learning the game of poker

ok there are many books out there i have read alot of them SUPER SYSTEM 1 and 2 or the best i think the man has won 10 championship and the books or great to read step by staep of diferent game so go get you a book and read it wont hurt you it can only help most of all you play by the seat of your pants and just make good calls sure you might make a bad call we all do but you can't win not playing and waitting for pks all the time

Jayman, thanks for posting, but this section is really for Q&A type discussions.

Please be sure to check out: Learning Poker - posting guidelines

No, his post was within the guidelines. He is suggesting that picking up a book and reading it (such as Super System 1+2) will really help in your beginning game. Also presented was some advice to cope with mistakes/bad plays.

I agree that the advice is sound, but it appears in my interpretation to match the "what should not be posted here" guideline of:

Anything that isn't a real question and has no curiosity value and/or strategic content.

I certainly don't want to discourage new members from posting, and I'm really not trying to be a pain, but I think it makes sense to try and keep this part of the forum as close to the posted guidelines as possible.

Of course, if I am misinterpreting Chris' guideline post, I certainly want him to step in and set me straight.

I am not trying to argue with you, but you do not have to a question in your post in order for it to be valid.
Strategic content was provided, which means the thread/post was valid.
There are posting guidelines in each sub-forum, and all are not followed as closely as you might be suggesting.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I do agree that beginners should pick up a book, however sometimes books are too advanced. The playing styles preached Super System 1 and 2 are more geared towards higher stakes rather than the micro tables.

Actually the OP was well within the posting guidelines as his "tip" was for newer players to read books. Part of the problem is the OP has only one punctuation mark in it (an apostrophe which was obv an oversight since other contractions don't have them either). The post is nearly impossible to read and it's easy to lose the point.

But, as royaltaco69 stated above, I agree that new players to the game need to pick up and read some books if they truly want to improve their game. There are so many books on the market these days. Many are way too advanced as starting points for newer players and many books are crap or just rewrites of other things. IMHO, a newer player (and any player really) should read Ed Miller's book "Getting Started in Hold 'em".

I completely agree with all of you now, since Chris has updated the posting guidelines to include:

- Topics with 'tips' and useful advice for beginners.

FYI I edited the sticky to include that this morning, it wasn't there at the time Ken posted, hence I can appreciate why some confusion has arisen.

edit: beaten obv

Fair enough, I didn't notice the edit from this morning and wouldn't have recalled what was there to start with anyway. But it was obv a good edit.

On the topic of the OP:

I'll agree that the Super System books are good, but I don't know that they're the best ones for beginners. There's a couple of things that beginning players really need to keep in mind about these books:

- They were written quite a long time ago. Yes, I know Super System 2 was published a lot more recently, but the NLHE section (the one you're most likely reading) is pretty much the same and the game has changed a fair bit since then. Particularly in the NLHE section, Doyle talks like he expects to be about the only LAG in the game, and that most of the other players will be weak-tight or rocks. I don't think that's really a fair assessment of what you'll go up against in today's poker rooms.

- They are not low-stakes texts. I think about the lowest stakes the original version talks about is $20-$40 stud or something? Anyway, just remember that some of the strategies are very much tailored to high-stakes play. Putting pressure on someone over a pot that could buy you a new car is not the same as putting pressure on someone over a pot that could buy you a pack of cigarettes.

- They also assume you've got a certain amount of knowledge already under your belt, and could be a little dense as a first poker book.

If forced to pick one, I'd probably go for Phil Gordon's Little Green Book as a good place to start.