SNG Reading List

The post is crossposted in the Books/Publications forum. Mods, feel free to do what's appropriate if this is not appropriate:

A very studious friend who is very good in physics and accounting, and who is also good at playing Risk, Monopoly, and MTG, asked me for a reading list that he could study in order to be a good 1-table SNG player. He has never played poker but he is very disciplined, very computer literate, great video game player and close to genius in IQ. I gave him the following instructions (please critique and tell me how this can be improved):

Week One - Read Getting Started in Holdem by Ed Miller. First, study part one of the book twice. Then read the book in full. Take 3 days to do this then play 20 1-table SNGs (5+.5) to gain experience. Then reread parts 1, 3, 4, and the chapter that starts on page 195. Gain more experience by playing 20 more 1-table SNGs.

Week 2 - Read McEvoy's and Daugherty's Nolimit Texas Holdem Beginner Series. Take four days to do this while playing 10 1-table SNGs every night. After reading the whole thing, read the entire Poker and Emotions section in John Feeney's Inside the Poker Mind. Have this done within 24 hours. Then reread the McEvoy/Daugherty book. Gain some more experience.

Week 3 - Read Phil Gordon's Little Green Book twice this week. At the same time watch his last table DVD three times. Continue to get more experience.

Week 4 - Read part one and the nl Holdem section ONLY of Ciaffone and Reuben's NL/PL poker book. Do this within 24 hours. Then read David Sklansky's Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. Get this done in five days. Play at least 8 SNGs per night. Listen to the CD version of Phil Gordon's Little Green book while playing and while driving. Try to listen to it twice this week.

Week 5 - Study Theory of Poker this week. Continue to get experience. Reread Poker and Emotion section of John Feeney's book.

Weeks 6, 7, and 8 - Read HOH1. When done, read Sun Tsu's the Art of War. When done read HOH2.

Week 9 - Read S/S 2 nolimit holdem section.

Graduation day!

Is this an adequate reading list? Is the order in which I recommend he reads the books appropriate? Should McEvoy's and Daugherty's NLH book be read before Phil Gordon's Little Green book or should they be reversed? Would the Kill Phil book be appropriate reading material?

[citanul]

this seems like a surefire plan for your friend to lose any money he starts with.

[The Yugoslavian]

Pig,

MEH

This schedule should involve a rotating list of STTF posters and/or specific threads/posts to look at.

There also should be several SNGPT sessions on the curriculum.

Yugoslav

[el_dusto]

Week 10, start reading 2+2, I hope ^_^

He should first master this:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showth...p;sb=5&o=14 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=2934542&page=0&view=c ollapsed&sb=5&o=14)

[Gramps]

[ QUOTE ]
Weeks 6, 7, and 8 - Read HOH1. When done, read Sun T[z]u's the Art of War. When done read HOH2.

[/ QUOTE ]

Somehow, attacking by Stratagem and proper SNG (or any form of poker) strategy seem to have a lot of similarity. Did they play NL 1-table Mahjong back in Tzu's day..?

Why? What are the better ways?

Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the good advice. I'll get him to read the FAQs here, and to regularly post some hands and questions.

[benfranklin]

I would never recommend that a total noob jump into SNGs before learning to play LLHE. I'd start with Miller's book and a lot of playing micro limits games to get familiar with position, hand values, starting requirements, etc.

The way to get value from a book is to read it, play a lot, implement principles, analyse results, and repeat. And repeat. That list would take about a year to properly study, after weeding out a lot of it. (Forget McEvoy period, forget Ciaffone for SnGs, etc.)

There is much more relevant SnG content on this forum, albeit unorganized, than in any of those books.

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the link.

[/ QUOTE ]

As the author says in that link,

[ QUOTE ]
I make absolutely no claim that this is the optimal way to play. It’s not, and you shouldn’t.

[/ QUOTE ]

This would be particularly detrimental to someone who does not know how to play poker.

[vinyard]

OP: This is a disastrously bad plan for several reasons not the least of which is that your friend will waste a lot of time reading material at best tangentially related to NL SnGs. And some of those books are bad advice for even the games they were intended for.

It will sound like conceit (perhaps less so for me because I don't talk much strategy here) but this forum is the best source of SnG information out there. Besides that make sure he is sufficiently rolled and motivated and is willing to put in the time reviewing each and every HH he plays . Eastbay's program is very useful but not necessary, althoygh downloading it is a very good idea if for only the free tutorial. Speaking of which he once posted that knowing and implementing everything in the thread at the bottom of this post could turn you into a profitable player at the 109s at Party. Now, I am not positive about that but the thread is still a treasure trove of information:

If I were to recommend books that are clearly helpful to SnG play I would recommend Harrington's two books and Sklansky's Theory of Poker.

As for andanthar's guide I think its a lot better and more profitable than most people here do. Its not how I play but I think if one implemented it correctly combined with above average pbubble play they could probably mutlitable the 11s for around 20%.

The Shadow's gift to us all (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=singletable&Number=191873 5&fpart=&PHPSESSID=)

[tigerite]

TPFAP is also very very useful for SnG play, I am surprised you don't realise that.

[vinyard]

Meh, point taken. Actually I read his mention of it as Hold Em for Advanced Players. I'm tired. I still think you can be a highly profitable player having never read it and most of the salient points re: stack management & SnGs I think are covered here in far more fleshed out way.

[Mr_J]

[ QUOTE ]
A very studious friend, very good in physics and accounting, good at playing Risk, Monopoly, and MTG, very disciplined, very computer literate, great video game player and close to genius in IQ.

[/ QUOTE ]

Clearly you are in love with him.

Searching this forum & buying SNGPT would be the approach I recommend. There were some good discussions late last year that helped me out, but I don't think the search goes back that far now.

[tewall]

I think as a poker book, The Theory of Poker can't be beat. The concepts there apply to any game. After that I think Harrington's books are tremendous. And the third thing would be this forum.