Just got 4 books about a week ago.

[Airpoaneman]

Phil Hellmuths book; easy read...kind of got bored but it was okay

Holdem poker by Sklansky...was okay...not finished yet because this was a tough read i thought, kind of hard to get through all the examples.

The theory of poker, OHH MY F'IN GOSH...started reading about 15 minutes ago...on about page 35... one hell of a book so far

Super system...about 40 pages into it...very good information, so far talks about how to play correctly, enjoyed it little bit less then the theory of poker but I still liked it.

I am enjoying these books, now what do I need

[mistrpug]

You need to play. Reading good books helps alot but nothing works like experience.

[knightunner]

Where do you go to school? I am a collegiate XC runner also, maybe we have raced each other. I go to SUNY Geneseo, by the way. (hence KNIGHTrunner as the knight is our school mascot. Cheesy, I know)
~knight

[pstripling]

Hellmuth's book is by far the worst of the bunch you mentioned. You seem to have a solid base but you need to get some playing time. It is one thing to read about situations and another to live them. Also, when some fish calls a capped preflop cold with 8 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif3 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif and goes runner runner for the flush, just remember he probably didn't read the books. (I'm still working on that one)

[Milky]

I'm almost done with my first read through of The Theory of Poker and I agree, the book is amazing. It has helped clear up (and will help, I need to re-read it about 50 more times) so many questions and has given me a great foundation to work off of.

Definitely get this book if you haven't yet and are serious (or even semi-serious) about poker. It will help!!

[Beavis68]

I am actually a big defender of Phil's book. But, you have to tone down his limit advice - YOU DO NOT THREE BET KQ! At least not any any game I play. Maybe if you are playing with Daniel Negreanu, Devilfish, and Layne Flack, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, and Carlos Mortenson, but not against mere mortals.

I found Small Stakes Hold'em to help me understand some of the concepts in TOP, and it is probably a good book to read before your other hold'em book.

This book tells you to follow the advice exactly, but I think that is a little arrogant. Don't loosen up much from what it tells you though.

I found it very easy to read.

And yeah, you need to play.

[Airpoaneman]

Thanks for the advice, but what books...I play plenty..about 1-3 hours a day...I am not worried about that.

And for the colligate XC runner, how many miles a week do you average...I am just walking on to my university's team...do I need to do anything before I walk on...I have talked to a few people but they were not much help.

[MikeGuz]

I read all those but Phil's - a lot of people specialy on this site don't think much of this book but I didn't get NLHE near as well as I did after reading TJ's book. You won't find a lot of math but you get the flavor of the game from a real pro. He wrote the book with Tom McEvoy. I'd give it a try it's not boring and an easy read. Also it's not for everyone. It was written pre-poker-boom but holds up well.

[Wahoo91]

Phil's book is crap. The best book out there right now and a must read is "Small Stakes Holdem" by Ed Miller. In fact, do a search on his posts here on this forum for some great advise on small stakes and micro games. I also think Matthew Hilgers book is great too. Ed rated it very highly as well. The old "bible" (made obsolete by Miller's book) is Winning Low Limit Holdem by Lee Jones. Still a good read.