12-20-2001, 11:00 AM
There is a song by James Brown called "Talkin Loud, Saying Nothing." This could have been an apt title for this book. The book is composed of 101 chapters which allegedly are to help you learn to play poker, primarily at low limits I gather. Yet for all of these chapters there is virtually no discussion of what strategies to pursue when playing. All of the chapters are essentially platitudes which are illustrated by some of the authors stories.
Unfortunately many of the principles he discusses are just wrong. For example, he often proposes setting a loss limit for a session, and if you are stuck and get back to even you should cash out and "dont fall into the trap of giving it back." This advice is simply ridiculous in my mind. If you are a winning player then you should not be quitting simply becasue of your own predetermined loss limit. Other similar "advice" is not to play a pair of queens in stud against an ace or king raiser when "running hot." I would love to have someone play that way against me, and I am sure most of you would as well. Other worthless advice is his play with a three flush, which he says you can only raise in holdem if there are at least three other players.
There are some points he raises which are useful to a beginner, even if they will not help you actually play well. he advises that you should not blame the dealer for bad luck, and that you should practice reading your opponents, and that "free cards cost money." This is good advice, but no real discussion is provided. Certainly you do not need to spend 17.95 to be told that free cards cost money.
Mason described this book as "extremely terrible" when there was some recent discussion about it. I dont think I would go that far. There is some value to it, which is far outweighed by the bad advice. It is certainly not as bad as John Patrick's Casino Poker book. But it certainly has very little value and I would not say it is worth reading.
If anyone else who has read the book has some thought on it I would be curious to know what you thought.
Pat
Unfortunately many of the principles he discusses are just wrong. For example, he often proposes setting a loss limit for a session, and if you are stuck and get back to even you should cash out and "dont fall into the trap of giving it back." This advice is simply ridiculous in my mind. If you are a winning player then you should not be quitting simply becasue of your own predetermined loss limit. Other similar "advice" is not to play a pair of queens in stud against an ace or king raiser when "running hot." I would love to have someone play that way against me, and I am sure most of you would as well. Other worthless advice is his play with a three flush, which he says you can only raise in holdem if there are at least three other players.
There are some points he raises which are useful to a beginner, even if they will not help you actually play well. he advises that you should not blame the dealer for bad luck, and that you should practice reading your opponents, and that "free cards cost money." This is good advice, but no real discussion is provided. Certainly you do not need to spend 17.95 to be told that free cards cost money.
Mason described this book as "extremely terrible" when there was some recent discussion about it. I dont think I would go that far. There is some value to it, which is far outweighed by the bad advice. It is certainly not as bad as John Patrick's Casino Poker book. But it certainly has very little value and I would not say it is worth reading.
If anyone else who has read the book has some thought on it I would be curious to know what you thought.
Pat