To stay competitive in poker, you must constantly be learning and improving. Of all the things I’ve learned about poker in the last few years, I don’t think any has made me as much money as learning to pay attention … Read more…
Nate Meyvis’s latest book, Thinking Tournament Poker Volume Two, which covers his second day of play in the 2014 WSOP Main Event, has just hit the virtual shelves! It features Nate’s own analysis of virtually every pot he entered that day, … Read more…
My sixth e-book tells the story of my 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event, in which I finished 53rd. Like the other volumes, it features an entertaining trip report from the tournament interspersed with essays discussing strategic concepts that … Read more…
I recently finished reading Matthew Janda’s Applications of No-Limit Hold ‘Em and considered it one of the most helpful poker books I’ve read in some time. On a scale of 1 – 10, I give it a 9.5. Applications is a … Read more…
Hot off the virtual presses, my latest e-book chronicling the 2009 WSOP Main Event is now available in the Amazon Kindle Store or from www.nitcast.com. 2009 wasn’t my best year in the Main Event – in fact it was one … Read more…
The latest and greatest volume in my Thinking Poker Diaries is now available at nitcast.com or in the Amazon Kindle Store. This third volume in the series follows the same format as the first two, interspersing anecdotes from the tournament with strategy … Read more…
I’m excited to announce, to those who missed the news on Twitter and the podcast, that I’ve finally published a book! It’s based on my 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, and it’s actually the first in a series … Read more…
Happy Cyber Monday! Far be it from us to contribute to the seasonal frenzy of consumerism, but if you’re going to be doing any holiday shopping (or any other shopping for that matter) on Amazon anyway, there’s a free and … Read more…
I just published a review of the first volume of Jonathan Little’s Secrets of Tournament Poker: Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker Volume 1 is a dangerous book because it has the potential to lull inexperienced readers into a false sense of … Read more…
I’ve finally finished reviewing John Beauprez’s PLO QuickPro Manual, though I feel I’ve only begun reading it. It’s an extremely dense and thorough book, which is what you deserve for shelling out $297 though not always what the authors of … Read more…
Jared Tendler’s The Mental Game of Poker 2 is the Thinking Poker Bookclub selection for May. It’s available in paperback for $34.95 or in a variety of e-book formats. The following is a tentative reading schedule. There are some scheduling complications … Read more…
Nate and I will be discussing Tommy Angelo’s Elements of Poker for the Thinking Poker Bookclub during the month of April. I figured I’d make a separate post about here since not everyone reads the shownotes. If you’ve never read Elements of … Read more…
Several weeks after his appearance on The Thinking Poker Podcast, I finally got around to publishing my review of Zachary Ellwood’s Reading Poker Tells. In short, it’s one of the most helpful poker books I’ve read. Ellwood covers his subject clearly … Read more…
I’ve just published a review of Jonathan Little’s Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker Volume 2. Here’s the synopsis: The book is subtitled “Stages of the Tournament”, but fewer than half of the book’s 270 pages are dedicated to this topic. Ironically, much of … Read more…
Tommy Angelo’s second book, A Rubber Band Story and Other Poker Tales, is an eclectic collection poker writing from one of the game’s most beloved authors. Because A Rubber Band Story spans more than a decade of Angelo’s career and … Read more…
I just published a review of Bennett Onika’s “Unleash Your Hidden Poker Memory”. Here’s the short version: This is why Onika’s lack of poker expertise is such a problem: it’s the only thing he’s really bringing to the table. You’d … Read more…
I just published a review of one of the best and most advanced poker books I’ve encountered, the 3rd Edition of Andrew “BalugaWhale” Seidman’s Easy Game. It’s probably too advanced for your average recreational player, but if you want to … Read more…
I was inundated with requests for reviews over the holidays, so I asked a friend if he’d be interested in taking one of them. Thus, the review for Nathan Williams’ Crushing the Micro-Stakes can be found on Gareth Chantler’s blog. … Read more…
Tri Nguyen just came out with a new book that has more in common with Barry Greenstein’s Ace on the River than with a strategy manual. Here’s the long and short of what I had to say about it: How … Read more…
Just posted a review of No Limits: The Fundamentals of No-Limit Holdem by Chris “Fox” Wallace and Adam Stemple. Here’s the gist of it: As a book for small stakes cash game players, it’s not bad, but not bad isn’t … Read more…
I’ve just finished reading and reviewing Harrington on Online Cash Games, certainly one of the most anticipated poker books of the year. Here’s the two-minute version: HOCG is the single best resource I’ve seen for anyone just starting out online … Read more…
My Two Minute Review: Given the choice between Travis Steffen’s Peak Performance Poker and Eric Beck’s Poker Mindfulness, Steffen’s is the better book by far. Whereas the latter consists mostly of uncontroversial platitudes and little practical advice, the former is … Read more…
My One Minute Recommendation- The Poker Blueprint gets an 8.5/10 for content but a 5/10 for presentation. It contains plenty of great material for players who need help beating smaller stakes online short-handed games, but I fear the often terse, … Read more…
When I first heard that James McManus was working on a book about the history of poker, I was surprised that such a book had not yet been written and glad that McManus was the one writing it. His first … Read more…
OK, so I am comfortably settled into this huge house on the Maine coast and will be here for the rest of the month.Off-season extended rentals FTW- it’s too cold to get in the water and most of downtown is … Read more…
I can’t say that I expected great things from the memoirs of a man who divided his life between the ranch, the pool table, and the poker table, and while it can’t be called great, Amarillo Slim in a World … Read more…
Michael Craig’s The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King takes readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of (at the time) the highest stakes poker game ever played. In search of a new challenge, banking prodigy Andy Beal challenges the best … Read more…
I like old poker books. It’s fun to see how people played, and talked about, the game decades ago. In “The Old School”, I share the best and worst from these antiquated tomes. Sometimes the strategy is laughable, sometimes it … Read more…
Small Stakes No-Limit Hold ’em by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn Professional No Limit Hold ‘Em, Volume 1 (PNLHE) is one of my all-time favorite poker books and the one that I recommend to anyone looking to get … Read more…
The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition Edited by Michael Craig This Full Tilt guide is a 19-Chapter anthology, so I’ve broken down my review chapter-by-chapter. Chapters Reviews: Chapter 6 – Play Before the Flop by Andy Bloch Chapter … Read more…
My One Minute Recommendation: The Pot Limit Omaha Book: Transitioning from NLHE to PLO scores a 9/10. There are probably better books for all-around poker noobs, but experienced NLHE players looking to get better at “the other big bet game” … Read more…
By most accounts, Steve Cyr revolutionized the ways in which casinos worldwide cater to the whims of “whales”, the highest rolling gamblers in the world. Flying in the face of received wisdom, his mass marketing and customer service approach to … Read more…
Neal Gersony’s Poker Slam is a novel about an aspiring professional poker player trying to track down his legendary uncle, who won millions in the world’s biggest tournaments and then disappeared. Great fiction it isn’t, but once the book gathers … Read more…
For those who don’t know, Eric ‘Rizen’ Lynch, Jon ‘Pearljammer’ Turner, and Jon ‘Apestyles’ Van Fleet are working on a series of tournament books called “Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time.” The first volume is now available for … Read more…
My One Minute Recommendation: Kill Everyone is one of the better tournament books on the market. It will be most useful for those interested in big live tournaments, but the excellent section of the math of late game situations is … Read more…
My One Minute Recommendation: Smaller stakes players who want a big picture view of advanced concepts that they’ll need to understand to win at higher stakes will probably get their money’s worth. Beginners, however, should find another resource that’s written … Read more…
My One Minute Recommendation: Harrington on Cash Games Volume II covers turn and river play as well as playing loose and aggressive, dealing with others who play that way, bankroll management, and other topics. Harrington explains complex poker theory well, … Read more…
My One Minute Recommendation: Harrington on Cash Games Volume One scores a 5/10. Players who are new to NLHE cash games will find it initially helpful, especially if they are interested in full ring play. Those who are already moderately … Read more…
Imagine that you are riding on the subway when a disheveled man wearing dirty clothes and a long, unkempt beard boards your car and begins to rant about how aliens got him and are coming for you too. He is … Read more…
I first read David Sklansky and Ed Miller’s No Limit Hold ‘Em: Theory and Practice over a year ago, when I was just starting to play cash games seriously. I recall thinking that it was good but not great and … Read more…
As the title suggests, Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman’s The Mathematics of Poker is by far the most mathematically rigorous poker book on the market. The mathematics to which the title refers is not the simple stuff, like calculating pot … Read more…
In his Closing Thoughts, Jeff Hwang comments on what motivated him to write Pot Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy: “…nowhere in poker literature was truly useful instructions on where to start. Everybody says the same thing: Play four … Read more…
Writing a book about poker strategy that will be both correct and useful to inexperienced players is a big challenge. Beginners need straight-forward, practical, concrete advice that they can apply at the table. But poker, and especially no limit hold … Read more…
Though many books have been published on the subject since, David Sklansky’s Tournament Poker for Advanced Players (TPFAP) has been the definitive text on tournament poker theory since its publication. Two Plus Two Publishing seems to have had two goals … Read more…
From the outset, Andy Bloch’s chapter on pre-flop play for the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition suffers from a mistaken objective. Bloch proposes to study pre-flop strategy like chess openings, which I take to mean that he is … Read more…
The Razz chapter of the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition is presented in a unique way, with Michael Craig summarizing, narrating, and quoting a conversation between Ted Forrest and Huck Seed. Given my extensive involvement with competitive debate, … Read more…
To his credit, David Gray’s Seven Card Stud chapter in the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition is actually about tournament strategy. Even when introducing basic concepts such as starting hand selection, which he is wise to do given … Read more…
Chris Ferguson’s introduction to the game of Pot Limit Omaha is strongly grounded in mathematics and game theory, just what you’d expect from the computer science PhD. It’s a little light on tournament theory for a chapter in a tournament … Read more…
Unlike most of the other chapters that the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition dedicates to games other than No Limit Hold ‘Em, Mike Matusow’s “Omaha Eight or Better” really is dedicated to tournament strategy rather than to the … Read more…
I might as well disclose up front that I am not very good at or knowledgeable about fixed limit hold ’em. In some ways, that makes me unqualified to review a text on the subject, but it also plants me … Read more…
Andy Bloch and Rafe Furst co-authored this chapter of the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition. It’s a solid if elementary introduction to pot limit for players of no limit hold ’em and outlines the basic differences between the … Read more…