Struggling with books, any advice?

[KaptainKangoroo]

I've been playing poker, for around 2 years now. about a year and a half ago, I bought THFAP and TOP. I've read these books, but tend to struggle with all of the concepts. Maybe I am just slow, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to study these books? I've read each once, and read the more complicated sections 1 or 2 more times after that, but I just can't get the information to stick. For instance, I know about "Pot Odds", how to calculate them, but I tend to skip that while at the table. If I actually sit down and say to myself "FIGURE THEM OUT!" it takes forever for me to do it. Maybe I just need practice, but how would you recommend practicing them? I'm a college student, so don't have loads of time to just sit and read, that isn't a textbook for a class, but due to christmas vacation, I will have time soon. I might consider reading them again, and hopefully I can understand the concepts.

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for other books? Currently, I'm only playing home games, which I have grown to the point where I can consistantly win at them, and have been playing some online. Online I play mostly No-Limit however, and would like to get into the Limit, probably low limits, of Holdem to practice my game before I am old enough to be playing in a real casino... I'm am going to order TPFAP, but might not read that yet, till I master regular tables of poker.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thankyou
Kaptain Kangoroo

[npc]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe I am just slow, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to study these books? ... For instance, I know about "Pot Odds", how to calculate them, but I tend to skip that while at the table. If I actually sit down and say to myself "FIGURE THEM OUT!" it takes forever for me to do it. Maybe I just need practice, but how would you recommend practicing them?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not that I'm bragging, but I don't have this problem, so
I'm not sure my advice will help. First, don't do all
the math in terms of dollars, in limit poker, just count
small bets as they go in to the pot. For big bet poker,
you'll have to do the math. Remember that you don't have
to calculate everything to the last dollar. If you're
correct to within 10%, that's probably plenty under most
circumstances.

If you want to practice, what I would do is obtain the
appropriate Turbo software, turn off any features that
display the exact pot size, and play slowly enough to
count along. With some practice, I expect your ability
to keep up to improve.

Hope this helps.

[KaptainKangoroo]

I'll have to give that a try. I have been reluctant to buy the Turbo Texas Holdem software, since its a bit pricy, and i'm a bit poor being in college and everything... Maybe i'll dish out the money and get it, easier then counting small bets in a real money game, well, not necessarily easier, but cheaper.

[JTrout]

Practice keeping up with the bets on the hands that you folded. That should give you plenty of opportunity to sharpen that skill.
.
Also, a couple of books I would recommend are Gary Carson's Holdem book and Middle Limit Holdem by Ciaffone and Brier. They have a little different style than the 2 plus 2 books, and you may find them an easier read. The Middle Limit Holdem book gives tons of hands, and explains the thinking throughout.
.
Also, Hold'em Poker by Sklansky is a much easier read than the books you mentioned. I found it valuable.
.
Mason's essays are also quite good. I find that reading a little bit every day is more beneficial than trying to tackle too much at one sitting.
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The pace that you improve is not nearly as important as the fact that you CONSISTENTLY improve. We all have our own pace.

Good luck,
Speck.

[mosch]

A cheaper option is to watch a game on party or whatever, and cover up the pot count with an application like winamp, or calculator /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Turbo Texas Holdem disagrees with my books too much for me to feel warm and fuzzy about using it. (Well, the advice portion of it, anyway)

[Zele]

I agree with pretty much everything that was posted before this. In addition, I would highly recommend reading the good books (and the ones you mentioned top the list of good books) not just more than once but several times. As Mason always says, most good players that "got good" from books have literally worn the covers off theirs. A quicker alternative for during your college semeters would be to return often to the quizzes included at the end of your books. Do one a night, and when you get to the end start over with the first one.

[trillig]

I'd snag Masque's World Series of Poker for $20 first, then Wilson's Turbo Texas Hold'Em once you can whip tables at WSOP first, for $90.

Most important thing with poker is ONE WORD: PATIENCE.. if you don't have it, your doomed... at least at the casino variants...

-t

[twomarks]

One book that I would highly recommend in Sklanky's first hold 'em book: Texas Hold'em. Initially, I read a couple of other low-limit books and thought I was ready to tackle THFAP and TOP. I read those books, got a lot out of them, but not nearly enough to really utilize the knowledge.

Now that I've gone back and read Texas Hold'em, I'm kicking myself for not reading that one first.

If I had to do it over again, I'd split time with THE and Lee Jones' "Winning Low Limit Hold'em" and then move on to the other books.

Anyway - just my $.02

Regards,

twomarks

[muck_nutz]

Work problems offline. Often I'll do a problem first with estimating the prices as I would at the tables and then in a more precise form as a check. Ultimately you will get faster at coming up with the estimates.

[Warren Whitmore]

As for The Theory of poker I reccomend listening to Mike Caro's Poker without cards it is an audio tape and I found it to be a good supplement to Davids work. Hold'em for advanced players is another issue. I don't reccomend reading other books by others because every time I have found a dispute between 2 + 2 and others after working out the differences I have ALWAYS found the 2 + 2 version to be the correct one. Other books on this subject therefor would tend to do more harm than good.
As for how to study it I have found it best to read a chapter, wait one day, then take the test on that chapter at the end of the book. After going through the book reread any chapter that you scored less than 90% on and retake the test. Continue doing that untill you can take the test for all of the chapters and score atleast 90% on each of the chapters. Then once per month reread the book and go through the process again.

Hope this helps
Warren

After typing this reply I realized that I did not address your question about simplifying pot odds. Try this: Note that you can see your two cards in a 52 card deck. This makes each card worth 2%. Just use that number to calculate all of your odds as percentages as a first approximation. Very rarly will it be off by enough to change a decision and it is fast enough to be used in live play. Remember what Maynard Keyens said so many years ago "It is better to be roughly correct than precisely wrong".