The Books: Some Guidance pls

Okay im bout finished reading the following:

Hold em Poker For Advanced Players By Sklansky and Malmuth

Its definitely got me thinking a lot better about positional poker, after reading the first 200ish pages(mostly about positional CRB stuff) my bad beat frequency is down. As well as my chip losses.

This is the first book i have read so I have a fair bit to go.

I think my player reads are "good" for as much as its worth on the internet, I feel as if im probably stronger in person, so im not worried about a book focused on reads(i played a few years of MTG:CCG and i was a vgood player).

So i suppose i need a good book on play styles/strategy and a good book on Theory/math.

Suggestions?

Much obliged Rob [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Theory of Poker
Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 1 and 2
Other 2 books I own besides HEPFAP are Caro's Book of Tells, and Small Stakes Holdem: Winning Big with Expert Play.

Out of all of them, the harrington books helped out the most, followed by HEPFAP. I also glanced thru the supersystem books, didn't much care for the holdem section, but the omaha section and the lowball sections were good.

[ansky451]

I personally think that Theory of Poker is the best book on poker around. It teaches you how to think like a winning player, what winning poker is really about, and some skills that you would need to win at it.

Is there a good book for heads up play? Or Small table play, ive been working on that lately, though most of the time its the player, since i plan on playing a decent ratio of SnG's:MTT, it would be nice to read up on it a bit, i usually do decently well heads up, but i find it hard to change gears and trap somewhat good players. Maybe something on deception, dunno.

Those were on the top of my "what i figure people will say" list, just looking for confirmation. Thanks for the replies guys.

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]
Is there a good book for heads up play? Or Small table play, ive been working on that lately, though most of the time its the player, since i plan on playing a decent ratio of SnG's:MTT, it would be nice to read up on it a bit, i usually do decently well heads up, but i find it hard to change gears and trap somewhat good players. Maybe something on deception, dunno.

[/ QUOTE ]

In short: no.

The heads-up&short-handed forum here is good, especially some of the recently-archived stuff. The older archives have a lot worth reading too. It's nearly all limit, and since you're posting here I'm guessing you're more NL-oriented, but you'll still play better having read it.

Hrmm alright thanks, ya this forum has been great so far just checkin if there was a book or something, ill get HoH1&2 after i read Theory of Poker, then hit up the forums and then enroll myself on a mission for november, october is tuneup month :P

[mudbuddha]

umm harington vol.2 has a good section on short'er handed play in tourny.

hold em for advanced 2000 edition has a little on short handed plya but its limit.

So far you're on the right path. The first books I ever picked up, about 5 months ago, were Harrington on Hold 'em 1 and 2. At the time, I wasn't prepared for what those books spoke about but I read them anyway and got a decent grasp on the ideas of playing in NLHE tournaments. A short while ago a friend introduced me to limit play, and shortly thereafter I picked up Small Stakes Hold em by Ed miller - great book for limit play and poker theory and some of these concepts can be applied to NLHE as well. Theory of Poker goes without saying, this is the book that teaches you how to think like a winning player and every serious poker player should read this.

At this point I've read every book on the recommended list for this forum, plus Psychology of Poker, Caros book of tells, Super System II (NLHE section is lacking here) and a few others that aren't worth mentioning. I can say, without a doubt, that my 5 months of learning and practice are paying off.

Now that I have had a bit of playing experience, I'm re-reading my whole library of books and they are hitting home like you wouldn't beleive. HOH 1&2, now that I understand poker theory better, are both incredible books with great advice from a true NLHE master. They're not for the "beginner" and now I can see where they were not the right books for me to start with. At this point, however, they are incredibly educational. All of the books I've read are having a similar effect, but I'm most enthralled with HOH and how well Dan lays out a great strategy for winning tournaments. Since revisiting these books I've had my best tournament performances yet as I'm now making it into, if not very close to, money finishes rather frequently and I'm definitely playing a much better game than I ever did. I was very proud to go out 131st in the deep stack this weekend as I think that's a great finish for someone who only picked up poker 5 months ago - and had my JJ held up on my last hand I probably would have gone much deeper.

I guess what I'm saying here is that the order in which you read things isn't quite as important as coming BACK to the material again after you've had some experience with it. From my own experience I can say that revisiting the same books a few months down the line will help you more than they did the first time around. Pick up the books that you're talking about, but expect to come back and read them again - and read the book you just read again after a few months of practice with those theories. Continued eduation and practice are key to learning a winning syle of play. It sounds like you're on the right path - keep at it!

I agree with cyberpunk here...

The order I read the books was
Small Stakes Hold'em: Winning big with Expert Play by Ed Miller, Sklansky, and Malmuth
Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky and Malmuth
Read thru Theory of Poker in a bookstore when I had a few hours to kill, need to buy this and really take a good look at it though
Then the Harrington on Holdem 1 came out, and picked that up without even hearing a review, loved it
Then read Caros Book of Tells
Glanced thru Super System and Super System II at a book store, holdem section sucked, but Omaha and Lowball sections were real good.
Glanced thru Tournament Poker for Advanced Players in a bookstore, was a short read, and this one didn't do nearly as much for me as the other books.
Then bought HOH2 and love it.

Of course, reading the stickyed post and all the posts within it (including replies, there is some gold in there) was definitely a good read, if all those guys got together and published a book on all the knowledge discussed within that post, it would be an awesome read, and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Out of all of those, SSHE:WBWEP helped me out alot, cuz it was the first one, and it explained things in a way that I could understand, and taught me the importance of position and picking good hands to play. Holdem for advanced taught me some new strategies, and reconfirmed some I had already figured out on my own, but didn't think it was an expert strategy. Then, the Harrington on Holdem's took all that knowledge that I learned from reading the limit books, and put it in NL form. I can safely say that if I only read one of those 3, I wouldn't be as good as I am now, every one of those books is a great read.

One of these days, I am going to get the poker essays, so I can see how well I play. Just studying hands on here helps me out, a compilation of hands meant to make you think has to be good.

I can only imagine how bad I would be now if it wasn't for those books, I would still be playing my hand, and not my opponents. I'd still be raising with KJ from UTG with the same percentage that I'd raise it from the button. Those books were worth every penny I paid for them.