My book: Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker

[chson]

How does it compare with SSH?

[steamboatin]

At the risk of being flamed to death, SSH assumes you are playing against complete idiots and when you are playing against complete idiots, there is no book better.

SSH helped my game and I recommend it. SSH tells you what to do but it doesn't give you a good understanding of why you need to do it and what you should be thinking about while you are doing it.

At least, I didn't get a good comprehension of the thought processes behind the play.

Weighing the odds in Hold'em seems to spend more time and effort on helping you understand what you should be thinking about while you play.

If you question is, which is better, I am going to answer like most questions regarding poker, it depends. If you play in a super loose no foldem holdem game on a regular basis, SSH is your book.

If you want to learn how to think about poker with an eye towards moving up in limits, then Weighing the Odds in Hold'em will be very helpful

I am going to close this post with the statement, Ed MIller is the Jedi Poker Master so there is no confusion about how I regard his books.

[chson]

Great review. Thanks steamboatin.

[Crispy86]

[ QUOTE ]
At the risk of being flamed to death, SSH assumes you are playing against complete idiots and when you are playing against complete idiots, there is no book better.

SSH helped my game and I recommend it. SSH tells you what to do but it doesn't give you a good understanding of why you need to do it and what you should be thinking about while you are doing it.

At least, I didn't get a good comprehension of the thought processes behind the play.

Weighing the odds in Hold'em seems to spend more time and effort on helping you understand what you should be thinking about while you play.

If you question is, which is better, I am going to answer like most questions regarding poker, it depends. If you play in a super loose no foldem holdem game on a regular basis, SSH is your book.

If you want to learn how to think about poker with an eye towards moving up in limits, then Weighing the Odds in Hold'em will be very helpful

I am going to close this post with the statement, Ed MIller is the Jedi Poker Master so there is no confusion about how I regard his books.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the reviews. I just ordered both from Amazon.

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]
About me: I'm a former derivatives trader at Susquehanna Partners.

[/ QUOTE ]

not to get off-topic, but isn't this the firm that I think Jim McManus in "Positively Fifth Street" said that requires all traders to read "The Theory of Poker"? Is that how you got into the game (or were you the one who established that requirement? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])

[King Yao]

If I recall correctly, when I was in training (1992), Getting the Best of It by Sklansky was the book to read. I don't remember if it was required or not, but it was read by everyone, as they should. The internal libraries in Susquehanna always had several 2+2 titles in it as well as books by Richard Thaler (The Winner's Curse), who had ideas on how and why people routinely make incorrect decisions. As long as I'm on this tangent, there's two books I'd highly recommend. These aren't poker books, but they deal with how people make decisions, so it can always be applied to poker. I read these books in college, and they put me on the right path as far as 'how to think'.

Rational Choice in an Uncertain World by Robyn Dawes
Rival Hypotheses by Huck and Sandler

I don't have the Dawes book anymore, but when I first read it in college, it felt like someone woke me up from a deep slumber. Its much like Richard Thaler's books. I thought Dawes' book was better - although it may be because it was the first time I was expose to these ideas, or maybe its because Dawes teaches at my alma mater [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Rival Hypotheses explains 20 common problems people have when making conclusions, such as mis-interpreting correlation and causation, experimenter bias, and sampling bias. There are 100 different real life (I think) events and conclusions, but the authors point out how there could be a plausible rival hypotheses that would have a completely different conclusion. It sounds like a stats textbook, but there is no math in it whatsoever.

Both are probably difficult to find. But maybe I should re-purchase these books and read them and give a concise review.

[uuDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
Both are probably difficult to find.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dawes at Amazon ($57 new)

Huck at Amazon (Cheap used copies available.)

Also, both are available at my college library (so probably at others as well).

[King Yao]

hmmm, I guess with the internet, nothing's all that difficult to find!

That Dawes link you gave is not the same book that I read. Its the same title, but a different book. It has a different co-author. I don't know what the differences are though. The one I read is here : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0155752154/qid=1115933336/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/104-6168318-0453562?v=glance&s=books

[Jordan Olsommer]

awesome. Thanks so much - all three of those are now on my amazon list, and pending purchase (fwiw, amazon says Thaler and Dawes are readily available, and Huck isn't but there are used copies available). Much appreciated.

[Jordan Olsommer]

rats - I really should remember to read all the new posts before making my own [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

Just so I'll have some actual contribution on this sub-topic, The "old" Dawes book (with orig. co-author) is available at half.com for $7, and Winner's Curse for pretty much the same price as amazon used.

Since Rival Hypotheses is apparently the rarest of the three, here's a listing on isbn.nu of different stores around the net that have it; looks like prices range from about $6-$15.

Hope that helps if anyone else wanted to check it out. Thanks again for the recommendations.