My officemate Fendy was asking me about which poker books are useful, so I thought I'd throw together a post. I started reading poker books about 10 years ago, starting with Winning Low Limit Hold'em, Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players, and The Theory of Poker.
For limit hold'em beginners, Winning Low Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones is the best book. By the way, it is a lot easier to learn how to play limit poker before moving to no-limit.
After you learn, understand, and use the material in Jones' book, then you should read Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth.
A must read is The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky. If you understand poker at all, then you can read this book.
Thursday Night Poker: How to Understand, Enjoy and Win by Peter Steiner describes how to play in your home game. There are a lot of details about how to play draw, stud, hold'em, and omaha against your typical home game players. There is some useful information here for beginning players, especially for how to play against different types of players (like loose or tight).
Another general poker book for very serious players is Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide by Barry Greenstein. This book does not contain a lot of poker strategy. Instead, it addresses advandced topics like money management, how to treat other players, your image, etc. It has a lot of great information. Just don't expect it to be a "how to play this hand in this situation" kind of book.
If you play live poker, then you may be interested in Caro's Book of Poker Tells by Mike Caro. I met Caro in 1996 and have a signed copy of this book. No other book contains 10% of the information about players' tells. if you are a beginner, then it is more important to read strategy books first, and read this book later. If you have already been playing for awhile, then you should read this.
The best no-limit hold'em tournament books in print are Dan Harrington's Harrington on Hold'em: Volume 1 and Harrington on Hold'em: Volume 2. If you play in no-limit hold'em tournaments, you absolutely must read these books. Harrington describes in great detail exactly how much you should bet and why in different situations. He explains when you need to go all-in based on your cards, stack size, stack sizes of the other players at your table, how many players are left in the tournament, etc. I can't emphasize enough how much these books have helped my game.
TJ Cloutier and Tom McEvoy's book Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Hold'Em is for no-limit and pot-limit tournament players. The book has a few too many stories in it, and their strategy is very tight, but it has some useful information, especially if you are too loose. Championship Hold'em Tournament Hands: A Hand By Hand Strategy Guide to Winning Hold'em Tournaments is another book they wrote, but there is a lot of overlap with the first book.
The only book for learning how to play many different games is Doyle Brunson's Super System II. Various authors contributed to this book. You can learn expert theory on No limit Hold 'em, Limit Hold 'em, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud 8 or Better, 7 Card Stud High-Low Split, No Limit Omaha, Omaha 8 or Better, Limit Lowball Draw, High Draw Poker, Chinese Poker, and Triple Draw Lowball.
The Pyschology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker is a good book for learning how to play against the different types of players: loose passive, loose aggressive, tight passive, and tight aggressive. Which one do you want to be?
If you want to read poker stories, then you must read One of a Kind : The Rise and Fall of Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Player by Nolan Dalla. Stu Ungar may have been the best poker player ever, and he was such an amazing, talented, complicated, and self-destructive person.
Another good narrative is Aces and Kings : Inside Stories and Million-Dollar Strategies from Poker's Greatest Players by Michael Kaplan. It's a lot more inside stories than strategies, but is a really interesting book about many of today's professional players. I met Kaplan at WSOP 2005 and he was very friendly and engaging, just one more reason you should read his book.
Tales from the Tiltboys is a great book about some guys playing poker and goofing off with on trips to Las Vegas with their pals. It's hilarious!
- schneid
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Don't Make a Collect Call from Las Vegas
While I was in Las Vegas, my mobile phone (Cingular) wouldn't get a signal at all. I don't have a calling card because I always have my mobile phone. I didn't want to call my wife from the hotel, because they display their rates right on the phone, something like $1 per minute. I actually did call my wife from the hotel right before I checked out, and the hotel charged me about $7 for a 7 minute call. I thought that was a huge ripoff. I tried using a pay phone, but I only had $2.50 in quarters and the call was $3 for two minutes.
I just received my phone bill. It was much higher than usual, and after examining it, I saw the three collect calls that I made from pay phones in Las Vegas. Two calls were with a company called Zero Plus Dialing. Each 7 minute call cost $23. That's right, 23 dollars! What a scam! A 5 minute call with Operator Assistance Network was a relatively good deal at only $15. Including taxes (how nice that Illinois can benefit from this ripoff), the 19 minutes cost $76!!!
That is total bullshit. Price gouging like that should be illegal.
It's like when I get a bill in the mail for one of my magazine subscriptions. I'm sure you get these all the time. It's an official looking bill for a magazine you receive. Heck, your subscription probably isn't expiring. It's from a company called "Magazine Clearinghouse" or some such nonsense. I'm sure many people just pay them without realizing they didn't come from the company that publishes the magazine. There is a similar billing scam with web site domain names. Yes, I'm calling it a scam, even though it is legal.
While I'm at it, let me tell you about the latest SBC DSL scam. They called me up and asked if I was interested in receiving a faster DSL rate at the same price. Hmm, something for nothing, what's the catch? When the contract is up, can I sign up at any speed or rate that I want? Sure. Wow, this actually seems like a good legitimate deal, and from a reputable company! Ok, sign me up! Then later on the radio, I hear SBC advertising their regular DSL at a greatly reduced price. So what is the scam? I have 6 months left paying $29 per month, and then (if they still have the lower rate), I could sign up for $15 per month. Instead, I'm now locked in for $29 for 12 months. Ch-ching! SBC gets an extra $84 from me.
But schneid, you say, buyer beware! That's capitalism! You should have a better mobile phone, carry a calling card, have a pocketful of quarters, or ask about the collect call rates before making the call. All true, perhaps, but the government should protect consumers from obvious price gouging like this (that's $4 per minute). Plain and simple. But the government doesn't give a damn about consumers. We may as well rename our country the United States of Corporate America. Hey, you say, it's not our fault that you're stupid! It's every man for himself. But it shouldn't be. People should look out for each other. And the entire point of having representational government is to represent the people. I'm just guessing that the majority of the people in this country don't favor $200 drug prescriptions.
Lesson learned. From now on, I'll carry a calling card in case my mobile phone doesn't work.
I think I'll start billing corporations for million-dollar pieces of equipment that they buy. I'll just raise the price 10%, collect my money, and turn around and pay the company that they actually purchased the equipment from. Oh wait, I'll probably end up in jail, because the corporations are protected by the US government. Let's see how this works:
US politics in a nutshell
- corporations donate billions to politicians
- politicians live high on the hog
- corporations do anything they want
- CEOs live high on the hog
- consumers pay billions in taxes
- consumers get screwed
And yet the current administration tries to convince us that taxes are the problem. Taxes are too high! We'll lower your taxes! Here's $400! I'm your pal! Why should you pay taxes so that other people can get those free entitlements and money from other government programs? Because you are those people! You're not some rich guy sitting on his throne in the halls of power, because if you were, you'd be too busy counting your money to read this.
Don't even get me started on filthy rich CEOs scamming their own companies (Enron, Tyco) so that they can be even richer than they already are. Only worth $200 million? Bah! Chump change! A few minor accounting changes here, some forgiven loans there...a hundred million more in your pocket. Now you can stop living like a pauper and buy that fifth house in Aspen and another Monet. No wonder the government needs to come up with diversions like investigating steroids in baseball. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
- schneid
I just received my phone bill. It was much higher than usual, and after examining it, I saw the three collect calls that I made from pay phones in Las Vegas. Two calls were with a company called Zero Plus Dialing. Each 7 minute call cost $23. That's right, 23 dollars! What a scam! A 5 minute call with Operator Assistance Network was a relatively good deal at only $15. Including taxes (how nice that Illinois can benefit from this ripoff), the 19 minutes cost $76!!!
That is total bullshit. Price gouging like that should be illegal.
It's like when I get a bill in the mail for one of my magazine subscriptions. I'm sure you get these all the time. It's an official looking bill for a magazine you receive. Heck, your subscription probably isn't expiring. It's from a company called "Magazine Clearinghouse" or some such nonsense. I'm sure many people just pay them without realizing they didn't come from the company that publishes the magazine. There is a similar billing scam with web site domain names. Yes, I'm calling it a scam, even though it is legal.
While I'm at it, let me tell you about the latest SBC DSL scam. They called me up and asked if I was interested in receiving a faster DSL rate at the same price. Hmm, something for nothing, what's the catch? When the contract is up, can I sign up at any speed or rate that I want? Sure. Wow, this actually seems like a good legitimate deal, and from a reputable company! Ok, sign me up! Then later on the radio, I hear SBC advertising their regular DSL at a greatly reduced price. So what is the scam? I have 6 months left paying $29 per month, and then (if they still have the lower rate), I could sign up for $15 per month. Instead, I'm now locked in for $29 for 12 months. Ch-ching! SBC gets an extra $84 from me.
But schneid, you say, buyer beware! That's capitalism! You should have a better mobile phone, carry a calling card, have a pocketful of quarters, or ask about the collect call rates before making the call. All true, perhaps, but the government should protect consumers from obvious price gouging like this (that's $4 per minute). Plain and simple. But the government doesn't give a damn about consumers. We may as well rename our country the United States of Corporate America. Hey, you say, it's not our fault that you're stupid! It's every man for himself. But it shouldn't be. People should look out for each other. And the entire point of having representational government is to represent the people. I'm just guessing that the majority of the people in this country don't favor $200 drug prescriptions.
Lesson learned. From now on, I'll carry a calling card in case my mobile phone doesn't work.
I think I'll start billing corporations for million-dollar pieces of equipment that they buy. I'll just raise the price 10%, collect my money, and turn around and pay the company that they actually purchased the equipment from. Oh wait, I'll probably end up in jail, because the corporations are protected by the US government. Let's see how this works:
US politics in a nutshell
- corporations donate billions to politicians
- politicians live high on the hog
- corporations do anything they want
- CEOs live high on the hog
- consumers pay billions in taxes
- consumers get screwed
And yet the current administration tries to convince us that taxes are the problem. Taxes are too high! We'll lower your taxes! Here's $400! I'm your pal! Why should you pay taxes so that other people can get those free entitlements and money from other government programs? Because you are those people! You're not some rich guy sitting on his throne in the halls of power, because if you were, you'd be too busy counting your money to read this.
Don't even get me started on filthy rich CEOs scamming their own companies (Enron, Tyco) so that they can be even richer than they already are. Only worth $200 million? Bah! Chump change! A few minor accounting changes here, some forgiven loans there...a hundred million more in your pocket. Now you can stop living like a pauper and buy that fifth house in Aspen and another Monet. No wonder the government needs to come up with diversions like investigating steroids in baseball. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
- schneid
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
