Best training site or book for beginner/intermediate poker players

I have been playing online poker for a couple months and would consider myself an intermediate poker player that never wins money. I know the basics but I just don't know the ins and outs and have never had anyone teach me and I've never read any books or watched any training videos. My best friends a pro that plays online all day and was in the process of teaching me but he passed away last week at 32 years old. I really want to start winning some money and I now realize I really need to learn the game. In all your alls opinion is there a certain book or a certain website out there thats the best for training and learning the game? PLEASE HELP!!!

You don't say what your game is. Presumably Holdem-limit or NL- cash or tournament. Doesn't matter if your game is Holdem-one author- Harrington Harrington Harrington. He has a great series of books for cash and tournament play. If you need more basic go to Amazon and search for any of Skalansky's or Ed Miller's books on the basics. Hope that was what you were looking for for a start.

Harrington is a good advice for mtt play. But mtt´s can be frustrating because of their high variance. In my opinion you should start with micro sng´s (9 man or more), these are easy to learn, and you can play those in short amount of time and there is nice money to be made. In the web there are a lot of free videos for sng´s / stt´s. Then you build confidence and play a lot ! Experience is very important...good luck !

Good luck to you and I agree, try Dan Harringtons books, they are great.
One thing I would disagree with is that you refer to yourself as an intermediate player that never wins money? I am sorry, after playing poker for a couple of months you are a beginner that never wins money, dont fool yourself that you are a better player than you are, its an expensive mistake. I dont mean this to sound harsh but its poker reality.

Agree with Daniel 72 completely -Harrington is more relevant for MTT and I wouldn't start there.I stated with micro SNG and moved on to MTT after I was doing okay with those. My favorite SNG book is Sit N Go strategy by Collin Moshman and the original Kill Phil. After that followup with Kill Everybody which is helpful I think for both MTT and SNG. Harrington's cash games are still relevant even for a beginner to intermediate player. I would say one good book is worth > 500 hours at the table but you still need to play along with reading to work out your own demons.

First thing, it matters little if at all whether you're an intermediate player or a beginner. They're just broad, poorly defined labels, and how does it benefit you to be one or the other even if the entire world agrees? What counts is winning or losing money, and you're currently a loser. Period.

Fortunately, it doesn't take a great deal of knowledge or ability to become a winner at the lowest stakes. All you have to do is make fewer errors and poor plays than most of your opponents. This is step 1: become profitable. Step 2 is to increase / optimize your win rate. In theory, these can be done at once. In practice, a lot of people stumble when they try to do so, and the most common reason is probably trying to learn too much in too short a time, which leads to misapplying concepts.

For tournaments, the Harrington on Holdem series is a good place to start. So are Gordon's books except gold, which isn't meant for beginners. Some say these are outdated, but IMO, they're still appropriate for the lowest stakes. Poker has changed since they were written, but more so as you go up in stakes; i.e. not so much at the low end.

I'd also look around for info on bankroll management. There's more to poker than just learning how to play your cards, and this is something you might as well get used to early even if the amount of money in question is peanuts.

Power Holdem by Daniel Negreanu has some pretty good reading in it. There are two sections in there-one by Erick Lindgren and one byPaul Wasicka that target online play. The entire book in my opinion is worth reading cause it intails several different authors on subjects ranging from tournament strategies to high stake live play strategies and of course Daniel's own section about his low ball approach to winning tournaments. Try it you might like it-I did!!!

I have been a stusdent at Deep Stacks University and Dragthebar and found them both very helpful. DSU is interactive, easy to use and has great instructors, DTB is not interactive but had what I thought to be a great format. I was able to have an instructor review my hand history and give me personal advice. I was able to shadow guys like Dusty Schmidt while they played stakes that I could afford and listen to his thought process. Both sites offered great help but just in differant formats.

DeucesCracked would do you well.

I liked deep stacked university also

Check out pokerbank.com ,very good free poker site with lots of organized,great poker strategies as well as great free videos.

Phil Gordon's Little Green Book has helped me a lot.

Phil Gordn's Little Green Book is great.

anything written by ray bitar

just kidding. i think anyone who plays poker needs to read Doyle Brunsons Super System. yeah its old, but so much in that book applies today.

havent seen it mentioned in here.

LIR0under said:

just kidding. i think anyone who plays poker needs to read Doyle Brunsons Super System. yeah its old, but so much in that book applies today.

havent seen it mentioned in here.

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There's a reason for that.... it's SHIT!! (It doesn't even crack my top 10 & that's only counting poker books I've thrown in the garbage)

Doyles book was published in 1979. A whole hell of lot has happened since then in the world of poker publishing. A whole lot of people have come along and found better ways to do it. Not just poker but writing about it and publishing it (thank you 2+2). There are now books that do it better, deeper, longer, etc.

No disrespect intended but I would really question anyone who puts this book at the top of the must read pile as to what else they have read on poker. I am sitting her staring at about 3 dozen poker books sitting on my shelf (SS included) and in comparison it has made little impact.

Rather than books I recommend authors...

Top of the list for newbies is Phil Gordon. Easy to read and very understandable. This will give you a solid foundation (if you read it more than once - but like I said he's an easy read.

Next get a little deeper with Dan Harrington.

OH and yes - Deep Stacks U rocks!

I would read anything Ed Miller has contributed to. He's got a book about getting started in Hold'em that is very good. It covers limit with only a small section on NL but he is great at explaining basic concepts that apply to all forms of poker.

Also check out anything (video or writing) by Andrew "Baluga Whale" Seidman. His book "Easy Game" (3rd edition) is a little pricey but fascinating to read. Also, he is a long time coach at DeucesCracked. Get the trial subscription and download his series "Coaching Kristy". Its amazing. I freely admit to being a fan boy when it comes to the whale. Whether its his videos, interviews or what ever, no one explains thought processes and how to beat lower stakes with the clarity of Seidman.

Ace on the river is a good book, but also try to watch online poker videos and always see your hands history and see where you are making mistakes and discuss them in poker forums can help you to improve your game.

puchal12 said:

Check out pokerbank.com ,very good free poker site with lots of organized,great poker strategies as well as great free videos.

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Thanks for the heads up. Some good info on this site for a beginner like me

In my opinion "Crushing the microstakes" by Blackrain79 is quite good for NL microstakes cash game.

It costs like 20$ but is easy to understand for a "new" player, and can help you a lot.

After you read all these books (and more), you will not automatically become a winning player. You will have to still find YOUR game.

Oh yeah, every time you re-read any of these books, you pick something fresh out of them. The problem with most books is that shortly after they come out, everyone has read them, and the net results seems to be zero change in results. But increased knowledge and insight are seldom a bad thing, right?