Index of poker book reviews

Here I’ve listed my takes on some of the poker books that I have read.

There are a lot of others that I’ve read through too, but most are forgettable, at least for my purposes (”How to win at Poker” by some unknown person, ect.)

If you are a beginner, I recommend 1) using your library as a resource, and 2) using the internet as a resource. Try my

or, other internet poker resources to help get you going.

I still remember when I was starting out and reading “Small Stakes Hold’em” and some other advanced books for the first time. The concepts made sense, but because I had only a few months worth of experience everything was still new to me and the ideas didn’t stick very well. There was no way I could retain the information and then apply the correct approach when the exact situation arose. Internet players like myself have logged tens of thousands of hands and gradually concepts will start to match situations over time. Unless you have a good teacher standing over you and explaining things constantly it will just take a lot of time/playing before things will start to stick.

On the other hand getting books from the library has no cost (unless you are prone to collecting overdue charges), or if you get a good book that is beyond your level you can alway re-read it after you gain some more experience.

Anyway, here are my thoughts. There were some other decent beginner books, plus a lot of bad beginner books, but I’ve forgotten about them as they were one-time reads that didn’t stick with me.

~

Beginner: (not limited in use to beginners, but understandable for beginners)

~

Intermediate/Advanced (probably best left until you have some experience)

I’ve probably read 40 or 50 other books too, so if you have a question about one that’s not listed here, just ask in the comment section.

[ snazzy-archive]

2008
“So far so good!”
Nov
18
Challenges of internet poker
“Last weekend I was playing a poker tournament, some 90 or more people. Low buyin, ...”
12
Respected, or Feared?
“Would you rather be respected at the poker table, or feared? There are even times ...”
05
Nanowrimo08
“nanowrimo08; that's the tag for posts related to Nanowrimo for this year. I'm participating this ...”
02
Oct
31
27
No Limit Hold'em starting hands; the Next Generation
“I wrote a post long ago about starting hands to play in No Limit Hold'em, No ...”
22
Road rage, and poker aggression
“I think over time I've written some pretty good and pretty useful posts that, in ...”
20
More short stack theorizing
“For a while back in the summer, I was focusing my play at short stack ...”
18
Double or nothing, and Matrix Sit and Goes
“The two biggest online poker sites have both introduced new versions of No Limit Hold'em ...”
17
Poker Biases, or Why make the wrong move when I should know better?
“How often do we create "facts", or interpretations, or likelihoods that reinforce what we want ...”
14
Overbet the pot? Hand history review: $1 Sit and Go
“This is a hand history from someone who has read my blog and was interested ...”
13
Poker performance factors
“In my last few years of high school I became very passionate about something. It ...”
08
06
It's Sunday; Are you ready for some ... poker?
“I'm not much of a television watcher. I am, however, a big NFL fan; probably ...”
05
Road rage, and poker
“I'm surprised that I haven't noted this before, but maybe it's because I was aware ...”
03
Way ahead / Way behind
“Or wa/wb for short. What are the characteristics of when this principle applies? We have raised ...”
02
Roulette strategy; the Martingale System
“Here's one that I've been intrigued with for a while; roulette. Roulette should be a function ...”
01
Chaos Theory, Observer Affect
“This is part of the non-poker gambling series. I'm still laying general groundwork. ~ There are events ...”
Sep
29
Using reads over pot control
“One of the reasons for blogging my poker thoughts is to serve as a reminder ...”
28
24
my Frozen Shoulder; the Story and Recovery(?)
“This is not a poker-specific post, but I did write about this earlier because I ...”
22
Non-poker gambling; the Gambler's Fallacy
“I'm going to do a series of looks at other gambling situations. I'll probably do ...”
18
15
Listing personal poker weaknesses
“I need to get back and do some specific hand review. The problem is that ...”
Basics of Pot Limit Omaha, for Hold'em players
“Pot Limit Omaha (Hi) is not Hold'em with two hands. In other words, AK66 of ...”
13
12
Controlling aggression
“Watching a friend's poker video and a thought struck me. I know that he's had similar ...”
09
08
Range of hands; Part I
“Warning: This post is as much to cement something for myself as anything. In other ...”
07
MTTs, and the start of the NFL season
“Regular season of the NFL is finally underway. Football is one of the few other ...”
06
Freeroll play
“fwiw, I still find that the best way for me to play freerolls is to ...”
05
More on the power of calling preflop
“Often when I start to write something it's because I had a very brief flash ...”
04
03
Pride and Poker
“Not exactly Jane Austen (I'm referring to my fave of her novels, btw!), but I ...”
02
"Your reverse implied odds are terrible"
“I always wondered why people hit my blog searching for this exact phrase, "your reverse ...”
Aug
31
Who is "I" again
“The other night I went back and played a play money SnG again. I went ...”
27
Basics of short stack poker strategy
“There used to be a good short stacking strategy on a site called donkeydevastation, but ...”
26
Calling gives you more control than raising?
“This is in reference to low level play, where I get the feeling that some ...”
25
Rotator cuff? Frozen shoulder?
“I didn't really think that a physical ailment would hold me back from playing poker, ...”
23
Gambling problems
“btw, the "anon" in my domain and in my username does not refer to a ...”
20
Facebook Poker; reprise
“My last post which reviewed Poker For Dummies made me think of Facebook poker. One of ...”
19
"Poker For Dummies": the book becomes a game
“EA games has decided to take the "For Dummies" instructional book series and build interactive ...”
16
Tight/Passive/Aggressive? *
“* When I moved my blog the original posts went into the archive. I'm reviving ...”
14
Something's off
“So I've been focusing on playing short stacked, buying in for 20 BBs, recently added ...”
13
Not believing, and Tilt and aggression
“The other day I was watching a video a friend made of himself playing 4 ...”
10
Free poker?
“What is "free poker"? Yahoo has free poker games, which is the first place I ...”
08
Short stack update
“Short stack update: Hands: 2200 VP$IP: 11.7 PFR: 7.0 3Bet: 3.6 bb/100: 26.77 = 13.38 BB/100 W$SD: 62.5 Agg: 5.30 Agg%: 27.7 Everything is ...”
07
04
FPS; Fancy Play Syndrome
“Recently I got in a hand (with more than a short stack, having doubled up ...”
01
PokerStars beta hand replayer; hide the mucked cards?
“PokerStars has recently added an animated hand history replayer. Operationally, it works similar to PokerTracker, ...”
Jul
31
Waiting for the NFL preseason
“I don't know, but to me it seems to be taking a long time for ...”
29
Short stack hand review/analysis/stats
“I pulled out hands to date from my short stacking games, filtered the ones where ...”
27
25
Beginner's mind, in poker terms
“It's been a while since I started out trying to teach myself to play poker. ...”
23
How to deal with poker variance; some general thoughts
“So variance will swing your poker winnings up and down. How much can you control ...”
22
21
Super turbos dried up
“My super turbo play and short stack ring tests have been intermingled, but I thought ...”
Updated short stack stats
“Well, this blog is for myself anyways This is another entry that's not necessarily of ...”
18
Early results: 4 tabling 20 BB buyins
“Definitely too early to draw conclusions, but nice stats nevertheless. Four sessions, the last one ...”
15
Amir Vahedi: "You must be willing to die in order to live"
“Why am I so nitty about my bankroll sometimes? Since I was forced to cash ...”
14
Can't win, always losing at micro level Holdem poker?
“One of the tough things for a beginner at no limit holdem poker is the ...”
12
11
10
08
07
Still practicing managing emotions at the poker table
“I've played enough Holdem poker that I know what the best move should be much ...”
03
02
Jun
30
29
Super turbo play = short stack cash game play?
“I've made attempts in the past to learn to play short stacked ring strategy and ...”
27
Poker spam for one, spam for all :(
“Wow, I just spent a few minutes searching for information on the internet using different ...”
26
Update thoughts
“Well, this blog seems to be reverting to it's original form again; mostly personal poker ...”
24
More notes on super turbos
“Just some more reminder/notes for myself for the super turbos on Full Tilt. Players: usually, but not ...”
21
When to make the move from play money to real money?
“Here's a recurring question that I run across. "I've been playing poker with play money ...”
19
18
Full Tilt, Connects?
“Well, here's a bit of good news. For whatever reason, last night, for the first ...”
17
Completed: 40 $3.50+.30 Super Turbo Sit and Goes
“A little bit delayed posting this, but I've been busy establishing the new site. I ran ...”
15
Welcome to anon-poker-blog.com
“Well, I'm committed. For the past couple of days I've been working on creating this new ...”
09
Poker site disconnection problems
“I'm not playing as much poker as I would like lately. Usually the reason for this ...”
04
Adjusting to the Super Turbo when it's slow
“So what happens when you play a super-turbo and the players are 1) tight or ...”
03
02
More PLO, and Super Turbos
“Alright, more personal poker stuff, which may not be interesting to general readers. I'm still working ...”
May
26
Let's try some Omaha, PLO
“Every post is not going to be brilliantly educational or philosophical, I guess. I do ...”
22
It's Situational
“Originally I wrote this back when I was in the middle of my "Odds and ...”
21
Just, try to win
“Some of these posts are very much educationally oriented and only help me in the ...”
19
Spewing chips at full ring NLHE
“I'm spewing chips at full ring again. Last night I ran into unexpected aggression on 5 ...”
18
Fold AK preflop, just fold it
“Meh, sometimes I don't take my own advice. I'm on a new site, trying to build ...”
15
Calculating Odds and Outs; Part IV, Using Percentages
13
12
09
07
Bet the Set on the straight flop for value, and some Reverse Implied Odds
“I don't usually post hand histories in here but there are some interesting things that ...”
06
More evidence of too serious poker attitude?
“Further to the seriousness of my poker playing attitude: Recently I played at a $25NLHE cash ...”
04
How serious to take poker?
“Is it possible to be too serious about poker? As I type this I'm casually playing ...”
02
Gambler, or Investor?
“If there was no internet poker, I wouldn't be a poker player. The first time ...”
Apr
30
Poker on Facebook; poor software
“I'm on Facebook, a social networking site. Mostly I play a game called Scrabulous there ...”
28
More playing blind, freeroll thoughts
“Well, I've almost depleted my play money bankroll with the "playing blind" exercise, at least ...”
25
How it feels to play poker blind
“The other thing that I haven't yet commented on is how it feels to try ...”
24
More on playing poker blind
“Last night (mind you I was tired) all I did was play some more attempts ...”
23
Playing poker, blind
“Not "blind" as in from the big blind/small blind, but "blind" as in not seeing ...”
19
What is Tilt?
“In the last 10 days or so I've found myself on tilt (and by that ...”
18
Risk, stress, and Poker. What keeps us from playing aggressively?
“I noticed that in the search terms that led someone to this blog they were ...”
One of my poker sites goes under ...
“Well, one of my poker sites has bitten the dust. I mentioned in my post on ...”
17
Freeroll stategy Part II; How to play
“Now we'll get into what cards to play and how to play them. Part II ...”
14
How to Play Poker for no Money; the Freeroll Strategy, Introduction
“It is possible to start an on-line poker bankroll without depositing by playing freerolls. It ...”
13
Choosing an on-line poker site?
“Are you thinking about starting an on-line poker account? I write this blog primarily for myself, ...”
11
High Stakes Poker
“I've been watching some back episodes of High Stakes Poker lately. If you're not familiar, ...”
10
Style update
“Two re-curring "behind-thinks", those things that flash in the background, unspoken, unworded, even in your ...”
09
A personal note
“I said I wasn't planning to have any personal information in this blog. I've gone ...”
08
Getting inside your adversaries' heads
“A quote, from Eric Van Lustbaders's continuation of Robert Ludlum's Bourne series, "The Bourne Betrayal": "Bourne's ...”
07
Cash games; playing for stacks
“I've had this said to me more than once, and it's slowly starting to be ...”
The evolution of a poker blog
“It's interesting to maintain a poker blog. This started a year or so ago as emails ...”
Mar
31
Robert Ludlum, and poker
“I had been away for a few days, so no poker played. It's interesting to ...”
27
The poker learning process, continued ...
“I decided to cut the previous entry into two pieces and then continue on. Unfortunately ...”
26
The poker learning process
“The process of improving, at poker, skiing or French, requires learning. Learning is the process ...”
24
More on why I play poker
“Time for a more indepth search into 1) the reasons why I play poker, as ...”
20
Higher win rates, less effort equals lower growth
“My bankroll is gradually increasing, but I don't seem to have the urge to work ...”
More review of the $75 turbo
“A friend of mine reviewed the $75 turbo that I played and some interesting things ...”
17
$75 Sit and Go; How does it play compared to $1.25?
“I finally got around to using the $75 satellite pass that I won using player ...”
12
More on playing AK; what to do when reraised preflop?
“2 recent situations with AK led me to think some more on this topic. In ...”
09
72 Offsuit
“The other day we were on the bubble in a Sit an Go. The button, ...”
05
Playing AK, Big Slick
“This is not an instructional poker blog, but AK is a hand that beginners often ...”
04
Categorized play errors
“Preflop you have 3 choices. In order of preference, Bet (or raise/reraise)/Fold/Call. Check also in ...”
02
Team poker event
“I participated in team poker event recently. People who were interested signed up, participants voted ...”
01
Second anniversary tourney
“Two years ago I played a charity poker tourney at my company. Buy-in $20, half ...”
Feb
29
More on goals and plans
“Recent comments from Elmseeker combined with the previous post about poker goals and plans leads ...”
28
Goals and plans; why have 'em?
“I've set a lot of goals or targets during my days of playing poker. Some ...”
26
Confidence, Not-caring
“Confidence, not-caring. "A" game issues that I've been thinking about lately. Confidence gets tested when you play ...”
25
Limited playing endurance
“Another confirmation of my endurance ability. I played a $10 money added tourney with some ...”
22
The Zen of player points
“This entry is probably boring to read for internet searchers, but this blog was really ...”
20
Poker is a harsh mistress
“The title is a variation on a title from a Robert Heinlein novel I read ...”
15
Fight or flight
“I don't if I've referred to this directly in this blog. I think I have, ...”
LAG
“I want to start to gear up for developing my LAG play. (Ghosts of my ...”
14
Update
“Just a few little notes: I've started to run the 40 game project on $2 turbo ...”
11
Completed project: 40 x $1 Turbo Sit and Goes
“I've completed the 40 $1 Turbo Sit and Go project that I was running on ...”
08
Minor tilt signals
“I'd like to look at signs that I'm going on minor tilt. If I can ...”
06
And more
“Hmmm, sometimes I can't stop posting. Odd change in my $1 turbo SnG project. Where originally ...”
05
Don't like losing
“I'm realizing how much I don't like to lose. Back to the Islewars entry, I ...”
03
Quickie
“Just a quick note; I'm currently 12-4 ITMing the turbo SnGs. Oddly enough it's even ...”
Jan
31
Various thoughts
“A whole bunch of little things. Lost 3 buyins 4 tabling last night. Partly it's just ...”
30
Islewars
“A few entries ago I tried to compare multitabling to video and computer games. While ...”
Know your level
“One thing that permeates this blog in many different ways is the difference in playing ...”
27
Amazingly bad
“A minor posting attempt. Lacking time and focus I played a $1 SnG turbo last night ...”
25
HUD vrs single table
“Lost my $10NL multitable grinding patience last night and instead played a single table of ...”
24
Why play?
“Kind of a continuation of the last entry. The last was somewhat incomplete as I ...”
23
No grind energy
“I'm not grinding very well. In terms of win rate, it's dropped again, but that's ...”
21
$25NL Style statistics results
“I datamined for a while today at one of the sites that I play at. ...”
20
More Poker and Life
“I play a lot of poker. Not as much as some people that I know, ...”
18
Linear development?
“When I first started out a year ago, I focussed on $10NL. I did that ...”
17
16
Usefulness of detailed reads
“One additional note to the previous entry; the $2 SnG that I came second in, ...”
15
Different moods, different games
“Back when I first started grinding $10NL the first time I was pretty focussed on ...”
14
Shoving against loose players
“I learned something from a friend of mine who multitables $50NL.  He raised 99 from ...”
12
How to adjust when you have no fold equity
“Again, this is not an instructional blog, but one that I'm keeping for the purpose ...”
Pot odds? What are pot odds?
“This is not an instructional blog so I'm not going to explain pot odds. Rather, ...”
11
07
04
Multitabling
“It's interesting how much better I seem to do when I multitable. It definitely cuts ...”
2007
Dec
31
Right focus
“Sometimes I think that I play too casually. Partly this is due to the amount ...”
Poker porn
“Most poker sites have .net versions of their site as well as a .com version. ...”
26
Identifying weakness
“There are a lot of times at micro levels that a play will reek weakness. ...”
25
Stop feeding the fish
“This is not a prepared entry. Actually, they never are, but often I have some ...”
22
Raise, then fold
“Playing a $2 SnG last night. Had poor hands for a long time until the ...”
19
Poker and life
“An entry for the emotional/life connection with poker. It's amazing how much a reaction to a ...”
11
Fear of raising preflop #4; Right thought
“Zen and the Art of Poker is a book that gets referred to often by ...”
10
Fear of raising preflop #3; Psychological elements
“Having an idea what you might want to do on the flop and later after ...”
06
Fear of raising preflop #2; playing the flop
“So, you've raised, but got callers. If you hit the flop, then value bet/price out ...”
05
Fear of raising preflop #1; what can happen if you raise
“Apparently I go through phases of comfort with raising preflop. Sometimes it's fun, other times ...”
02
Another stab at ring ..
“I've been inspired to start playing ring games again by a few videos I've watched ...”
Nov
27
Loss of desire
“When I first started understanding poker it was fun. I was playing play money, learning ...”
23
New thought ..
“.. on the new site. I think my difficulty with it arises from the combination ...”
"A" game; a second look
“Last night, playing my second SnG (having already started a 3rd on another site) I ...”
19
Giving up on the deposit bonus ...
“It's sad, but I'm almost ready to give up. Not poker in total, but my goal ...”
13
Emotional bankroll
“This is an interesting term that I don't recall coming across before. You have your ...”
12
Sucking out, getting sucked out on
“A theory, which I hope makes sense. My theory is that the reason that I seem ...”
10
Let's see if we can hit a flop ...
“Was watching an instructional video, and was struck by how loose and weak the "experienced" ...”
09
Focusing my playing
“I really need to focus my playing more. I was reviewing my PokerTracker stats since ...”
05
"A" game, first look
“I'd like to figure out what things keep me from playing my "A" game. Last night ...”
01
Update
“No theory/philosophical insights lately, so I'll just update my playing. I've made 40% of my deposit ...”
Oct
30
Knowing your opponents, in general
“I remember making the comment "at the levels I play" on the forum somewhere, long ...”
26
Criminology?
“I know I wasn't going to post non-poker activities in here, but this is poker ...”
25
Competition
“Competition is a word that isn't mentioned in connection with poker as often as I ...”
Still stuggling at ring
“Sigh. I should update my ring results at the new site. Had one really good session ...”
23
22
Move the experiment to real money?
“After 2 1/2 weeks of the bet/fold experiment, it may be time to move it ...”
19
Still getting donked around
“Even though I'm restricting my ring games to $25, I got caught by the same ...”
18
Playing middle pairs
“Somehow during the course of playing over the past few months I lost the idea ...”
17
Reminder list
“My current list and hierarchy of things to remind myself. This reflects my current playing ...”
Review
“I hope that by maintaining and adding to this blog I don't over-analyze too much ...”
15
More from the experiment
“There are still some things that I'm learning from the experiment. It's reinforcing patience. In the ...”
Not enough free time
“I spend more time writing in here and reading on the internet about poker than ...”
12
Still learning something from the experiment
“ Playing a style that I'm not comfortable with can be nervous-creating. In my first ...”
10
Some ring results
“It can be difficult to understand the thinking of some players. I played tight/passive/aggressive, but under ...”
09
Don't get all your chips in unless you're fairly certain you have the best hand
“Something I read in a friend's blog (unfortunately since at this point I'm keeping this ...”
Poker as a puzzle
“Part of my ongoing work is to establish a relationship between myself and poker that ...”
If it's not good enough to raise, it's not good enough to play
“Further thoughts from the still-ongoing bet/fold experiment. A friend of mine was given the advice, "if ...”
Thoughts on my own learning process
“I tend to be somewhat thick-headed when I'm learning something new. Basics are easy and ...”
04
Raise/fold from the small blind
“More from the raise/fold practice. It's difficult to play from the SB with this exercise. ...”
03
Why can't I make laydowns?
“This is the second aspect that was highlighted for me with the bet/raise/fold experiment. I ...”
Who is "I"?: Start of the Raise/Bet/Fold experiment
“I started running a little experiment, one suggested, among others, by Isabelle Mercier. She suggests ...”
02
New project
“On the old site that I cashed out from I still had points that allowed ...”
Tight/Passive/Aggressive?
“I'm beginning to wonder whether the way to play low, low levels is to play ...”
Sep
27
Aggression problems again ...
“Still having a problem with managing aggression. Blind steals aren't too bad. The pot is small ...”
24
Getting played back at
“What to do when it feels like someone is playing back at you? It's one thing ...”
19
Play level update
“Just to keep updated; I've moved from the $10NL 6 max tables to $25NL. I am ...”
Continued losers
“I've read claims that 90% of poker players (or was it online specifically?) are losers. ...”
17
Winning
“The more regularly I post, the less distilled and focussed the topics and writing will ...”
10
The challenge of playing low, low stakes
“Since I've made this blog available to the outside world I should state some things ...”
05
Update
“Notes for reference: Started my new deposit and started working off the deposit bonus. Lost, lost, ...”
Aug
31
30
Stay out of trouble, & Protect my hand
“I want to refresh something that I was using a while back. This was the ...”
29
Poker Academy
“After a bad weekend on 3 different sites as an extension of the 3 months ...”
28
Farewell to CD
“A couple of days ago I requested my first site with a bankroll to empty ...”
Discipline
“This is the word that I'm just now remembering that helped me at one point. ...”
24
08/24/07
“Okay, first entry as a blog entry. All previous entries were cut and pasted from ...”
22
08/22/07
“I should transfer this into a blog that no-one sees. Rereading this so far, apparently my ...”
Jul
29
07/29/07
“Problems/weaknesses: - not seeing the stack sizes into the future; getting pot/odds committed - not betting properly ...”
19
07/19/07
“Once again I'm having control problems with added situational aggression. I'm trying to add preflop raising ...”
17
07/18/07
“ Trying to remember the threads I was thinking about starting on the forum. Examples ...”
10
07/10/07
“ Lack of confidence right now. I'm unwilling to raise anything but premium hands, TT+ ...”
04
07/04/07
“It's funny; I'm kind of in that similar doldrum period as when I finished my ...”
Jun
25
06/25/07
“ Maybe even more basic is pushing someone off a hand when you read them ...”
19
06/19/07
“ Nothing much to report until now. Had been steadily increasing the bankroll with almost ...”
May
27
05/27/07
“ ...”
18
05/18/07
“There are a number of thing that are important, but which are more so? Or ...”
14
05/14/07
“Currently, things are going much better. Some up sessions, outweighing down sessions. Patience is part ...”
02
05/02/07
“ Discipline vrs Aggression Zen vrs Ego Not slowplaying unless very certain it's undrawable to lose ”
Apr
30
4/30/07
“Also; Not serious treating the chips like play money Not determined Difference from start of March/stabs at $25 PL: not ...”
26
April 26
“Lacking ambition / enthusiasm cheap SnGs are about right not seeking challenge of challenging myself just ...”
24
4/22/07
“Looser / Aggressive - Means: - see more flops - still should be raising entering - ...”
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