Your favourite books (not only poker)

[paulish]

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Englund-Gambit by Stefan Bücker, 1988.

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I was competetive player and I still play some chess. This book is not for competetive players... (cause 1..e5 ? is very weak move at that level)

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well, I won't say that any of the gambits I play are sound. But there are some high rated players who use these funky openings regularly. You gain alot by taking your opponent out of their book-lines; here is an example;

Me vs. David Smerdon (2327) IM
Simultaneous Match, Brisbane 2001
1.e4 e6 2.b3!? d5 3.Bb2 de 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Qe2 Qd4 6.0-0-0 Nc6 7.f3 ef 8.Nxf3 Qb4 9.Nb5 Bd6 10.Ba3 Qa5 11.Bxd6 cd 12.Nxd6+ Kf8 13.Kb2 Bd7 14.Nxb7 +/-

I have been in contact with people on the net, who have made sickening long analysis of 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5?

You don't want to face these guys in a live game.

My personal rep, consisted of the following;
1.e4 c5 2.b4 (Sicilian Wing Gambit)
1.e4 e6 2.b3 (Reti Variation/Papa Gambit)
1.e4 d6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 (Fantasy Variation)
1.e4 e5 2.d4 ed 3.c3 dc 4.Bc4 (Danish Gambit)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5 (Elephant Gambit)
1.d4 e5 (Englund)

Not sound, but practical. put some preassure on your opponent, and he will make mistakes.

[oreogod]

reading Rise and Fall of the Third Reich right now along w/ Inside the 3rd Reich Memoirs by Albert Speer. Great stuff.

Downloaded the movie Downfall about the last days of WWII from the Nazi/Hitlers pov. Great movie, so I thought Id read some history.

[SNOWBALL138]

Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe
Faust by Goethe
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels
Are You My Mother? by Eastman
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Mother Courage by Bertholt Brecht
Notes From Underground by Dostoevsky
The Social Contract by Rousseau
The Republic by Plato
The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner


None of my favorite books are poker books.

[gila]

"Hymns and Fragments" Friedrich Holderlin
"Book of Hours" Rainer Maria Rilke

[SNOWBALL138]

Rilke is great. Did you like Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge?
Reading his works with the knowledge that his parents wanted a girl and his mom made him wear dresses is an eye opener.

[Leavenfish]

Chess: The King by Jan Donner (a great collection of Donners best essays...for about a year I refused to read the last 20 or so pages because...it would then be over and I could not bear the thought)

Poker: Gambling Theory and Other Topics by someone named Malmuth.

And overall: The Importance and Consumption of Bread and Wheat Based Products by Angus P. Littleworth; 1849

---Leavenfish