Texas Hold'Em Poker - Win Online

Texas Hold'Em Poker - Win Online

by Paul Mendelson

Quick Thoughts

This is quite a well written and well structured book with some good advice for the new players considering player online poker. It is however quite a short book and only covers topics at a basic level. Unusually for an introductory book it assumes some familiarity with the rules of poker, focusing on the specifics of online poker instead. This is presumably due to space limitations and not wanting to duplicate material covered in Paul Mendelson's other introductory book, Texas Hold'Em Begin and Win.

Overall quite a good book introducing online poker at cheap price. Three stars out of five.

Basics

As mentioned above; this book is short at around 125 pages in a small softback. The first two chapters are essentially the initial introduction to online poker. Some may find these first chapter annoyingly basic with this information available on  many websites, such as those run by the bigger online poker sites. However, as a introductory book its probably not a bad idea to cover some of the basics, the reader can always flick past these chapters it they want. The next three chapters cover the main formats of online poker, cash games, one table sit and go's and multi-table tournaments. Tips and strategy specific to these formats are discussed in these chapters. The final chapter addresses miscellaneous tips for online poker. This includes discussion of bad beats (loosing to a player who had a poor starting hand but who got lucky) , which often seems worse and more regular online compared to the live game due to the large number of hands that can be played in a short period online.

Typical Cost

£2.99 to £4.29, $6 to $7

Additional Thoughts

Although this is a small book this is reflected in the price. You can probably read this book in a evening, or alternatively dip into quickly a few times and finish it in a week.

If you are a complete beginner you will probably need to combine this book with another introductory book that covers the basics of poker not addressed here. Phil Gordon's Little Green Book (see the review here) would be a good choice to combine with this book and would see you through from starting out to more advanced play. However, it you want a small cheap book of similar length to this then Paul Mendelson's other book, Texas Hold'Em Begin and Win, is also a reasonable choice.

Poker For Dummies

Poker For Dummies

by Richard Harroch and Lou Krieger

Quick Thoughts

This is not a bad book, and has some good material in it. However, one fault is trying to cover too much material for a book of its size. As a result, in places, it ends up not covering some aspects in sufficient depth. There are chapters on Holdem, Omaha, various stud games and even a chapter on video poker.  Internet poker is touched on but the treatment is very dated. Overall not too bad, but there are better more focused introductory books out there. I picked this up second hand on Amazon, and on this basis it was quite a good buy and an interesting read.

Three stars out of five. Some good material but tries to cover too much in a book of its size.

Basics

A medium sized soft back book of around 300 pages. The introductory chapters on poker basics are great for the absolute beginner up to the novice player not sure on a couple of points. The book then goes on to cover the basic rules and strategy for a range of different types of poker, 7 card stud, Holdem, seven card stud 8 or better Hi/Lo and Omaha. Other topics covered include home game poker, tournament poker, and importantly bank roll management and record keeping. Video poker is also covered in one chapter, should you be curious on how this relates to the poker you play at the table or online. 

Having considered the basics the book provides various additional chapter ranging from strategy advice to advice on tells. The final chapters in the book are in the 10 tips format popular in the dummy books. These include ten reads (and tells), ten poker legends, ten keys to success, ten tips before going pro, ten ways to improve, and ten real life poker lessons. An additional nice touch for an introductory book is a short chapter on further reading.

Typical Cost

£7 to £14.99, $13 to $17, available a lot cheaper second hand.

Additional Thoughts

Most people will consider the treatment of internet poker in this book as very dated, which is unsurprising given the first published date for this book.

The overview of other forms of poker other then holdem is a nice aspect to the book. If you are a holdem player thinking about playing an additional form of poker this might be worth a read before buying a more specialist book on the form of poker that interests you.

If you have read this book please share your star rating. Also let us know if you have any comments on the book.

Phil Gordon's Little Green Book

Phil Gordon's Little Green Book

Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Holdem

by Phil Gordon

Quick Thoughts 

A nice introductory book with some good coverage of the basics, as well as touching on some more advanced topics. As the title implies this book focuses on No Limit Holdem. The book is strong at the introductory level, however you are likely to need to combine this with other books if you are playing tougher games, especially online.

In my opinion this book gets four out of five stars as a good introductory book on No Limit Holdem. 

Basics 

A nice small hard back book of just under 300 pages. After introductory chapters the book goes on to cover a range of topics from pre-flop and post-flop play, through to tells and tournament play. Percentages, odds and probability are given a reasonable treatment at quite an accessible level. Important topics such as bank roll management and psychology are also addressed towards the end of this book.

Typical Cost

£8 to £12.99, $15 to $40

Additional Thoughts 

After a reasonable introduction, that a beginning player will appreciate, this book goes on to address pre-flop play.  Especially useful are the pre-flop charts (at the back of the book) recommending hand ranges for some different cases. Although note; the black and white print of charts designed to be in colour is a bit cumbersome.  While some people might want to argue about specifics of pre-flop range; this is a good introduction to this concept and should help with overly loose play (without good post-flop skills) that plagues some beginners in the game.

The chapters on post flop play and tournament poker give a good introduction to these topics within the space provided. The tournament poker chapter gives coverage to tournament specific topics. However, the book may well have benefited from some specific discussion on the differences between cash game and tournament poker.

The chapter on tells, as Gordon notes, is largely based on Mike Caro's book of Poker Tells. However, it's good to see Phil Gordon's take on these tells. This summary on tells also provides more depth to the book and a good starting point without having to read Caro's book straight away. Although as the classic text on tells you are likely to want read this book in due course. I'll get round to a review of Caro's book in due course. Update - See this review here.

Online poker is covered in a very short chapter, which unsurprisingly given the age of the book some may feel is dated. As noted in my quick thoughts; if the online game is your focus you will probably want to read this book in conjunction with other books that address online specific topics, such as HUD's, tracking software and table selection.

The book is scattered with quite a few interesting short pieces, such as the don't wear sunglasses to play poker notes, page 230. Overall the style of writing is nice and accessible. Hopefully you will enjoy this book and find it useful in learning, or brushing up on, the fundamentals of No Limit Holdem. This book is also a good choice as a first book on poker while still having some material of interest to the intermediate player.

You can also see a review of another one of Phil Gordon,s books, his  Little Blue Book.

If you have read this book please share your star rating. Also let us know if you have any comments on the book, or if your thinking about buying it.