeh good points

djalikool

Ace on the river by Barry is now available at www.thepokerbay.org
Audio Book, hook that up on your ipod and your all set! Now if only college text books were in MP3 Format!...2008?!?

Also, there is a bunch of e-books on thepokerbay aswell....Doyles Supersystems little green book by phil gordon...etc.

pkrfce9

be sure to read anything by cloutier or mcevoy then do the exact opposite. you'll do fine

CanadaDave

I have read both of Doyle's book, which are masterpieces. Harrington's books are probably the best books on the market for improving tournament play, and I read hellmuth's books, and while I still respect him as one of the best players in the world; but the book was for beginners, and is not the best out there.

susu

The trouble with these books(the popular ones) are that they tend to focus on different types of holdem eg limit vs NL or tournament vs cash games or even low/microlimit vs big games..
I can understand the beginning to intermediate players getting these concepts all mix up as they try diffent types of games.
However I still believe that most of these books eg by Sklansky n/or Miller do teach you the underlying basics of poker theory which you can use as you go along.

esool

I would be out of the game if I hadn't read poker books.

TheEskimo

Ive never read a book and im doing just fine, however, i had a buddy who was ok at poker, he went out, read supersystem 2, came back and whooped ass for a week or so till i caught on and taught him a lesson

alekat47

Most poker books do have useful info in them such as calculating pot odds and the theory behind the game but as far as tactics and stratagies go everyone is different and if you read alot of books from different authors you will find they might contrast abit, what one player might do in a certian position is not what another would do. Reading books is a useful tool but u only get better by playing and finding out what works for you.

Whitehorse

I think books are an essential part of learning the game. No matter how good you think your game is, it always helps to get inside the mind of your opponets.

If you're playing limit online, most of your opponets have read Small Stakes Hold'em. For tournaments most have read Harrington. So besides learning certain concepts for yourself, having a better idea of why the opposistion might be making certain moves at certain times can only help your game.

AcidJoe

Whitehorse wrote: »

For tournaments most have read Harrington. So besides learning certain concepts for yourself, having a better idea of why the opposistion might be making certain moves at certain times can only help your game.

I'd say in the stars 180's people are lacking in any understanding of HOH. If they read it they certainly aren't understanding it. I see way to many people playing against wrong sized stacks out of position and wondering why they are getting killed. The 180's have boosted my tourney confidence a lot.

djalikool

Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein so far so good listen. He talks about his bad beats, the diff. types of gamblers and some situations....its a must download Audio Book I believe!

chaosicq

i found Doyle's super system to be the most informative play like chan isn't a bad read also i would recommend these to anyone.

compuease

djalikool wrote: »

Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein so far so good listen. He talks about his bad beats, the diff. types of gamblers and some situations....its a must download Audio Book I believe!

Where can you download it from?

djalikool

www.thepokerbay.org if that doesn't work I can put it on a CD for you Jeff.

It's really good, mostly talked about how to handle yourself at a poker game. Never tell an ATM to improve his game...etc...and some stories of how he went broke and won. His Chapter on tournaments was really good!!

The best line was this: If you suck out on somebody, and they argue with you just tell em this...."Stick around i'm sure i'll make worse plays then that one"

Hobbes

djalikool wrote: »

www.thepokerbay.org if that doesn't work I can put it on a CD for you Jeff.

It's really good, mostly talked about how to handle yourself at a poker game. Never tell an ATM to improve his game...etc...and some stories of how he went broke and won. His Chapter on tournaments was really good!!

The best line was this: If you suck out on somebody, and they argue with you just tell em this...."Stick around i'm sure i'll make worse plays then that one"

Or "I'm sorry I didn't hear you. I was too busy counting your chips"

PokerAddictz

I do believe I wouldnt have made it through the beginning if it werent for reading a poker book... I found out alot of things that I would have been spending money learning if I didnt read one or two books.

Bobsi38127

Poker books overall are a good thing, they explain a lot of stuff to you and put things into perspective quite clear, however from anything I've read, a lot of it reguritates the same facts from book to book: "Tight Aggresive Play". The one thing books don't teach you is instinct. Instinct in my eyes is like strength to anyone who goes to a gym, when you first start your weak and slow, but by targeting and training different muscles you begin to strengthen up and then you can be big and strong (exaggeration). This goes for instinct in Hold'em in pretty much the same manner, at first your still carrying around the hand rankings and calling just because it only costs you _ dollars, then you start losing a lot and saying "whats wrong with me, how could I possibly know his pair of Kings is better than my pair of 2s?" Now you decide to get a few poker books and start opening yourself up to this new game of wait for 2 good cards, and then because of all this overhaul in stats and numbers your never playing anything but AK+ and lose by being blinded out or chipped away, or worse you watch it on TV and start raising with 2,5 offsuit and going all in on a A,K,K board in early position with 2-3 callers behind you mainly cuz you see Gus or Mike Matusow doing it, so where is the equilibrium? A great quote I heard "A Loss is worth more than any Victory." You target your weaknesses, tells, and strengths and APPLY these books to your game as opposed to straight up reading it cover to cover, and mimicing everything it tells you, then they'll be more effective. The main problem I have is the stakes that are the focal point that most of the books talk about are really unrealistic to the average Joe like $50/$100 limit instead of like 1/2 NL or 5/10 L which can be comprehended by the reader much easier, thats why Lee Jones' book is a unique read.