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

[xrongor]

thank you all for this thread. i think it should be added to the top of the required reading list!

randy

[DocMartin]

Thanks indeed for the thread. Here's the novice perspective. I started with Warren's BIG Book along with Hellmuth's (both conveniently located in the bookstore) and the best thing they did was direct me here. Warren's book is pretty solid for the true novice (I couldnt bring myself to look through poker for dummies).WLLH was great, still battling through TOP and SSH, and looking to hit a couple of others on the list. ITH for sure and probably one more before I start re-reading and collecting serious chips from the uninformed... suggestions for that final (for now) book?

[mikimaus]

1. TOP

- as it says, though mostly about seven card stud but truly the greatest book written about general poker strategy.

2. Championship NLPLH

- I have read about all other big bet holdem books out there are found them mostly included, trash, useless, incorrect, while this book contains tournament strategy too, though at places a bit too tight and passive, still way the best overall book at the moment, and will be at least till Ciaffone's new big bet holdem book comes out.

3. MLHP by Ciaffone and Brier

- absolutely enough to beat anything lower too, and this is specifically for casino play, and covers about all knowledge written before 2001, and in more clear way than HPFAP that's a useless book at the moment (and from most part very incomplete and contains a lot of incorrect information where the ideas are correct but the examples are wrong - the only major good thing about that book is a decent preflop strategy).

Additionally there's a web site of Abdul that has the best preflop strategy put on print at this time, though needs improvements here and there but that's always the case with everything, while this is additionally free.

I would also mention Ciaffone's small Omaha Holdem Poker book, as that's way the better game than today's tight holdem games, and more so full ring holdem games both limit and big bet that are tight online, something that needs to be noted that it's not worth to study and play them online, when they are full ring games, and about all literature is about them, and mostly about either old time loose games or about casino games, while over 90% of the players play only online, and the games are completely different and way tighter and about all players are more or less educated.

[Beavis68]

Hellmuths PPLPs

I am torn between ITH and WLLH

And SSH is a must for any holdem player

The reason I like PPLP is because it covers so many types of poker well.

[Keres]

I've got to disagree with the Ciaffone's Middle Limit Holdem as a good book for a beginner. There's some good ideas in there but using them in a low limit game will get one killed. Playing 1-2, 2-4, and 3-6 on party that book is not appropriate.

For a brand new player I'd recommend (in order):

WLLH - good basic introduction that won't get her killed
Gary Carson's book - good info about playing draws with many players aggressively
SSH - more advanced stuff that could get her killed if she reads this first

If she was more into SNGs I'd knock out SSH and replace it with Cloutier's tourney NL book. Interesting and easy to read, it explains concepts that will work well in the lower limit SNGs

[maurile]

[ QUOTE ]
WLLH was great, still battling through TOP and SSH, and looking to hit a couple of others on the list. ITH for sure and probably one more before I start re-reading and collecting serious chips from the uninformed... suggestions for that final (for now) book?

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm going to be a total hypocrite and say that if you've got WLLH, ITH, TOP, and SSH, you'd be better off re-reading the books you already have -- two or three times each -- instead of buying new ones.

But if you want to disregard that advice, as I always do, the next hold 'em books I'd recommend are Middle Limit Holdem (Ciaffone/Brier), Real Poker II (Roy Cooke), and Inside the Poker Mind (John Feeney).

[timmer]

If marooned on an island with cocoanuts, bananas and tree climbing poker playing monkeys. These are the "3" books Id want.

Miller- Small Skakes Hold Em
Sklanski- Theory of Poker
Zee Malmuth Sklanski- SCSFAP

And of course a set up of Kems.

But for a brand new player with no presupposed notions about which game is best.

Kreigers- More Hold em Excellence- Basic HE primer
Wests- 7card stud 42 lessons- Basic Stud Primer
Phillips- Zen and the Art of Poker- Basic Life primer

Just my few cents

timmer

[timmer]

[ QUOTE ]
For a beginning player I would substitute psychology of poker for middle limit hold'em.

with four hold'em books, I think the new player could benefit more from learning the basic psychology than from another hold'em book.

al

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed

timmer

[darvon]

To be true to your question, I couldn't improve on the suggestions offered here.

But I was EXACTLY in the spot of your friend at the beginning of this year. I hadn't play hardly any poker in my life and I watched the ESPN broadcast and got the bug.

If someone in that position asked me what 3 books to read, I would say "DON'T"

I would tell them that I don't think most people, myself included, want to read even one book all the way through before scurrying to the tables. And some lessons will be easy to pick up and others will be hard, solely dependant upon your personality. So I would buy 1 book, and PT, and go play for 90 days. THEN you would see how things are going and make some corrections. Buying three books at once would either have 2.5 of them collecting dust or be so frustrating that you would quit poker in 90 days.

So the three books I would recommend are

1) ITH
2) PT
3) 5,000 hands of Low Limit at Party.

[jeffnc]

[ QUOTE ]
Mason says that some of the preflop advice in ITH is...

[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't matter. As Miller points out, debating the minutea of borderline starting hands is a waste of time. The strength of the recommendations is that they work very well overall for beginning and intermediate players, and the layout of the charts is the best anywhere. Actually, I don't think you need more than ITH and then SSH. If you insist on 3, then start with WLLH if someone is a slower learner, otherwise add TOP or HPFAP (21st century addition) or even Tao of Poker, depending on what you need help with.