Poker

[bob_gnarly]

yeah there are a lot of good books out there, barry greenstein's Ace on the river book is pretty good. its not really about strategy or anything just more about the life and issues that go along with playing cards for a livng.

 

[The Nino]

I suggest that anyone who plays online and wants to improve get a program like Poker Tracker.

 

[IUtoSLU]

Brunson changed my game. I'm not really a hardcore player although one of my roommates in college had a bankroll of 20k once, which I thought was pretty impressive.

 

[zalb916]

I've never found poker strategy books to be anywhere near as helpful as just playing a lot. You can read all you want, but it's the real life, instantaneous decisions that really teach you. I spent about six months playing poker instead of having a real job, capping it off with a $10,000 entry tournament in Australia. Finished just out of the money and decided it was time put that law degree to use. Grinding it out with amateurs was fun and moderately lucrative. Playing with pros was scary, frustrating, and humbling.

 

[amin]

used to play a lot of poker when i was in uni. very enjoyable and agree with poster above, i found playing in real life more helpful then reading books about it.

 

[gvibes]

Originally Posted by Miguel Antonio

If you want to learn poker I recommend Mike Caro's web site, where you can see videos of poker psychology, also be sure to buy his book, Mike Caro's Book of Tells for a very good approach to poker psychology.

Also "Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky is a very good book to have, on poker strategy. He (David Slansky) is considered to be the top guru on poker right now.

Links: http://www.poker1.com/home.aspx (Mike Caro's web site)
This is horrible advice for a beginner. Caro's book is outdated and TOP is just too much for a beginner. Harrington is great for tournament play (and to a lesser extent, NL cash games. Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play is amazing for limit games. Outside of that, the twoplustwo.com forums are just absolutely awesome.

I used to play a ton in law school (ironically enough) - I just 4-tabled 3/6 at party.

 

[Miguel Antonio]

gvibes
This is horrible advice for a beginner. Caro's book is outdated and TOP is just too much for a beginner. Harrington is great for tournament play (and to a lesser extent, NL cash games. Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play is amazing for limit games. Outside of that, the twoplustwo.com forums are just absolutely awesome.

I used to play a ton in law school (ironically enough) - I just 4-tabled 3/6 at party.

In poker psychology there is not substitute for Caro's book. Also TOP can be studied by a smart student easily.

 

[The Nino]

Hold em (especially no limit) boils down to 3 things. Ranges, folding equity and implied odds. TOP will give you an understanding of these concepts and lots of practice will help you apply them correctly.

 

[Krisj]

I love poker! I wish I could play it more but it seems kids at my college are only interested in drinking

I have a bunch of books that I read, they really helped me, but there's nothing like just playing

 

[bob_gnarly]

id also say if ppl want to learn join a traning site. there are a ton. i think cardrunners.com is pretty good. a lot of them are mainly geared towards online play, which there are not a lot of books for that. ive seen a few videos and i think they are pretty good. they cover everything from small stakes/large stakes and a variety of diff. games

 

[zalb916]

Originally Posted by The Niño

Hold em (especially no limit) boils down to 3 things. Ranges, folding equity and implied odds. TOP will give you an understanding of these concepts and lots of practice will help you apply them correctly.

err ... position, pot odds, chip stack, should I continue?

 

[The Nino]

Originally Posted by zbromer

err ... position, pot odds, chip stack, should I continue?

How can you understand implied odds if you don't understand pot odds? How can you understand ranges if you don't understand position and chip stacks? Yes please continue.

 

[alan]

Books and such cant be treated as some magic key to poker superiority. What people need to understand is that 80% of poker players, even the very bad ones, have read these books.

I think theyre useful at the beginning if youre really clueless and have been playing mostly play money or micro stakes, theyll just open your eyes to a lot of mistakes youre doing.

The big error beginners do is take these books too litterally. Then they go on tilt when their aces get cracked by 23 and start cursing how other player "played it bad" just because a book says that hand is bad preflop.

What Nino said is true because he highlighted some of the points that are particularly important in NL as compared to limit holdem, when making the transition.

Implied odds is the most important concept that i find most struggle with.

 

[The Nino]

Originally Posted by alan

.

What Nino said is true because he highlighted some of the points that are particularly important in NL as compared to limit holdem, when making the transition.

Implied odds is the most important concept that i find most struggle with.



I think the first thing to do is figure out what implied odds you need to break even. An easy way to do this at the table is to subtract the pot odds from the required implied odds.

For Example: Let's say you have a flush draw on the flop. The pot contains 20 big blinds (bb) and your opponent bets 20bb. The pot now has 40bb and you need to call 20bb, so the pot is offering 2:1 odds. Your draw will come in about 20% of the time on the next card so your odds of hitting the flush on the turn are 4:1. So the implied odds you need to make are 4:1-2:1=2:1 So when calling the 20bb bet you will need to make 2*20=40bb more when you hit to break even.

The hard part of course is figuring out whether you can extract the 40bb or more out of your opponent. Depending on your stacks, position, reads etc. a call may be a good, marginal or poor idea.

 

[landho]

Not taking into account reverse-implied odds, e.g., the possibility of your opponent drawing to a bigger flush or the board pairing (in this example).