[Moose]

.. that is to say, full of excellent technical information but a little hard to digest the first time through. Of particular note are the excellent examples on how the prize money implications will distorts the decisions one may make late in a tournament.

Curiously, the book is peppered in places with some very snide and demeaning insults (the worst of the lot being along the lines of ".. [T]hese hands comprise 13 percent of the hands you will be dealt. If you don't know how this is calculated, you are not ready for this book. Close it and put it down. And, I hope you lose."). I'd have expected such from Mason, but certainly not from Mr. Sklansky.

Strategy-wise, the only problem I take umbrage with is "The System", which basically details a strategy for beginners to no-limit, where one simply moves all in pre-flop with a selection of hands once the blinds become suitably significant to the average stack. It didn't take long, at the many tournaments I tried it, for the other players to catch on and lower their calling requirements significantly, but "The System" assumes that your raises will continue to get other players to lay down hands pre-flop that they just simply don't do once they see you go all-in preflop thrice over the last 15 hands. Perhaps I was doing it too early, but my "System" raises were 8x-10x the big blind, so that seems about right.

Basically, if you can handle reading Sklansky, it's worth every penny.

M.