A couple of new books came in from Amazon today…
I’ve been enjoying tournaments lately so HOH2 was a no brainer buy, especially after I liked Volume I so much. Hold’em gets boring at times so I figured I’d try to learn a little O8 on the side. Al, the expert O8 blogger told me HLSP was the bible, so that’s what I bought.
On my rides to and from work each day I’ve been listening to poker podcasts. Listening to poker discussions keep my mind off the traffic. In the mornings the poker talk gets my mind thinking and after work it helps to relax me after a long day.
My favorite poker podcast without a doubt is Card Club on Lord Admiral Radio. Cincinnati Sean, Brent Stacks, and everyone else who contribute to the show to an excellent job. Congrats on your 1 year anniversary guys!
Another poker podcast I started listening to is Rounders. It’s actually a poker radio show that they turn into a podcast. The radio station is Team 1040 AM out of Vancouver, Canada. My favorite part of the show has been the interviews with some of the top names from the poker world.
What do you know…my two favorite poker podcasts are both from Canada…eh! As a lifetime Michiganer I’m glad to finally find something good to come from our friends across the lake. 😉
Another popular poker podcast is Poker Diagram by Henry and Zog. It comes all the way from London. Each week they play some kind of online poker and discuss their play and other things poker. I listened to a couple of episodes and it was put together well.
I’m sure there are many other podcasts out there related to poker. Do you have some I didn’t mention? Leave a comment because I’d love to check them out.
This book is good for bathroom material. It’s broken down into small sections so you can easily read a few pages here and there. Zen and the Art of Poker is nothing more than a collection of quotes relating to Zen. The author attempts to relate everything back to poker, but it doesn’t feel right. He even gives some bad advice along the way. One part that I remember is in regards to calling with a draw to the nuts. He claims that it’s OK to fold your draw when the pot is laying you the correct odds. The situation happened to involve a player that has been running bad and it just didn’t feel right to play the draw. Sorry folks, but if the pot is laying you the correct odds to hit your draw and you fold because you haven’t been hitting lately, then you are playing scared poker. The sharks will smell your fear and tear you a new one.
I did enjoy the book simply because of all the quotes and different philosophy that make Zen. There wasn’t a whole lot of good information about poker though, so if there is another book on your reading list, take the time to read it before opening this one.
I have to give the book a C.
The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky is probably the most comprehensive book ever written on poker strategy. Sklansky covers bluffing, slow playing, game theory, table selection, and every other topic you can think of. While the book was written several years ago, almost everything can still be applied to today’s styles of play.
I will say that this book should not be the first poker book you read. It shouldn’t even be the second or third. The concepts would easily confuse someone that is just learning the game. There were times while reading TOP that I was confused. The book is just loaded with information. I doubt I’ll ever understand it all, even if I read it 100 times in the next year. I’m not trying to scare anyone away from reading the book, because it’s a must read for any poker player serious about learning the game. I’m simply saying that there’s a lot to take in.
One of the most brilliant, yet simple, things I’ve ever read about poker is Sklanky’s Fundamental Theorem of Poker:
Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.
The age of the book can be seen by the number of examples relating to games such as Stud, Razz, and Draw poker, but the concepts can be applied to any game out there. It would be nice if Sklansky would come out with a revision that just related to hold’em, the most popular form of poker today.
Like I said before, if you’ve read a few other poker books, feel free to jump into TOP, otherwise wait until you have some more experience and reading under your belt. Once you do though, dive right in. I give the book an A.
A few weeks ago Jackpot Jay wrote a column asking which poker super power you’d rather have.
(1) knowing your opponents’ cards, or (2) knowing which community cards were going to show up.
It’s an interesting question. As many people wrote in response to his article, I think it all depends on the situation at hand. If I had to pick one or the other though, I’d have to go with knowing which community cards were going to show up. If you know which cards will come on the flop, turn, and river, you can decide pre-flop whether to play the hand or not. Pre-flop is probably the area where most people tend to leak in their game.
On the other hand though, if you knew your opponents’ cards, you could eventually tell their hand after you saw the community cards come up. In this situation, you’d be able to make easier decisions for the rest of the hand.
Can I have both super powers?
Nick Momrik 