championship tournament practice hands

[jim grass]

Would appreciate some feedback from the experienced tourney players who have browsed this book.

thanks

[QMC]

If no one answers I'll buy it and review it for you. It's just so expensive.

[jim grass]

surely theres someone out there who has bought the book.
I`m coming to vegas the 18th so maybe i`ll check it out myself at the gamblers bookstore.
I dont mind the price as long as I get value out of the contents.
Good material is money in the bank.
QMC I appreciate your willingness to go out of the way to review the book.

jim

[QMC]

Have you read any of the other "Championship Series"? These are basically the only books I have not read yet because of lack of reviews? I am a book-ahalic and will try to read anything worth value. So I was hoping for a review as well.

[jim grass]

Yes I have the limit book and the tourney book
Very briefly the limit book makes you play tight. its good for the beginner but theres better books out there for this game.
The tourney book is not worth the money to me.
It spends much time on a very basic overview and very little on the deeper concepts of a particular form.
But again its a good book for an intro to tourney play for raw beginners.


jim

[adam74]

Bringing this back up to the top, to find out if anyone has had a chance to have a look at this yet. I've got this summary of its contents from gamblingbooks.co.uk:

"Sure you've got to get the cards -- the wired aces or the ace-king suited. Sure it always helps to start off strong in the World Series of Poker or in any other tournament. But you don't get those high potential cards as often as you'd like. (If they came more often you'd be rich.) So what about those "other" hands? You know the ones the happen nine out of ten deals? How do you play "them"? Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier, who teamed to write several other great poker classics have now penned Championship Tournament Practice Hands for limit and no-limit hold'em which also analyzes key hands from the World Series of Poker. The partners in writing have included in the book 57 practice hands analyzed and 45 WSOP hands. The authors clearly understand the luck factor. They claim it is higher in tournaments than in side games "because of the escalating limits and the infrequency of getting premium starting hands during the compressed time period." The goal of this book is to help you to enhance your skills, so when the right cards are dealt, you can catch them "like lightning in a bottle." The book is set up in the following format: For the 57 practice hands you'll see the cards, followed by analysis, with suggestions, advice and warnings. The WSOP hands are listed, not illustrated, from 1978 to 2002. Bad beats, misplays, overlooked opportunities abound here‹you'll find out who faced who, what happened and how it all turned out. How many other players were involved in the hand are also listed. Along the way you'll see many hands the late Stu Ungar played."

What I'd be most interested to know, other than whether the book is actually any good or not, is what form of poker these 102 hands are taken from.

[Lanky Bob]

In the review you've quoted it says they're from limit and no-limit hold 'em. Also, if most come from the WSOP championship, then they are also no-limit.

[Jedi Poker]

As a matter of fact, at least 95% of the hands in the book are taken from the WSOP tapes that are sold at Binions, the Gambler's Book Club, and Gambler's General Store. If you watch the tapes you will find all the hands discussed in the book.

[adam74]

Thanks for pointing that out! Maybe I should read my own posts. /forums/images/icons/blush.gif

[JohnG]

If you have read their other books, I would say it isn't worth it. The book is better written/organised than their other efforts, but a lot of the material is a direct copy.

For example, about half of the no-limit hands are a word for word copy from their no-limit book. The original material offers nothing of value, except to illustrate just how much TJ is holding back. The hands from past world series also offer no analysis worth speaking of. The analysis is quite laughable really. A typical example of the wsop hand analysis from that section:

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
1979 WSOP 8 handed- Booby Baldwin verses Sam moon

When the action was still 8 handed at the final table, Sam Moon raised with 2 aces before the flop and was called by 3 other players, making it a 4 way pot. Bobby Baldwin, the defending champion, saw the flop with pocket 8's. The flop came something like 8-6-3. Baldwin had flopped top set against Moon's aces. Moon bet 30k on the flop. Baldwin had 45k in front of him and moved in with the rest of his chips. The other 2 players folded, but Moon called the raise.
There was well over 100k in the pot. There were 54 players in the tournament that year and a total of 540k in chips in play, meaning that whoever won this pot would become chip leader. On 4th street Moon spiked an ace and sent Baldwin home in 8th place. So, instead of taking the lead on this hand, Baldwin finished out of the money, as only 5 places paid in 1979. This story shows how tough it is for a champion to repeat.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is the entire analysis of that hand. If anyone considers that indepth analysis designed to help people learn, as the back cover claims, then this book is for you.