Anyone with an email account or a television is aware that the popularity of the game of poker is at an all-time high. It seems like every day a new poker TV show, book, magazine or video game is born. New cardrooms are popping up all over the place. It’s a great time for poker, and a great time for poker literature. Being that Identity Theory is a literary website, sort of, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to give you the low-down on the best of the poker books available.
What follows is a set of brief reviews on poker books worth reading. Some of the titles covered are instructional, like Lee Jones’ Winning Low-Limit Hold’em. Others are literary, like Katy Lederer’s Poker Face. Some will be more theoretical in nature, like David Sklansky’s Theory of Poker. All of them offer great insights into the game of poker and/or the game of life.
Check back frequently for more reviews, and good luck at the tables…
Championship
No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold’em – T.J.
Cloutier and Tom McEvoy
World Series of Poker champion and former Canadian Football League
tight end T.J. Cloutier’s writings on poker strategy are highly
accessible and easy to understand—and also a little bit folksy.
This book is considered one of the top manuals on No-Limit and Pot-Limit
Hold’em—probably the most difficult forms of poker to study.
Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold’em includes advice
on both tournaments and cash games, and in addition to the poker
wisdom, you’ll find at the end an interview with Cloutier as well
as some brief stories like "A Very Unlucky Day in Odessa"
and "The Worst Decision in the History of Poker." Well
worth the price of admission.
Poker
Wisdom of a Champion – Doyle Brunson
Like a true Southerner, Doyle Brunson knows how to tell a good story.
Originally published in 1984, Brunson’s Poker Wisdom of a Champion—formerly
known as According to Doyle—is a collection of two-or-three-page
tales from this legend of poker’s days as a Texas road gambler.
Poker Wisdom of a Champion isn’t necessarily a how-to-play-poker
book that will help you break into the Big Game, but it will give
you some insight into the stranger aspects of human nature that
emerge at the poker table—as well as some helpful cardplaying
advice.
Winning
Low Limit Hold’em – Lee Jones
It would be tough to find a poker book as effectively constructed
as Winning Low Limit Hold’em. The chapters are brief but
thorough and include quizzes to make sure you’re really thinking
about the concepts. Lee Jones covers dozens of topics ranging from
how to play flush draws to how to manage your bankroll. The book
is tailored towards hold’em games ranging from $2-4 to $5-10 limit,
but some of the advice holds true for other limits as well. Mr.
Jones also does a great job as the cardroom manager for PokerStars,
and as such, the recently released third edition of WLLHE
contains advice on internet poker. This is one of three books (along
with Cloutier’s Championship Omaha and Sklansky’s Theory
of Poker) that I can conclusively say has made me a handsome
wad of cash, and I would recommend it to anyone trying to master
the game of hold’em.
Ace
on the River – Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein isn’t as flashy or easily recognized as a lot of
other players (can you imagine a Barry Greenstein video game?) but
to me, he’s one of the more intriguing high-stakes gamblers—and
he probably has a much higher level of success than some of his
more self-promotional counterparts. It’s fitting, then, that Barry’s
contribution to poker literature is intended for advanced players
and doesn’t offer much pop-culture appeal. Ace on the River
is more of a lifestyle guide for the professional player than an
instructional tool for the tables. As such, the most common criticism
of this book is that it’s pretty shallow in the strategy department,
compared to, say, Harrington on Hold’em. However, the No-Limit
Hold’em hand analyses at the end of the book definitely make Ace
on the River worth reading. (It also has lots of colorful,
glossy photographs, so it functions as a nice coffee-table book.)
Play
Poker Like The Pros – Phil Hellmuth,
Jr.
Phil Hellmuth’s stab at writing a poker manual is actually pretty
decent in the sense that it covers quite a few different games—like
Stud Hi/Lo and Pot-Limit Omaha—and is a bit more toned down
than Phil’s infamously grating persona. This seems like a good book
for introducing a novice player to the various forms and concepts
of poker, but it’s not a text that’s going to significantly improve
the game of an already solid player. (Nonetheless, you gotta love
Phil’s line from a recent ESPN World Series Main Event broadcast:
"I was supposed to go broke on that hand, but they forgot one
thing: I can dodge bullets, baby!")
Zen
and the Art of Poker – Larry W.
Phillips
One of the key components of playing successful poker is the ability
to manage your emotions and prevent tilting. Zen and the Art
of Poker focuses on this aspect, effectively applying the sage
words of Zen masters like Dogen and Suzuki to a game played by Devilfish,
Jesus, and Fossilman. Both Zen and poker require a heightened level
of attention and detachment, so it’s no wonder players like Howard
Lederer and Phil Hellmuth claim to have used Zen to improve their
play. (Lederer was inspired by Zen and the Art of Archery.)
One flaw with Phillips’ book, though, is that it starts to get repetitive—there’s
really only so much you can say about Zen, being that it’s more
of a direct practice than a set of ideas. However, you can definitely
squeeze enough out of this book to earn a return on your $12.95
investment. And, hey, it might make you a better person.
Poker
Nation – Andy Bellin
Andy Bellin is a Paris Review staffer and poker aficionado
whose articles for Esquire led to the publication of Poker
Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling
Country. This book takes a wide-ranging, journalistic view
of the poker world circa 2001 (before the era of Chris Moneymaker,
Party Poker, and lipstick cameras). In addition to explaining poker
rules, history, and strategy, Bellin crafts first-person accounts
of his experiences at underground poker clubs in NYC as well as
at the World Series of Poker. He also weaves in interviews with
professional grinders on topics like drug abuse and gender differences
in poker. Poker Nation is an entertaining, informative,
and insightful look at the card-playing subculture. Personally,
I’m hoping for a sequel.
Poker
Face – Katy Lederer
Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers is a concise, beautifully
written memoir by poet Katy Lederer (Winter Sex) about
growing up in an eccentric game-playing family with her siblings,
world-class poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke. For more
on Poker Face, click over to my interview
with Katy for Identity Theory.
The
Championship Table at the World Series of Poker
– Dana Smith, Tom McEvoy, Ralph Wheeler
The Championship Table is an essential book for
poker historians. It covers the Main Event of the World Series of
Poker from 1970-2003, detailing the key hands, strategies, quotes
from participants, payouts, and more. The main attraction of the
book for me was the interviews with road gamblers and other poker
greats like Doyle Brunson, Bobby Hoff, T.J. Cloutier, Barbara Enright,
and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, among others. Erik Seidel
talks about his discomfort playing Johnny Chan in the final-table
matchup shown in Rounders; the always colorful Amarillo
Slim chats about Benny Binion and the old days of the World Series.
The Championship Table is an excellent volume for players
interested in the history of the game and in the World Series itself.
Other books that will soon be reviewed on this page include:
The Theory of Poker – David Sklansky
The Book of Bluffs – Matt Lessinger
Dealer’s Choice – Various
Super System – Doyle Brunson and more
Super System 2 – Doyle Brunson and more
The Biggest Game in Town – A. Alvarez
Caro’s Book of Poker Tells – Mike Caro
Fundamental Secrets of Winning Poker – Mike Caro
Positively Fifth Street – James McManus
Championship Omaha – T.J. Cloutier
Championship Stud – Dr. Max Stern, Linda Johnson, and Tom McEvoy
Tournament Poker – Tom McEvoy
