Worst Poker Book Written

[WORM]

Another vote for Helmuths book (as the worst) although Esfandiari's cash game book I thought was pretty bad as well.

Not at all a bad book. Hellmuth just has a different way about him. I don't like him a whole lot but he is a great great player and I'll listen to what he has to say.

 

[StormRaven]

By far, bar none, the absolutely worst poker book I have ever read is: The Badass Girl's Guide to Poker by Toby Leah Bochan. Someone bought it for me and I really did want to scratch my eyes out after reading it! It was so bad that I threw the book in the garbage because giving it away would only mean another copy of it was around for others to read.

It is so horrible, and no offense to anyone out there for what I am about to say, but I felt like I needed to dye my hair blonde, put on a short skirt, some high heels and get one of those little yipp-yipp dogs to carry around in some overly expensive large purse. I literally felt like I had dropped some IQ points after reading that book!

The book is the extreme basics of the basics, it really doesn't get anymore basic than this book. It then tells you how to make the right kind of food to host for the "girls" poker playing, how to act like a dumb blonde to win a hand and a whole host of extemely bad advice. The book literally caters to the Paris Hilton types of the world and that my friends is a very sad thing.

 

[aliengenius]

By far, bar none, the absolutely worst poker book I have ever read is: The Badass Girl's Guide to Poker by Toby Leah Bochan. Someone bought it for me and I really did want to scratch my eyes out after reading it! It was so bad that I threw the book in the garbage because giving it away would only mean another copy of it was around for others to read.

It is so horrible, and no offense to anyone out there for what I am about to say, but I felt like I needed to dye my hair blonde, put on a short skirt, some high heels and get one of those little yipp-yipp dogs to carry around in some overly expensive large purse. I literally felt like I had dropped some IQ points after reading that book!

The book is the extreme basics of the basics, it really doesn't get anymore basic than this book. It then tells you how to make the right kind of food to host for the "girls" poker playing, how to act like a dumb blonde to win a hand and a whole host of extemely bad advice. The book literally caters to the Paris Hilton types of the world and that my friends is a very sad thing.

I have to disagree here. I thought the book gave some fairly good advice regarding how to specifically exploit your female gender. Also, it was a pretty good overview for a very new player.

Kindly site the exact "extemely [sic] bad advice" you refer to...

 

[Velutha]

I read my first poker book last week.
havent been in the money in a week. hmmm!!!

So which book was it? Don't be shy my friend....

So glad I haven't read any of the books mentioned itt

 

[GCB]

I too enjoyed Daniel's Power Holdem especially Todd Brunson's contribution. I hope he writes a book. The worst book hands down for me was Doyle's Online Poker. It is truly a book for "dummies". Helmuth's book would be second.

I'm reading Negreanu's book now and have enjoyed it. The publisher falls all over himself calling it possibly one of the best 3 pokers books written, which I thought was awfully strange comment. It takes years before you know whether a book is really great.

Doyle Brunson's online poker was actually a chapter pulled from Super System/2, I believe. I guess to capitalize on his name and the Internet boom. I read it in about 20 minutes at B&N. It was more interesting as the musings of an old timer on the modern age. But it could have just as easily been a guide to poker machines at bars.

 

[StormRaven]

I have to disagree here. I thought the book gave some fairly good advice regarding how to specifically exploit your female gender. Also, it was a pretty good overview for a very new player.

Kindly site the exact "extemely [sic] bad advice" you refer to...

At the time I read the book I was not a very new player, so you may have a point about that in regards to very very very new players.

I had to google this book to remember the author and to respond here as I really did throw my copy in the trash. Here is the link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=q8...k-L8C&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=14

1) She starts fairly early in the book describing what a deck of cards is, how it has 52 cards and that there are 4 suits and what they are. To me this is extremely basic for very very very new players. Then she describes what to do with a deck of cards "Let's look at what we do with the cards." Thank God she did that otherwise I would have put them in the microwave!

2) Her title is pretty catchy - but how do you expect to become a "badass" in poker if you have to explain to someone what a deck of cards is and what suits are? I know that every player has to start with these extreme basics at some point but the title is extremely misleading imo. I won't go into all the other extremely basics in her book - I think this first example is enough. But I will say that the rest of the beginning of her book is so extremely basic it feels like she is talking to a 5 year old. Not to an adult female.

3) Further is where she describes how a female should properly "check". Females need to make sure they "paint those pretty nails before the game. You don't want something as superficial as chipped polish to chip away at your confidence." So this is her good advice to female players? ZOMG! Make sure to paint your fingernails before a game so they look pretty when you check??? Do I really need to explain how stupid that advice is? It's not like painted fingernails are going to exploit a man and distract him during play. And if a woman needs her fingernails painted in order to feel confident, she has much bigger problems going on than learning how to play "badass poker". This really is Paris Hilton type advice.

4) Next she explains how poker is different from other card games like bridge or crazy 8's because it is played for money. That is not why poker is different from bridge or crazy 8's - you can play any game for money!

5) Then she describes what money is - "money is the way score is kept in the game of poker..". Thank goodness for that explanation otherwise I might have misunderstood the entire concept of poker and currency!

6) She tells a woman how to decide to how much money to sit at the table with: "Err on the side of excess - it puts you in a better frame of mind to sit down at the table and feel like you are positively dripping with chips than to sit with a skimpy stack and feel like you're way underdressed for the occasion. Or just pick a cute player and ask what he started with." Yep, that's badass advice alright, you'll have the men shaking with fear at your superior skills when you look around for the "cute player" to ask. Also referring to stack sizes like clothing - really? How blonde do I have to be to read this book and understand it?

(I went out of order, #3 should have been just above, but oh well).

7) The books Overview is described as "From the basic rules to complex strategies, this no-holds-barred guide gives the lowdown everything badass girls need to win big..." Where does this book offer complex strategies? I never saw them.

8) The book offers advice on how to make the right finger sandwiches and cocktails to put you in the mood to play poker. I don't know of a single pro that requires just the right finger sandwiches or cocktails to put them in the mood to play poker. Eating certainly helps and if they want a drink or 2 so what, but I don't know any of them that NEED these items to put them in the mood.

9) She dedicates an entire chapter on how to meet men playing poker. Is this a book on how to play badass poker or a singles guide?

10) She dedicates a chapter on "girl talk". Really? I need to know how to properly "girl talk" to play badass poker?

I won't write anymore, for one I think I've listed enough examples on why this book is a joke for any serious poker player, especially females - it has a badass name and that's it - it doesn't teach you how to play badass poker. For two, I no longer have my copy and was not able to find any more detailed info or quotes to give exact examples on.

So from my females perspective, this book was written for the Paris Hilton's of the world - not for serious respected players. And fwiw - I am an attractive female so my remarks are not written as a large german looking drill sgt who doesn't have the ability to seduce men at the table. I personally don't care for Jennifer Tilly as a poker player because it's my belief that you don't need to use your boobs to become a serious professional. Skill should outweigh the boob factor! (Although I now know a huge can of worms has been opened and many men are going to disagree with me and state how they will gladly lose their money to women in a short skirt and plunged neckline who lets the girls hang out.)

My point is the book is misleading and absolutely terrible advice for any female who wishes to work on her poker skills. If a woman is attractive she already knows how to manipulate most men at the poker tables or anywhere else for that matter. I'm not saying that I've never used an obvious attraction to my benefit, but I don't monopolize on it or paint my nails or wear short skirts and low cut shirts to the casino. Those things will only win you a few pots, they will not allow you to make a career out of poker or win a major tournament. It's a game I don't believe in for the most part - it's kind of like the wife who uses sex as a weapon "do this for me or no sex for you for a week or month or whatever". It's just not right.

I don't mean to sound so defensive of my point, I just really am that disgusted with this type of book. Okay, I've said what I had to say, go ahead and tear it apart. I'm all woman here baby, I can take it.

 

[Mase31683]

Holdem Poker for Advanced Players I think is the worst book written that I read it. I wonder if Sklansky and Malmuth weren't drunk while they wrote that book.

Theory of Poker. I think a lot of it contains useless informations and is a big waste of time to read it. It's also very difficult to read. I read many books but TOP it's impossible to read. It's so boring and so bad written. I only read a few chapters from TOP but I feel that I don't really need to read it b/c there are a lot of informations that can't be put in practice. The informations that are useful from that book can be found on other books that are better written. What I find surprising is that NLHTP, another Sklansky book, isn't that difficult to read as TOP. A lot of informations from NLHTP are also useless informations (many math that you don't need it), but it's more easier to read than TOP.

-1

These books are both pretty solid

 

[txtitan]

book?

what is a good book for a first time reader but a long time player?

 

[StormRaven]

what is a good book for a first time reader but a long time player?

Try cruising through these threads below - they should be able to help with your question - if you still have any questions you might want to pm aliengenius as he has an extensive poker book library and could probably recommend several.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/gen...ok-question-151913/?highlight=good+poker+book

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/poker-library-updated-98838/
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/poker-books-155697/?highlight=good+poker+book
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/gen...i-read-next-155378/?highlight=good+poker+book
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/gen...oker-ebooks-154754/?highlight=good+poker+book
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/opinions-please-154543/?highlight=good+poker+book

 

[RAMARAIDER]

Mostly every book on the market that rehashes basics is crap. The real books on becoming a winning player are the ones that hardly talk about hands, bets and all the other 2 dimentional filler crap. a timeless book that points u in the winning direction on the winning perspective is Barry's Ace on the river. basically, everybody knows hands, bets, manuvears, etc. but the elevating level is mindset and perspective needed to appy the knowledge at the right time. the trick is the answer is always in front of us, but we are too busy looking somewhere else. Play as many hands as u can online and ull figure out ur style that works for u. Poker is like martial arts, many different techniques that lead to same goal, self awarness and fulfillment.

 

[Lemlywinks]

Beyond Tells by James McKenna
Texas Hold’em On the Net by David Bradshaw
Texas Hold’em Odds by Catalin Barboianu
What No One Else is Saying about Online Poker by Carl Varrone
The Mathematics of Poker by William Chen and Jerrod Ankenman

Yep. Kept looking that book to find something to take away from it...but well there wasn't much

 

[str8]

-1

These books are both pretty solid

Then nice read. I wish every new poker player read HPFAP. That would mean more donks.

 

[str8]

In a thread called "Worst poker book written" you decided that ToP was your pick, instituting a new criteria, apparently "most overrated poker book written". Obviously you can't distinguish between the two and talking to you further is certainly a waste of time... I was drunk and your idiotic post life tilted me, hence my comment.

By the way, NO LIMIT Hold'em: Theory and Practice by Miller and Sklansky is a NO LIMIT book, so I guess you can credit 2+2 (2p2= 'Sklansky and Malmuth', yes I use the essentially interchangeably, quibble if you like) as having put one out...

TOP is very bad written. So is a serious candidate to the title of the worst poker book written. I think is one of the worst written books and one of the most overrated books. TOP is an incomplete book. Doesn't treat a lot of advanced theoretical concepts. So is HPFAP. But probably, given the fact that you're playing cap games talking to you further about advanced concepts is a waste of time. Short stackers think only about 1st level of thinking.
If you want to play real poker play deep stack. Short stackers have ruined this beautiful game.

You have a cardschat account from 2006 and still only playing micro limits cap games (source pokertableratings). I'm playing higher limits(and my first poker hand has been played a year ago, not 3-4 years ago. A year ago I was playing 2NL. Now I'm playing 200NL-400NL and 5-10 FL games) than you and don't accept advices from donks who think Weighing the odds in Holdem is an advanced NL book. WTOIH is a beginner FL book not an advanced one.

If you want to learn poker, you'll learn from Cardrunners, Deucescracked, Stoxpoker not from 20 years old books.

The only books I reccommend are Stox's Winning in tough holdem games for FL and Ed Miller's new ebook SSNLHE, for NL. The other books are trash, especially if you are an advanced player.

 

[RogueRivered]

Kindly site the exact "extemely [sic] bad advice" you refer to...

On the bookshelf? :smile:

 

[StormRaven]

TOP is very bad written. So is a serious candidate to the title of the worst poker book written. I think is one of the worst written books and one of the most overrated books. TOP is an incomplete book. Doesn't treat a lot of advanced theoretical concepts. So is HPFAP. But probably, given the fact that you're playing cap games talking to you further about advanced concepts is a waste of time. Short stackers think only about 1st level of thinking.
If you want to play real poker play deep stack. Short stackers have ruined this beautiful game.

You have a cardschat account from 2006 and still only playing micro limits cap games (source pokertableratings). I'm playing higher limits(and my first poker hand has been played a year ago, not 3-4 years ago. A year ago I was playing 2NL. Now I'm playing 200NL-400NL and 5-10 FL games) than you and don't accept advices from donks who think Weighing the Odds in Holdem is an advanced NL book. WTOIH is a beginner FL book not an advanced one.

If you want to learn poker, you'll learn from Cardrunners, Deucescracked, Stoxpoker not from 20 years old books.

The only books I reccommend are Stox's Winning in tough holdem games for FL and Ed Miller's new ebook SSNLHE, for NL. The other books are trash, especially if you are an advanced player.

Why so harsh? This is a kindly debate and everyone has a right to their opinions - yours included - but I don't understand why you have to get personal and thrash a member. Maybe I've missed something and the member thrashed you or something, I don't know.

I was questioned on why I didn't like a book I mentioned, I gave my reasons and if someone didn't agree with me that would be fine by me, afterall, these are just opinions on books. I didn't see any rules listed saying someone couldn't give their opinion if their poker ratings were bad.

 

[str8]

Why so harsh? This is a kindly debate and everyone has a right to their opinions - yours included - but I don't understand why you have to get personal and thrash a member. Maybe I've missed something and the member thrashed you or something, I don't know.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/poker-rooms-10/full-tilt-hiding-your-country-126941/

^^^doesn't realize book is about limit el oh el, doesn't understand how to translate the limit lessons to NL, el oh el, needs to kill self, el oh el

And I will give you an argument that TOP and HPFAP are not very good books. I will quote a post from a 2+2 high stakes FL player(Oink). He is also a poker coach and made videos for training sites http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=8832311&postcount=10

"The reason that some never gets past their status as a big TAGfish is because they read too many books. The leaks you get into your game from reading this **** are so profound it takes hard work to unlearn them. If you are a new pokerplayer and you want to play online and somebody gives you one of Sklansky's books as a present you should burn it. I am dead serious!! There is nothing of the usefull stuff in those books that you cant learn here and all the bad stuff that makes you a huge TAGfish is really hard to unlearn. Stoxtrader's book is the only one worth the time as it is really good (albeit still teaching a nitty TAG approach at least it is written by a guy who can play 6max online)."

 

[keaton]

I don't understand. Do you think there are mistakes? Or do you think it's well written?
However I didn't read all the book and I'm not going to read it. It's too boring and I want to do better things with my time. And since I've read Stox book(the best FLH book) I don't really need to read other books about FL.

I think it is a bad poker book because Brunson is writing on a subject he knows little about(online poker). Here is a review from Amazon:




The Worst Poker Book Currently in Print


I bought this book because I highly respect Doyle Brunson as a poker player and author (Super System I). Unfortunately this book contains less information about being successful at on-line poker than an Internet Poker for Dummies book would. All of the useful information appears on approximately ten pages which may be helpful to players who are new to Internet play. Mr. Brunson's expertise is clearly in live games and tournaments. He offers little insights into on-line tournament or ring game play.

As a poker player I was very disappointed that the bulk of the book contained the basic rules of poker and instructions on how to download poker software. Many pages discussed Doyle's poker site ([...]) and how great a poker player he is. After spending approximately one hour reading this book, I raced to Barnes and Noble to return it.

This is the worst book on on-line poker and may be the poorest poker guide currently in print. I advise all poker players to avoid buying this book. Super System I and Super System II are much better values, if you are interested in Dolly Brunson's approach to Texas Hold'em. Consider Internet Texas Hold'em by Matthew Hilger for a solid book on playing limit Hold'em on-line.

 

[OneMoreBust]

No Limit Hold em : Theory and Pratice


Is the only one Ive ever read, so cant really compare it to anything else. Lots of crazy math and memorization requests in it.

 

[Egon Towst]

What No One Else is Saying about Online Poker by Carl Varrone

^^this.

Carl was a nice guy and gave me a free copy of his book to review. So, I would really, really like to say something nice about it.

Unfortunately, he couldn`t write coherently and didn`t understand poker. Apart from that, the book was fine.

 

[GCB]

Mostly every book on the market that rehashes basics is crap. The real books on becoming a winning player are the ones that hardly talk about hands, bets and all the other 2 dimentional filler crap. a timeless book that points u in the winning direction on the winning perspective is Barry's Ace on the river. basically, everybody knows hands, bets, manuvears, etc. but the elevating level is mindset and perspective needed to appy the knowledge at the right time. the trick is the answer is always in front of us, but we are too busy looking somewhere else. Play as many hands as u can online and ull figure out ur style that works for u. Poker is like martial arts, many different techniques that lead to same goal, self awarness and fulfillment.

Yeah, what he said. ^^^^^

 

[Baby Jesus]

I got "Online Poker" by Doyle and "Hold'em Wisdom For All Players" by Daniel Negreanu at the same time from the same person(lol)and both of them I re gifted to some people that I thought would benefit from them.They where new to poker so it probably helped them out.I did read them first and I thought they taught basic poker with a few advanced "tips".

 

[EvilEmperor]

I actually liked Power Hold Em by Negreanu. *shrug*

Maybe cause I've only read that and Super/System, which I will say I was very disappointed in.

Maybe I liked Negreanu's book cause I found the Small Ball chapter to be very helpful.

Either way, definitely going to be picking up some Harrington on Hold Em books for sure!

Can't believe you were dissapointed with SS. Not as helpful as Harrington on Cash Games for someone starting out like I was when I first read it but it's great when you're up against a bunch of tight players deep in a tourney or heads up games games. Everyone today thinks that you have to try and get your money in with the best of it yet Doyle won millions doing just the opposite. He won lots of small pots that made the big pots freerolls. You got to realize his strategy was pushing the table around not being a nit.