Poker Book Advice
Hi all. I'm a reasonable No-limit Texas Hold 'Em player, but I'm interested in getting a little more serious. I scored some good Chapters gift certificates for Christmas, so I was wondering if anyone can suggest NLHE books for me to read. There are tons of them out there, but I'm just not sure which ones are worth the paper they're written on.
Specifically, I'd like to learn about tells, calculating odds, and especially *sound* tournament strategies. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to drop me a line at "jlessard (at) rogers (dot) com" as I check my e-mail much more frequently than I check these forums.
Thanks very much, and hopefully I'll see some of you in some tournaments in the future!
Specifically, I'd like to learn about tells, calculating odds, and especially *sound* tournament strategies. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to drop me a line at "jlessard (at) rogers (dot) com" as I check my e-mail much more frequently than I check these forums.
Thanks very much, and hopefully I'll see some of you in some tournaments in the future!
Comments
It's possible that Chapters now carries some of these titles, but I'm not sure. I was in a Chapters recently and they had a poker book section set up at the front, and the selection was really quite impressive. I don't remember seeing any Sklansky, but I think they had the Cloutier/McEvoy book.
Regards,
all_aces
I'm curious to know what you picked up from that book.. A local chapters had it and I landed up just reading it there.. Other than TJ's utter dislike of AK on a missed flop I don't recall picking up much from it.. Of course, I only read it quickly once..
Sklansky seems to have books with great tournament advice for *all* poker games. Do you know of any good books that concentrate specifically on No-limit Hold 'Em, both in terms of tournaments and ring games? I almost picked up the "Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold 'Em" book, but I've heard mixed reviews as far as it's concerned. all_aces, I'd love to hear what you think of it after you read it.
Sorry for all the questions...I have a limited amount of money to spend on poker books, and I really want to get me something that will benefit me, and make me a better player. I haven't been playing all that long at all, and I know I have a lot of work to do. Any advice is more than appreciated.
Thanks!
I think he was talking more in the way of price. Amazon is about half the price of Chapters, I used them earlier this year and I'll never buy another book from Chapters again. Don't take my word for it, check out a book on chapters.ca then check out the exact same book on amazon.ca
Specifically from that book, I'm thinking I got some better ideas of pre-flop and betting strategy, when to push my chips in, smooth call or fold. As I recall, the practice hands were particularly useful but only after reviewing them several times. They even have a whole book on practice hands I'm thinking of getting. I can confidently say I'm at least twice as good at no limit now than before I read the book. Is it because of this one book? I doubt it but it certainly is a factor.
You do pick up small details each time. More of the subtleties I think. I expect this is generally true of most poker strategy books. When something is above your current level, it doesn't sink in. As you read the book, some missing details are added. Play for a while, make a few posts and then you are ready to go back, read it again and appreciate it more. I used to think I could just read the books with 'advanced' in the title. I think the point could definitely be made about learning to walk before you try to run. You must be ready for a book before you can get full value from it.
Right now, I'm trying to learn more about NL tourney strategy. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm interested. I've read Sklansky's latest on tourneys and probably need to go back and read it again.
Chapters
Is generally more expensive than amazon.ca. (Don't go to amazon.com by mistake. The extra charges will kill you!) But if you already have the gift card, get full value out of it. Make sure you get one of those 'club' cards they have. I forget the name but you'll save at least another 5%. Also, buy enough to get free shipping. Usually that means at least 2 books at a time.
Odds
This is a bit strange for someone who rates himself as a reasonable player. The Malmuth and Sklansky books are generally good. Theory of Poker even would be a good start here. They have an Advanced version of the Hold'em Poker series which as I recall has a very good section on counting hidden outs but this is aimed more at limit HE. There is some freeware called 'PokerCalculator' that you might find useful in calculating odds as well. Do a search in google, you'll find it easily.
Tells
If you are online, there aren't any, except maybe your previous experience with that player. For B&M you could look into Caro's Book of Tells but I don't know how much stock people put in this. Beyond the obvious ones, this is something for pretty advanced players. He's also got a video you can download from kazaa. It's not bad...
NLHE tourneys
The TJ and McEvoy Championship series books are highly regarded but need a few reads to sink in. The writing style is pretty crappy, though but we aren't reading it to enhance our vocabulary. McEvoy and Daugherty have a New Player NLHE book that I read and actually found helpful. Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky may be helpful to you. He explains the 'Gap Theory' in an easily understandable way. This one concept alone will help you hugely with NL tourneys.
I hope this is of some help to you. Best of luck!