Poker Books??? are they any good???

#1 5th November 2008, 9:25 PM

ok i have recently purchased the book How to win at No limit holdem cash games volume 1, by Dan Harrington, i havent recived it yet but was wondering if books are even worth it? Can you actully get better from reading a book??

#2 5th November 2008, 9:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KoenigKing

ok i have recently purchased the book How to win at No limit holdem cash games volume 1, by Dan Harrington, i havent recived it yet but was wondering if books are even worth it? Can you actully get better from reading a book??

Yes, they are good. But books arent going to give you the best value for your $. For whatever you pay for 1 book, like $20-$30, you can get a months membership at a top tier training site like StoxPoker, CardRunners, or Deuces Cracked. There you will get unlimited access to videos and be able to get way more value.

#3 5th November 2008, 9:38 PM

Tiger woods know's every rule in the pga rule book every sentence!
One time he disputed a call and sure enough he was right.
Knowledge is power. You get the power you get the money. I think Al Pachino said that in so many other words

That being said , Every great poker author allways states that nothing is writin in stone when it comes to poker.

Read Harrington on Hold'em Vol 1,2,3

For fun reading anything bye Mike Caro's . Be aware of an old book bye caro's called "caro's Book of tell's . Alot of people read that and if they see you trying to read them they will do the opposite.

If your a smart cookie then david Sklanski has really good books on all kinds of poker. personally I use them as refrence books and have to read it over and over lol..

#4 5th November 2008, 9:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KoenigKing

Can you actully get better from reading a book??

Most definitely. You are dead money if you haven`t made an effort to study the theory of the game. Although, as DSV says, there are other methods of training which can also have value.

#5 5th November 2008, 10:06 PM

Egon's said it, pretty much.

Reading books can absolutely have an effect on your game. I credit the Harrington on Hold 'em series, Killer Poker - No Limit by Vorhaus and Phil Gordon's Little Green / Blue Book for some major improvements in my game.

Exactly how much difference they'll make will depend a lot on how good a player you were to start with and like Egon and dvsw have noted, they're not the only way to improve your game. You can do a lot worse than being well read though, especially if you're reading stuff by well respected, credible authors.

Dan Harrington definitely falls into that category, BTW.

#6 5th November 2008, 10:37 PM

Definately read the books, they dont just tell you how to play, they can often tell you little pieces of knowledge that can seem so simple afterwards you would wonder why you never realized it before.

Good luck

#7 6th November 2008, 12:26 AM

Most of these books need to be read again and again with alot of pratice in between.

#8 6th November 2008, 12:54 AM

I love poker books and I learn something new and valuable every time I read one. I have maybe a dozen or so and I reread them when I hit a slump or get confused on something. Just don't try to use everything you read all at once or you might be in for a big hit to your bankroll. You have to know WHY a certain strategy works before you can try to use it effectively.

#9 6th November 2008, 2:26 AM

You learn a lot more from playing and seeing things happen. Check out a book, skim through it, but realize that you will do much better just playing and watching good players.

#10 6th November 2008, 2:39 AM

I've never read a poker book and I'm 99.9% sure I never will. There's no need for them unless you want to know odds. I get my poker knowledge from my own poker experiences.

#11 6th November 2008, 2:43 AM

Glad you are a poker player and not a brain surgeon. There is a world of information to be had in some of the best poker books. You can learn it all yourself by trial and error or you can take advantage of their knowledge and build on it.

#12 6th November 2008, 3:15 AM

yeah i was told not to use books but i want to read at least one to see how i fair from it. i was told to instead of read books, read forums and stuff like that

#13 6th November 2008, 3:47 AM

Well, forums can be great and you can get a lot of diverse advice. However, a lot of people giving advice on forums don't have bracelets to back up what they say. Books are worth a lot more than just odds. Sure, knowing the numbers is great but you can get books on tells, low stakes, high stakes, you name it. Why spend years grinding and figuring out what works when you can stand on the shoulders of giants and get a head start? Its all there for the taking.

#14 6th November 2008, 3:55 AM

Very true, ill read it and work with it and see how it goes hopefully really well

#15 6th November 2008, 6:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KoenigKing

ok i have recently purchased the book How to win at No limit holdem cash games volume 1, by Dan Harrington, i havent recived it yet but was wondering if books are even worth it? Can you actully get better from reading a book??

Yes you can and you should read them until the covers fall off.

I have Harrington on Holdem volumes 1-3 and Harrington Cash Games 1&2 (as well as many others) and they are very good books.

The thing to remember is that ,although they will give you valuable information, these books are not designed for beginners so trying fancy plays on a 5/10c table is not that effective.

However, they will improve you as a player.

#16 6th November 2008, 1:04 PM

I like barry's book "Ace on the River" ,
its about how to make money playing poker
it helped me alot . the thing hellped me the most is
self experience . so dont wait and start to play LOL

#17 6th November 2008, 5:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KoenigKing

i was told to instead of read books, read forums and stuff like that

I would suggest both.

Forums are certainly a useful source of information, and there is much valuable advice right here at CC.

It is important to be careful about whose advice you take, though. At CC, you can recognise the "loyalers" (the senior members of the forum) because they have personalised titles next to their screen name and avatar, rather than the standard "Junior Member", "Amateur Member" etc. See mine above, for example. These members have been recognised for the quality of their contribution here. They won`t always be right about everything (Heaven knows I am not ), but they are experienced voices.

The member who joined last week and has only ten posts might be a good player who just found this site, but he might also be a noob giving you dumb advice. Don`t necessarily give equal weight to everything you read here.

#18 6th November 2008, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Egon Towst

I would suggest both.

Forums are certainly a useful source of information, and there is much valuable advice right here at CC.

It is important to be careful about whose advice you take, though. At CC, you can recognise the "loyalers" (the senior members of the forum) because they have personalised titles next to their screen name and avatar, rather than the standard "Junior Member", "Amateur Member" etc. See mine above, for example. These members have been recognised for the quality of their contribution here. They won`t always be right about everything (Heaven knows I am not ), but they are experienced voices.

The member who joined last week and has only ten posts might be a good player who just found this site, but he might also be a noob giving you dumb advice. Don`t necessarily give equal weight to everything you read here.

Haha thats kind of like myself, i consider myself a stellar player but i just found this site im looking to get one of those names sooner or later

#19 6th November 2008, 10:19 PM

Im just here to make my game go to that next level

#20 6th November 2008, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jolubman

Most of these books need to be read again and again with alot of pratice in between.

I keep them in the bathroom

#21 6th November 2008, 10:48 PM

I've read harrington 1 and 2 and found them very informative

slansky ok but can be hard going

- dont even think about brunson's supersystem!

#22 7th November 2008, 11:09 PM

I kinda like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by HSThompson, but that has nothing to do with poker. Otherwise I like Harrington

#23 8th November 2008, 4:10 AM

i would say read the books also. Why not read something that can give you an idea or theory that can up your game to either another level or just give you the ability to crush the stakes your playing at.

Forums are good, but no where on any set of forums will you see someone putting out 100s of pages of info and theory on why you should do what they say than in books.

There are alot of really nice people that always go the extra step to help people on forums but there is never a really long guide that is put together like a book

#24 8th November 2008, 4:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WOBogey

I kinda like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by HSThompson, but that has nothing to do with poker. Otherwise I like Harrington

Now Hunter never talked about poker much, but I met him one time in Montreal, and he gave me a bottle of Wild Turkey, which got smashed on the street when my girlfriend started beatin on my chest with an umbrella... but thats another story I guess,,

#25 8th November 2008, 7:14 AM

i have the super systems book and honestly everything in that book i could find on this site! so i mean if you just want a book to read while your goin to the bathroom or to relax then the poker books are good..but if your just wantin to learn..you can learn and understand all you need to know on the internet with sites like these..

#26 8th November 2008, 7:39 AM

You should definitely read the well-regarded books. And then you should re-read them, again and again. Every time I pick up one of Harrington's books and re-read it, I find something that I should be thinking about but have forgotten (or missed the first time). After you read and then play, you will get more out of the book on the next read. In other words, many ideas presented in the books will go over your head until you get more experience at the table.

#27 8th November 2008, 8:06 AM

Books.jpg (http://www.cardschat.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14722&d=1226131381)

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliengenius

Not let us address the issue of "books" vs. "experience".
In the beginning of his book, 'Your Worst Poker Enemy', Alan Schoonmaker address the question 'How should we learn? By intuition or by logic?'
His arguments can essentially be applied to the book vs. experience question as well [the below argument is mostly a paraphrase of Schoonmaker's].

Let me first be VERY clear that I am NOT advocating book learning as a substitute for playing, only that playing alone can not possibly be as advantageous as structured study combined with table experience.

Why? As Schoonmaker notes, the advantage of a logical/structured/book approach over an intuitive/experience/playing approach are:

1. It is correctable.
Since the process is visible, you can see exactly where your error(s) was, and therefore correct it. With an intuitive approach you might feel something is not right, but not be able to
accurately make the necessary adjustments due to an inexact methodology or thought process.

2. It is easily teachable. Since a logical process can be broken down into clearly defined steps, others will be able to duplicate it. While you might not be able to write 'The Theory of Poker' you are more than capable of reading it and
understanding its tenets and principals and applying them to your game.

And, here is the one I think that translates best to our arugment that experience alone is necessary but not sufficient:

3. Additive. "If I have seen further than other men, it was by standing on the shoulders of giants." --Sir Issac Newton. Schoonmaker gives another example: it took a genius in Euclid to develop geometry, but we learn it easliy and quickly in high school.

Surely you don't think that highly of yourself to claim that you can "figure out" poker simply through your own (necessarily) limited experience, do you?
You can't reasonably claim that leaning something like the basic math of odds is easier to do on your own, or to do individually everytime you run into a situation, rather than memorizing the more commen ones from a chart, can you?
You don't think that you are smarter than someone like Mason Malmuth, and that he and his statistical background can't teach you anyting, do you?
You didn't come up with tournament concepts like "M" and "Inflection Points" on your own, did you?

Thinking that you are "just fine" with your own personal playing experience is utterly ridiculous:

1. You are not smarter than everyone who has ever played the game. You wont figure all this stuff out on your own.

2. Even if you are you will learn much faster and take advanced concepts much father if you do read previous thinkers' works (see the Newton quote above).

3. The human mind is prone to recall bias and self delusion. Even the most brilliant of minds will be hindered by these human flaws, which will, at the very least, slow down your learning and/or understanding of
the game if you are simply attempting to master poker on your own.

So, as you can plainly see, anyone who is serious about their poker game needs to study the works of those who understand the game.

Is experience necessary for mastery of the game of poker? Absolutely. Is it sufficient for mastery of the game of poker? Defiantly NOT.

#28 8th November 2008, 3:39 PM

Reading books is definitely worth it. Anything that can help you understand the game that much better is worth the look. Its definitley not going to hurt you

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