Harrington on hold'em by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie

Even if you've read all the books I've recommended thus far, you will still feel like three times the tournament player after you've finished Harringtons books on the subject: "Harrington on Hold'em vol 1 Strategic play", and "Harrington on hold'em vol 2, the endgame". The text makes complex ideas fairly straightforward, primarily by using many examples to show how to play. If you remember taking math in school, you usually had a couple of pages of text you were supposed to read, then a large bunch of problems to solve. Reading the text was helpful, but it was by solving the problems that you learned, and this is the basic idea behind Harringtons method for teaching you the game. This book, like so many others, is only semi accessible. There is suppose to be a third volume included, the workbook, but it's only available as a regular textbook. Still, if you can get someone to read the many examples out loud, this is definitely worth your while. I highly recommend it!

Moneymaker, by Chris Moneymaker

Moneymaker, no doubt a suitable title for a poker book written by anyone who has managed to win the main event at the World Series Of Poker - undisputedly so, for a bookwritten by someone who won his seat into the main event of the 2003 World Series through a $39 sattelite tournament at the PokerStars online poker room, and then went on to win the whole thing. That Moneymaker happens to be the authors last name as well, is of course pure coincidence, but it couldn't be more fitting… The rest is history, and Christopher Bryan Moneymaker, the 27-year-old 2003 winner of the World Series Of Poker, quietly traded his job as an accountant comptroller, for the life of a traveling poker pro, while famous players such as Johnny Chann, Dan Harrington, and finally Sam Farha found themselves outplayed, and outdrawn by the new kid in town. The main event that year became the start of something that would change the dynamic of the World series forever, the “Moneymaker effect, which has seen player numbers rise from 839 participants in the 2003 main event, to 7319 players at the main event of 2010, in spite of the $10000 buyin. Chris Moneymaker’s autobiography, Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker was published in March 2005. This book isn't a strategy guide and it won't improve your play. I have included it here as more of a motivational tool. The reasons should be obvious to anyone: Chris Moneymaker went from never having played a "live" poker tournament, to knocking out the top pros at the 2003 World Series Of Poker. He did luck out quite a bit on his way to winning the title as World champion, but then again, it's impossible to win a poker tournament without a tremendous amount of luck to accompany one's skills. The important thing is that he did win, and although many previously unheard of online players have won the WSOP since, he was still the first person to show that anyone with a bit of skills, luck, and determination can do well even at such a prestigious tournament. It's possible that Chris Moneymaker doesn't come across to you as being a particularly skilled poker player, but read his book anyway. It is fascinating reading. You'll especially enjoy the play-by-play at the final table. I highly recommend it. Helene Jangenfält

Small Stakes Hold 'em, by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth

on Malmuth is an American poker player and author of books on both poker and gambling. He is the owner of Two plus two publishing, which publishes books and runs an online gambling discussion forum. This book is authored by himself, Ed Miller, and David Sklansky.
Edward, Ed, Miller, is a professional poker player, and an author of books about poker. He is also part owner and produces educational poker videos for Stoxpoker, a subscription fee based poker coaching site. Miller also writes an online poker column and manages a poker discussion forum.
David Sklansky is generally considered the number one authority on gambling in the world today. Besides his ten books on the subject, Sklansky has also produced two videos and numerous writings for various gaming publications. His occasional poker seminars always receive an enthusiastic reception, including those given at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
"Small Stakes Hold 'em" is required reading for low limit players. My only criticism would be that their starting hand chart is a bit aggressive for online play at low limits, but otherwise this is a must read book. It has everything from how to calculate pot odds and count your outs, to how to correctly evaluate different types of flops. The large quiz section at the end of the book is especially helpful and will improve your play. Unfortunately the book is only semi accessible, which means that except for the regular copies, it's only available as PDF, or kindle, but it'll be computer-time well spent. Read it!

Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players, by David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth

Mason Malmuth is an American poker player and author of books on both poker and gambling. He is the owner of Two plus two publishing, which publishes books and runs an online gambling discussion forum. This book is authored by himself, and David Sklansky.
David Sklansky is generally considered the number one authority on gambling in the world today. Besides his ten books on the subject, Sklansky has also produced two videos and numerous writings for various gaming publications. His occasional poker seminars always receive an enthusiastic reception, including those given at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
This book is perfect if you play at some of the tighter mid/high limit games online or live. It won't help much if you play $.50/1.00 at Minted Poker, but this is a must read book if you play against fairly knowledgeable players.
Texas Hold ’em is not an easy game to play well. To become an expert you must balance many concepts, some of which occasionally contradict each other. Through this book, Many ideas, which were only known to a small, select group of players, were made available to anyone who was striving to become a better player. You'll get over 100 pages of new material, including extensive sections on "loose games," and "short-handed games." Anyone who studies this text, is well disciplined, and gets the proper experience should become a significant winner. Some of the other ideas discussed include play on the first two cards, semi-bluffing, the free card, inducing bluffs, staying with a draw, playing when a pair flops, playing trash hands, desperation bets, playing in wild games, reading hands, and psychology.It's written by Sklansky, which garantees good and acurat advice, as well as a drive to always take the state of the art yet another step forward.
"Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players" is semi accessible, there's no audio version, but the book is available as Kindle, or PDF, and there are of course numerous regular copies. Which ever format you prefer, you need to own this book!

Winning Low-Limit Hold'em, by Lee Jones

If you've never read a book on poker and are new to Texas Hold'em, then this is probably the first book you should read. It explains basic play very well and is simple to read and understand. This is a great book for poker newbs. If you're already a good poker player and want to get better, then I'd skip this one and Pick something more appropriate. I haven't been able to find an audio copy of this book. I read this book as a PDF-file, unfortunately I couldn't find that copy on Amazon.com, but you can buy the regular copy buy clicking the link above. The problem I have with the pdf-version is that it contains a lot of examples, which is great, but it often shows the cards as pictures, not text, which means that you'll need someone sighted around to be able to make sense of it. I'd still recommend you to read it though.

The Theory of Poker, by David Sklansky

David Sklansky is considered the number one authority in the gambling world today. He has written several books on the subject, and attributes his standing in the gambling community
to three things:
1.The fact that he presents his ideas as simply as possible
(sometimes with Mason Malmuth and/or Ed Miller) even
though these ideas frequently involve concepts that are
deep, subtle, and not to be found elsewhere.
2.The fact that the things he says and writes can be counted
on to be accurate.
3.The fact that to this day a large portion of his income is
still derived from gambling (usually poker but
occasionally blackjack, sports betting, horses, video
games, casino promotions, or casino tournaments).
Thus, those who depend on his advice know that he
still depends on it himself.
This book is about the general theories and concepts of poker, which apply to almost every variation of the game. It's not a book which will provide basic rules, or a step-by-step guide to the different games. Rules of thumb that say to fold one hand, and raise with another, simply won't get a poker player beyond the beginning stages. "The theory of poker"won't teach you what to do in a particular situation, but rather what you should consider before determining what to do. By explaining the logic of poker, the book will show the reader what kinds of things to think about
in order to become a better player. Sklansky uses primarily five games — five-card draw, seven-card stud, hold 'em, draw
lowball, and razz or seven-card lowball, To illustrate the concepts presented. Unfortunately the book isn't available on audio, but the PDF-file doesn't present any other problems, than the usual ones. Meaning that you'll be stuck at the computer every time you want to read. Fear not dear reader, It'll be well worth your while. This book will revolutionize your game!

Review of "Play poker like the pros", by Phil Hellmuth

Phil Hellmuth was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1964. He attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison for 3 years, before dropping out to play poker full time. In 1989, 24 year old Hellmuth defeated 2 time defending champion, Johnny Chan, in heads up play, thus becoming the youngest player to ever win the World Series of Poker main event. A record which he held until 2008, when it was broken by 22 year old Peter Eastgate. With 11 WSOP bracelets, Hellmuth currently holds the record, and with 76 WSOP cashes, and 41 final tables, he holds the record there as well. Though he doesn’t yet have a World Poker Tour title, he has 13 money finishes, and 4 final tables in WPT events. In 2003, he defeated Chris Firguson, earning the title in the first National Heads up Poker championship.
With his total live tournament winnings of $11,330,398 As of May 2010, he is ranked fourth on the All Time Money List, behind:
Daniel negreanu, Jamie Gold, and Phil Ivey.
Hellmuth has made several instructional poker videos, including his Ultimate White To Black Belt Course and Phil Hellmuth's Million Dollar Poker System. He has written many articles for Cardplayer magazine and several poker books including Play Poker like the Pros, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, The Greatest Poker Hands ever Played, and Poker Brat, which contains autobiographical material as well as poker advice.

”Play poker like the pros”, covers:Fixed limit, pot limit, and no limit holdem, limit and pot limit Omaha, omaha high low, 7 card stud, and razz. Each game includes instructions on how to play the game, and then it moves on to talk about Hellmuths strategic recommendations for: beginner, intermediat, and advanced players. There's also a tournament strategy section for every game. The book also discusses the importance of reading skills, and how to improve them. Hellmuth uses different animals to symbolise cirtain types of players. The elephant calls too much, the mouse plays to conservatively, The jackel is gonna bet and raise with any 2 cards, etc. He also explains what would be the best way of dealing with them, and gives examples of how to ajust your own play according to which ”animal” you’re up against. The last chapter in the book covers playing poker online. The book concludes with some appendices covering the rank of poker hands, a description of Hellmuth's Champion of the Year award, a list of the most prestigious poker tournaments, and some brief information on what it's like to play in the World Series of Poker.
Unfortunately, Hellmuth has been trying to bite off a little bit more than he can chew, meaning that each and every one of the games he discusses requires it’s own book, and consiquently crucial information is often left out. That doesn’t mean that you can’t find useful advice here, but the main problem that I have with this product of Hellmuths winning strategy, is that it's mostly useful for beginners, but it still requiers the skills of an at least intermediat player to be able to digest and take advantage of the content. You have to be to the point where you can pick out the bits and peases that could help your game, and ignore the rest. Still, if you're already doing good in one game, you may definitely want to use this book to learn how to play another one.
This book has reseived a lot of bad press, of which some is very much deserved, and some isn't. Phil Hellmuth, is very unpopular due to his arogant attitude, and I agree, he does seem to be awfully full of him self, They don’t call him the ”poker brat” for nothing. He talks a lot about his own accomplishments in his book as well, but for the most part I think that he does it in a way that shows that he’s well aware of what the rest of the world thinks of him, and that he’d be thinking the same thing, if he had to play against him self. I honestly think that he has that attitude at the poker table, cause it makes people go on tilt, or that may be part of the explanation at least. It has often gone way too far though, and that’s probably because he’s too much in love with the cameras for his own good. He isn’t exactly the guy whom I'd long to hang out with, but we still gotta give his play the respect it's entitled to. You may disagree with a lot of the plays that he recommends here, but it's still worth while reading, since you will always find something that will help you become a better player!

Review of Ace on the river: an advanced poker guide, by Barry Greenstein

Barry greenstein, also known as The bear, and The Robin Hood of Poker, was born in 1954, in Chicago Illinois. He got his first explanation about how to play poker from his father when he was 4 years old, and played for quarters in his first organised poker game by the age of 12. In highschool, he played poker for dollars on the weekends, and usually quit the game a winner. by the time he graduated from collige, he could win $ 1000 on a good night, a pretty impressive amount over 30 years ago. He earned a b.a in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and studied for a PHD in Mathematics, but never defended his completed dissertation. Today he has 3 bracelet(s), and 44 money finishes to show for the World Series of poker, along with 19 cashes in the World Poker Tour, and 2 WPT titles. He's also got 1 money finish to show for the European Poker Tour. Barry Greenstein donates his tournament winnings to charity, Primarily Children incorporated, thus earning his nickname, The Robin Hood of Poker. As of 2009, his tournament winnings exceeded $6900000.

"I seem to win whenever I read it." -- Ted Forrest, winning high-stakes player
"It's the necessary complement to instructional poker books." -- John Hennigan, winning high-stakes player
"Other players don't think about poker like Barry does." -- Phil Ivey, winning high-stakes player
"This book contains a lot of stuff I knew but had never seen written, and some things I didn't know." -- Doyle Brunson, poker legend

I'm not exactly in a position to arbue with these players, and more over, I don't want to. With "Ace on the river", Barry Greenstein provides you with the rare opportunity to see the poker-world through the eyes of someone that lives it, as well as the chance to actively analyse the play of cirtain hands on every street. It's almost like sitting in a classroom, with your favorite teacher. For me at least, the best teachers always tried to teach the students for life, not for school, and with this book, The author provides the necessary teachings to live a life as a poker pro, in the poker world.
The book is broken up into chapters, some no more than a few pages, in which Barry introduces a general topic and then offers an interesting, often fascinating discussion of the subject. He opens Every chapter with a famous quotation, which doesn't exactly ad to your poker skills, but being the incurable bookworm that I am, I had to mention it just the same. This is well written!
While not giving away too much, Barry interjects a number of personal stories, many which are very insightful as well as humorous, as he takes you a long on his journey as a poker professional. Included are chapters on the poker society, money management, family matters and even sex. Greenstein also describes the types of qualities that he believes make a great poker player. The type of attitude they should have, the personality traits, analytical skills and the like.
When it comes to the game it self, greenstein goes over game theory and how it applies to bluffing, as well as how you can give your self an edge by being aware of the use, and misuse of mathematics. The chapter on play lessons how ever is one of the more useful ones out there. Forget about charts and the like, you won't find them here. You should however already have the general idea of which hands that are playable and such. This is hand by hand, play by play, street by street, and you're making the decitions. He gives you the information of your position at the table, information about what kind of players your up against, and their positions, your stacksizes, and of course your own wholecards. Then he describes a scenario, and asks you what would be the correct cors of action: Should you raise, fold, check, or call? How much should you bet? Etc. Then he gives you his view of the matter, and explains why he would recommend that particular play. The examples are taken from real-table-scenarios, and after telling you what would be the correct play, he moves on to telling you what actually happened at the table, admitting that he didn't always make the right play himself. You understand, that Advice from a source as known and respected as Greenstein could never be worthless, but his humble attitude, and with that I mean his willingness to show how he learned from his own mistakes, makes it all the more valuable. The Only problem with this unique play-by-play section, is that it ends way too soon.
The audio version is read by the author, and he does a good job as a narrator. It's not so much that his voice is plesent to listen to, though I don't have any complaints there either, but he's got that cirtain way of keeping your attention, just like any favorite teacher should.
By now I'm sure you know what the verdict will be, and yes, you're right, I really think you need to read this book!

Review of Phil Gordon's little green book

Phil Gordon graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in computer scientce in 1991. He joined the start-up of Netsys technology as their first hired employee. In 1996, Netsys was acquired by Cisco Systems, making him a millionaire, and in 1997 he retired from the high-tech industry to travel the world and to play poker.
He is now one of the great poker players out there. He finished fourth in the 2001 WSOP Main Event, and has a total of 16 money finishes in the world series, but although he has made several final tables, he has yet to win a bracelet. He does how ever have a WPT title, as he won the 2004 Bay 101 Shooting Stars event.

Phil's Little Green Book, was the first audio book I found about poker strategy, and was there for the first book I ever read on the subject. It helped my game immensely, and I consider it to be valuable for any player, as It will reinforce your good plays, and help you make fewer bad ones, regardless of your skill level. I find my self rereading it every time I feel like I've made a little bit too many bad plays lately. Lets face it, there's a donk in all of us, but the little green book is usually sufficient to scare mine into submission for a while. Not that I necessarily try to copy Phil Gordon's style of play blow by blow, but it's a great catalyst for thinking about the game. A lot of the time the book gives me questions, not answers, which in my opinion is a great method for learning, as it forces you to draw your own conclutions.
Of course, if you're still trying to figure out if a flush beats a straight, it's not going to help you that much . . . but if you have a grasp of the fundamentals of no limit holdem, this book will add a great deal of value to your game, and it'll remain relevant and helpful as your game improves.
The book covers it all, starting out with Poker Truths, which even experienced players should know but occasionally forget, and then moves on to play pre-flop, and on the flop, turn, and river. it discusses strategies for playing when you flop certain hands and what to do when a scare card hits on the turn, and how to get maximum value from big hands on the river.
Each section is a short essay that needs to be dissected and analyzed, and there for the book is probably best read little by little. I how ever have read it from cover to cover every time, as it's both very entertaining and very instructive at the same time.
There is a chapter on tells, that has made me very aware of what I'm doing and how, on those rare occasions when I'm playing live poker. but you've gotta concentrate on other tells when you're visually impaired. Luckally for us, the authur also talks about how to exploit cirtain betting-patterns and the like. a much more reliable tell in the online-world, or if you can't see your oponents.
I love the tournament chapter.It's a fantastic introduction to winning strategies that even a beginner can understand.
There is also a chapter on the mathematics of poker, that makes that intimidating subject, which I consider to be a necessaty for online poker, very easy to comprehend. This is a good reprieve for starting player who may have problems figuring out hand odds on the table. It makes it very simple and easy even for the novice player, to calculate pot odds and implied odds. The "Rules of Four and Two, are simple tools, albeit not totally accurate, in knowing hand odds on the flop, the turn and the river. You'll also be able to find: charts on starting hands, possible number of outs, preflop probability and hand rankings.
Then there's a chapter on psychology that makes the thought process behind playing tight and weak opponents, and making the big laydown very accessible. , at least in theory.
Phil Gordon has never stated that he is the greatest no limit player in the world, just a very profitable one. One would be hard pressed to argue with that, given that his tournament winnings exceed $2,200,000 as of 2010.
The audio version of the book is read by the authur, and he definitely does a great job. through out the book, he includes personal anecdotes from his own playing experience, which makes the tone of the book easy going and very conversational, and he manages to sound exactly like that, easy going, and conversational..
There are poker players you admire, poker players you despise but respect, and then poker players that you’d really like to just have a beer and hang out with. For me at least, Phil Gordon definitely falls into the last category. Whether you agree with me or not, If you want to improve your no limit holdem game, and you some day want to meet him at a final table, I really think you need to reed his book and learn from him!

More poker books available on audio please!

As I'm constantly working on my game, to become a better player, I've read a lot of books on poker strategy. The problem is that most of them aren't available on audio, which means that most of the time, I have to try to read them as pdf-files, or E-books. Unfortunately those aren't always accessible either though, so sometimes I'm not able to read the book at all. I emailed TwoPlusTwo, they have a store for poker books, so I asked them if they had any audio books, and if they didn't, could they consider selling that in the future? I got the reply that they don't have any at all, and they have no intention of selling any in the future either. I don't really understand that though, lots of sighted people listen to audio books these days, and a lot of them even prefer that to regular books now, as they can do other stuff while listening. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has encountered these difficulties, but I'm planning on putting reviews up here for all the poker books that I've been able to fined on audio, to facilitate for those of you who are trying to find out what's available, and what isn't. After that I'll make a list of books that are considered to be a must for any serious poker player, so that you can see for your self how scandalously few of them that are available to us whom happen to be visually impaired.