What THREE books would you recommend to a brand new player....

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
ps. i have seen many people recommend ITH by hilger as a sort of replacement for WLLH. I have never read this and cannot speak about it, but am curious about anyone who has read it and how they feel about it compared to WLLH as an aspiring players first book.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's better written and organized, has lots of great hand examples and quizzes, and is far less likely to make you weak-tight. It also gives advice that lasts well beyond low limits.

[BugsBunny]

I'll agree with this with one proviso. If someone has no concept of the game at all WLLH may be a better first choice. It's an easier read and doesn't require quite as much thinking. It's also thinner and therfore not as intimidating.

I would say, in that case, read WLLH, play a couple of hundred hands, then read ITH and never refer to WLLH again. If the person can handle it right off the bat though I'd skip WLLH and just go with ITH.

Mason says that some of the preflop advice in ITH is too loose when it comes to coldcalling preflop raises and gives an example of AQo. There is, of course, validity to this criticism and AQo should really be a raise or fold situation. But overall the advice is good. (He also has you calling a raise with JJ rather than reraising, this has been debated previously. While not necessarily optimum play, depending on game conditions, it's not a huge mistake for sure and is even correct play at times (see HEPFAP for more - somewhere towards the end of the EP section)) His preflop charts are detailed and easy to follow. The postflop sections are more detailed and better than WLLH. His sections on pot odds and discounting outs are also good.

He explains and uses concepts involving deciding whether or not to stay in a hand based on size of the pot, number of players in the hand, pot odds etc.

The foundation laid by ITH is solid enough to carry you on past the weakest games. You won't have to "unlearn" as much as you would with WLLH and concepts from books like MLH, SSH, TOP, and HEPFAP will be easier to digest and understand after reading ITH.

IMHO ITH is a great beginners book. If WLLH is preschool then ITH is grade school and the rest are high-school to college and beyond.

So if they're capable of skipping pre-school they can pass on WLLH and use ITH instead.

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
I have many friends learning how to play. I currently have them on a 5-book rotation.

1. WLLH - Jones
2. TOP - Sklansky
3. Middle Limit Holdem - Brier and Ciaffone
4. Small Stakes Holdem - Eddie et al.
5. HPFAP - Sklansky & Malmuth

I am *very* comfortable with this progression.

[/ QUOTE ]


After we pointed out the posts on this thread, especially since myself and my buddy agreed with these five books in this order verbatim, we were able to convince our friend to go through the Clarkmeister Five Book Poker Course (TM) (R) (C).

Thanks for everyone's help in this matter....


Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

[blackaces13]

I don't think a lot of people are gonna touch this one but I'll agree with you 100% on the loose games section in particular. Its complete junk and this "its for loose games with good players" garbage is not mentioned in the text at all as a reason not to raise big hands preflop for instance. The loose games section is pretty much the antithesis of SSH and I'm really not buying that its was written to describe loose games with "good players" beause those really don't exist that I've ever seen where it would make the advice in HPFAP correct and in SSH wrong.

Basically the loose games section will do anyone applyng its advice in a real loose game much more harm than good.

[ohgeetee]

is your friend rich? if so, i would reccommend the following, in this order:

Play Poker Like the Pros, Only the limit poker section
Anything with the word winning in it by Ken Warren
any random book on sportsbetting.


It might not make him a winner at hold'em very fast, but it will help you out!

[Senor Choppy]

[ QUOTE ]
I have many friends learning how to play. I currently have them on a 5-book rotation.

1. WLLH - Jones
2. TOP - Sklansky
3. Middle Limit Holdem - Brier and Ciaffone
4. Small Stakes Holdem - Eddie et al.
5. HPFAP - Sklansky & Malmuth

I am *very* comfortable with this progression.

[/ QUOTE ]

This looks pretty good.

For someone that doesn't take to the game naturally, the key seems to be starting with WLLH, the book is light years ahead of others for beginners. The other important thing is adding SSH somewhere, it has almost all the tools anyone would need to beat most low and mid limit games. HPFAP and TOP are worthwhile, but someone could get by without them.

[Moyer]

6. Inside the Poker Mind


Sorry, just had to add one more.

[imported_turvalon]

I like the Clarkmeister list. When I first started I picked up TOP because I did some research and everyone said it the the one book they would bring on a desserted island. It was too much for me since I never really played hold em.

I went out and got WLLHE, played for a while, turned profit, read TOP again and it made way more sense, and then picked up SSHE. Just missed the Mid limit book [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

(by read, I mean multiple times)

[DrPhysic]

If you absolutely insist on only three, I have to go with basics, limit holdem, and psychology, and leave out the advanced holdem, math, tournament play, and NL books.

So we will assume you are talking about low limit holdem ring table only.

on basics of poker:
Theorey of Poker, Sklansky

on limit holdem:
Improve Your Poker, Ciaffone (with apologies to Ed Miller. No comparison intended, I just haven't read his yet.)

on psychology:
Psychology of Poker, Alan Schoonmaker

However that leaves out:
HEP & HEPFAP on more advanced holdem,

GTBOI on the math of poker,

TPFAP on tournament play, and

NL & PL POKER on NL play.

Read the first three and stay at low limit LHE ring until you win enough to buy some more books.

Doc

[astroglide]

i don't see what value hpfap adds over ssh