To read or not to read?

[deacsoft]

There are a lot of solid books out there dealing with all forms of poker. Many of which we have all read. The list of Sklansky and Malmuth books right on this site. Others such as Super System, Caro's Book of Poker Tells, Zen and the Art of Poker, Play Poker Like the Pros are read by many players. Some of these books are looked at as a must read and others are suggested by some to skip over or not to waste your time. My question is this...

Is it not worth the time to read as many as you can find?
I say it is.

Point One: I don't think gathering as much information as possible before going into something (like poker) could ever be a bad idea. The more informed a person is the better chance they will have at out playing the less informed. I would go as far as to say that many books on poker will say many of the same things, but I believe something new can be learned from each. Even if it is bad information it can still be used as what not to do. (Think of pro sports and scouting. They just don't study one team one time. They gather as much information as they can get their hands on about each team.)

Point Two: Only playing one style or copying someone else's style of poker will get you beat by any solid player Therefore, it is often said that you need to find your own style, and change it up a little from time to time. One that works for the type of player you are. The best way to do this may be by using a combination of suggestions from many different sources. Take some lessons from those who already learned them and save yourself the money, but try some ideas of your own as well. Don't get pegged by being some who plays just like Brunson says to, or like Sklansky says to.

Point Three: There will be people who read one book and never deviate from that books suggested playing style. You may run into someone someday and stop and say to yourself, "this guy is playing just how it says to in Play Poker Like the Pros" (by Hellmuth). Or you may say, "the only book this guy has ever read is Super System (by Brunson) because he makes every move out of that book every time". You may not be able to pick up on things like that unless you too have read the book and are familiar with it's content. Wether or not you agree with its' content or not is besides the point. The information learned may still be useful.

Please feel free to reply with your comments, or with any points you feel i missed. Happy reading.

[Dov]

You forgot the 2+2 boards!

[bigpooch]

Play in a way that will take down the money in the long run.
The proof of the puddiing: you can't argue with success. We
can't all play like Dolly nor Johnny Chan but anyone who can
play worth a lick can surely beat the games now. Sure, a
player might even admit he can't beat the tougher games and
continue pounding the fish in the softer games; at least he
is using an important skill: game selection.

[Mike Gallo]

If you learn on thing, the book paid for itself.

You should read other books so you can get inside the minds of your opponents.

I reread Theory of Poker at least once a month. I bounce between books as a refresher.

Welcome aboard.

[Dov]

Rolf Slotboom once told me to read something poker related for about an hour before playing to get into the right frame of mind.

This was some of the best advice I have ever gotten.

[deacsoft]

Very true. I am not happy nor proud that I wrote that whole thing and forgot to mention the vast empire of information that is the internet. Even though I am new to 2+2 I have already learned much for the information shared by all the members. The internet is a great source for reading material on poker. Use it. It's free and easy to access. 2+2 has got to be the front runner in on line poker forums. Thank you to all the members.

[ordnaryjam]

"Point One: I don't think gathering as much information as possible before going into something (like poker) could ever be a bad idea"

I am going to partially disagree with you- there are some situations where to much information is, well- to much. If you are a beginner with little actaul table experience and you try to read HPFAP and use it in your games you will probably get stuck pretty quick. Why? because you dont know how to interpret both the situation (in the hand) and the information in the book. But i would say that there is probably a time to read almost any poker book in the strecth of your carrer, but if you are reading ones with bad info before you are skilled enough to recognize the bad info then you are hurting your game. Personally i have read the TOP and HPFAPP and i feel thati am at the point where i can start to discern what is relevant for me, and the games i play in. Soon i will begin reading other books, but i wont overload myself.

[Dov]

I don't know how long you have been playing, but let me just caution you that I thought I knew what I was doing when I first started playing and said something very similar to what you just wrote.

I was right and wrong. 2 years later, I know enough to know when I can profitably play in a game or not. It took me this long to develop enough skill at reading everyone at the table to correcty make this decision every time and adjust as the game changes.

I'm not criticizing you. Just remember that what you know is just a tiny fraction of what's out there. To date, I have read and absorbed 14 different books, some better than others, but all important for one reason or another. I keep looking forward to getting new books as well.

I love this game. I think that's the secret to it. If it doesn't fascinate you endlessly, it will be very hard to put in the time it takes to become a consistent winner at 10/20 or better.

Good Luck Everyone

[Louie Landale]

I agree with your conclusion so long as the reader tends to EVALUATE rather than ACCEPT everything that she reads. Those that mindlessly ACCEPT everything (since its "in a book") are MUCH better off NOT reading the crap.

I disagree with many of your points, however.

[1] Its easy to get far too much "good" information since the irrelevant stuff tends to clutter up the relevant stuff: there is no reason to study a book entitled "How to max your EV when you flop a Royal", even if the advise is sound. You've got far more important things to think about, such as maxing EV when you flop top-but-weak pair. Its also easy to confuse that "bad" stuff with the "good" stuff. Reading "7-Stud the Waiting Game" may actually cause you to take their advice and routinely check-and-fold a pair of unimproved Aces on 5th street.

[2] Changing styles makes sense only if you know what you are doing. Yes, one style is playing few hands and playing them weakly and another is to play more hands and be very aggressive with them, but no book to my knowledge explains when the first should be embraced and when the second should be embraced. Also, combining advice from different sources is more likely to lead to disaster than to victory: If one book says "Play tight and bet everything" and another "Speculate lots but fold when you miss", its almost always a disaster if you combine the advice and end up "speculate lots and bet everything".

[3] I doubt many opponents will have profiled a player so accurately that they can peg them as to what book they are adhering to. For one thing, nobody adhers religiously to the advice in a book anyway: does anybody, and I mean ANYBODY, actually do the 2+2 starting hands all the time?

- Louie

[ordnaryjam]

DOV
i agree with you entirely, i just wanted to try to make the point that you have to have time to digest and understand what you read, and the best way to do it is to apply it at the table. So i would suggest that you keep reading and expanding, but only at a rate that you are actually gaining usable information (with some pleasure reading mixed in).