Review: Killer Poker Online
I’ve read some columns by John Vorhaus online and enjoyed what I read. His book, Killer Poker Online: Crushing the Internet Game, is a completely different story. The book is a waste of time and money. I’m glad a friend bought the book for me or I would have been very disappointed in the read.
I read the book expecting to get some new insights into online poker. I was looking for strategy and examples of online play. In the first paragraph of the Introduction, Vorhaus writes:
…I want to put forth the startling idea that, hey, maybe Internet poker’s not such a hot idea…
What? Is this really in a book about crushing the Internet game? Instead of reading about poker strategy, the book taught me the basics of how online poker works. Chapter 2 is titled “The Mechanics of the Thing” and explains the computer recommendations for running a poker client, what a screen name is, what the lobby is, play money tables, hand history logs, setting your options and various other things.
River Bets
Riding the F-Train has an interesting post about betting the river. Great information, but like some of the commentors, I don’t agree that this is true for the low limits. If I didn’t value be the river most of the time, I’d be missing out on a lot of bets. Checking and hoping they bet doesn’t work either…well rarely ever.
Shorty Advice
John Vorhaus has a great little primer on how to play the shorhanded tables. I don’t completely agree with everything he recommends, but I’ve already been doing the majority of it and it really does work.
Review: Internet Texas Hold’em
A little over a month ago, Ammon from ITH offered me a free copy of Matthew Hilger’s book Internet Texas Hold’em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro in exchange for writing a review on my site. Since I always review the books I read and had wanted the book, I quickly took him up on his offer.
At the time, I had just started reading Theory of Poker (my review), so I didn’t start on ITH until last week when I was taking a break from the poker tables. I finished ITH earlier this week. It was really a quick read, even though its length is comparable to most poker books. I was able to read it so fast because I’m already familiar with most of the concepts discussed from reading TOP and Small Stakes Hold’em. That’s not to say that the book is all repeat information though.
ITH is a great book and one that I would recommend to anyone who wants to start playing poker online. Yes, I’d even recommend it before SSH in this case. What sets ITH apart is that the book concentrates on the differences between online and live play. Hilger gives you solid advice on how to beat the online game.
The book is broken down into chapters and the order was great. The jump from one topic to the next flows smoothly and would allow a beginner to easily follow along. Perhaps the best part of the book is the examples and how they are used to supplement the text. At the end of each chapter there are 15-20 real examples taken from online hand histories. The situation is laid out in plain English and then a question is proposed. Should you call? Is raising a better play? Right after each question, Hilger lays out what he believes is the correct play for each situation. Another thing that sets the examples apart from the other books I’ve read is that the author doesn’t use large card images to show you the hand and situation. He simple explains it in text form. This helps to cut down on a lot of space and flipping back and forth between pages.
ITH is not only a great book for the beginning poker player, but it can be a great resource for anyone’s online game. I’ve been struggling with my game over the past two months and the book helped to reinforce some of the concepts and strategies that I had forgot. There are other books I like better, but since the book does so well at what it’s meant for I have to give it an A.
Review: The Theory of Poker
The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky is probably the most comprehensive book ever written on poker strategy. Sklansky covers bluffing, slow playing, game theory, table selection, and every other topic you can think of. While the book was written several years ago, almost everything can still be applied to today’s styles of play.
I will say that this book should not be the first poker book you read. It shouldn’t even be the second or third. The concepts would easily confuse someone that is just learning the game. There were times while reading TOP that I was confused. The book is just loaded with information. I doubt I’ll ever understand it all, even if I read it 100 times in the next year. I’m not trying to scare anyone away from reading the book, because it’s a must read for any poker player serious about learning the game. I’m simply saying that there’s a lot to take in.
One of the most brilliant, yet simple, things I’ve ever read about poker is Sklanky’s Fundamental Theorem of Poker:
Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.
The age of the book can be seen by the number of examples relating to games such as Stud, Razz, and Draw poker, but the concepts can be applied to any game out there. It would be nice if Sklansky would come out with a revision that just related to hold’em, the most popular form of poker today.
Like I said before, if you’ve read a few other poker books, feel free to jump into TOP, otherwise wait until you have some more experience and reading under your belt. Once you do though, dive right in. I give the book an A.
Big Hands Win
Over my last 10,000 hands, the cards with the highest winning percentage are A♦A♠, K♣K♥, Q♣Q♠, A♠K♠, and A♥K♦. In that exact order too. It’s reassuring to know that the best hand wins the majority of the time, even online.
Back in the Saddle
After taking a few days off, I sat down Wednesday night and fired up Party Poker. I opened up two of the $2/4 bad beat jackpot tables and played for a few hours, losing over $100. I had now lost nearly $600 over the last 3 days I had played. Time for a reality check.
I looked at my stats, but nothing jumped out at me. I thought about my play over this time. I could remember bad beats, my draws that never hit, and calling down with a mediocre hand at best. I was attempting to get out of my slump by turning into a calling station on the turn and river. It was costing me money. After making the move to $2/4, my stats show that I’m losing over 1 BB/100 hands. Not exactly the results I was expecting.
Hold’Em Poker
At about $20, this book is no where near being worth the purchase. I’ve only read one other Sklansky book, so I’m not an expert on his writing, but Hold’Em Poker comes up short in value. I own Small Stakes Hold ‘em: Winning Big With Expert Play, which is a much better book. Everything that is discussed in HP is in SSH and with 10 times the amount of detail.
While reading through all 108 pages of HP, I didn’t really learn anything I hadn’t read in SSH. The concepts are all the same. Since HP was one of the first books written on Texas Hold’em the information is also a bit outdated for today’s game. If I hadn’t read SSH first, I think I would have been confused by some of the advice Skansky gives in HP. He discusses a lot of great information, but a reader is left without the proper details. There are a few hand examples to illustrate some of the concepts, but not nearly enough.
Where the book is useful is in the sense of a refresher course. While reading it, I was reminded of a few things I had forgotten from SSH. Also, since the book is so short (I already mentioned the whopping 108 pages) you can easily take it with you anywhere.
In my opinion, if you are going to buy a book, spend the extra money and get SSH or even The Theory of Poker. I haven’t read TOP, also by Sklansky, but it’s the next one on my list after I review some of SSH.
If I had to grade Hold’Em Poker, I’d have to give it a C+.
Mental Lapse
I’ve been playing the $10 Sit & Gos on Party Poker recently as a break from the ring games, so today I was looking around for some advice. I came across one of the greatest pieces of no-limit advice I’ve ever heard.
A K is good for an all-in bet, but not to call an all-in.
Play Your Own Game
Yesterday I was browsing around the 2+2 forums, reading all kinds of advice. From a few threads that I read, it looked like I wasn’t playing enough hands from early position. I’ve been following the preflop recommendations from SSH for playing on a tight table (3-5 people to the flop on average) and things have been going really well. But what the 2+2 people were saying is that you should be playing hands like A♥X♥ in early position. Hmmm, maybe I’m missing out on some extra wins by not playing some of these hands up front.
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