Any book recommendations?

#1 09-13-2005, 06:50 AM

Hi I'm a newbie here. I've bought quite a few 2+2n publications and was considering purchasing another couple. I was just wondering what people generally thought of these two books for a low limit $1+.20 tournament player.

The first is book 2 by Harrington The Endgame. I've got book one and am very happy with it, i'm just wondering is book two just as good?

The second book is Tournament poker for advanced players by Sklansky I've no idea about this book at all. Any peoples veiws on this? Is it a must read for an serious tournament enthusiast?

Thanks for your time to feedback

All the best

Koy

TheJackal · #2 09-13-2005, 06:53 AM

Those are honestly the best three books you can buy about tournament poker. No shameless twoplustwo ass kissing here, although I hear pot limit by Ciaffone is pretty good as well (I haven't read it obviously).

WSOPstar2B · #3 09-13-2005, 06:56 AM

Don't know about the Sklansky book, but ABSOLUTELY W/O A DOUBT buy HOH II IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!

diebitter · #4 09-13-2005, 07:31 AM

Yeah, you got the best 3 there. There's also some McEvoy/Cloutier books about championship holdem hands that offer a few more bits and bobs (example: I like the suggestion in these to keep a raise fixed - say x3BB - when you're first to enter a pot, as it makes you unreadable, rather than swap about like Harrington between x2-5BB in a randomish way - which of course also makes you unreadable, but is just too much like hard work, especially when you're following Harrington's suggestions on raising/calling randomisation for hands at the same time).

There's also some interesting chapters in 'Gambling Theory' and 'Poker Essays 1' (best read in that order) by Mason Malmuth on Tournament play, but I wouldn't buy em just for those articles.

But basically you're sound.

#5 09-13-2005, 09:51 AM

I wouldn't want a relatively new player reading Cloutier/McEvoy. I think they give horrible advice, unless you have a pretty good understanding of why they apply it the way they do. Cloutier's writings are so absurdly weak-tight, unless you can see the moves for being that, its not worth trying to emulate.

They have some very interesting hands, but the most interesting part is debating whether Cloutier/McEvoy played them correctly, for the current tournament poker metagame. Often times, the answer's almost unequivocally no.

So, start with Harrington on Holdem, 1 and 2. TPFAP by Sklansky has some very neat ideas, but HOH1 and 2 are gonna be your bread and butter. There's a reason we refer to the as "the Bible."