[Shandrax]

I have played tournament chess for 22 years and I am rather new to poker, actually I became interested when a chess GM mentioned it in a conversation as his new source of income.

Since I have to learn the game from scratch I can't do without books, so I decided to leak a few $100 for "quality information".

What I have seen so far is lots of stuff like:
"If you got top pair jacks and higher raise, but not if suited cards hit on the flop except they come deuce-eight. Occasionally you may play it differently though which depends on your read or what you think your opponent thinks that you think he thought when he raised because he thought you thought that he thought you would fold."

Also I see lots of handrankings floating around:
"Play groups 1-8, but if the game is lose-tight-agressive with a touch of weakness add group 12, but never play group 5 in this spot", "raise with top ten hands (including 7-7)", "never raise with 7-7 from early position", "limp with A-A", "hardly ever limp with A-A" and so on...

I have not received my copy of SSH yet, so I can't comment on that. Books like HoH are giving me hope though, because Dan managed to give guidlines that one can work with. Like in chess it doesn't help if you just memorize plays. You need to understand the concepts.

Still what I like to see is a book that provides the player with a suggestion for a structured thinking process. Some routine one can go through to make sure all relevant factors have been taken into consideration. I'd also like to see more focus on game theory and the practical application beyond just using it to determine the correct bluffing frequency.

The problem with all of the sophisticated stuff is that limit games for example tend to be so fast, that I wonder if there can be a "real" thinking process involved at all. It seems to be a game where a good developed "feeling" for the plays is required. Certainly something one can't learn from the books.

I compare limit poker to blitz chess. The game is very mechanical and superficious. It is not without a reason that there are no reasonable books on blitz chess on the market.