sfustsh's Book Club

[bigloser2448]

I read little of that SnG book at the bookstore one day (I'm so cheap!!). I would have definately had that on "my list", but I think I've decided on learning to play poker more than figure out the best time to shove or fold in any situation.

I'm sure there's more to it, but for now, I'm got enough to read . :nod:

[sfustsh]

Another update. This time on the Little Green Book. I finished this one a few days ago and have already gotten into Schoonmaker's book but didn't get around to writing a review on the LGB. Well here we go.

Content: This book is laid out as a series of one-paragraph to one-page blogs about a specific topic. This is similar to many of Sklansky's books; however, each section is quite short. Because of this, there isn't a whole lot of information included in each of these sections. Unlike the Little Blue Book, Gordon lays out general thoughts about a topic instead of specific hand examples. There is a tacit logic to the points the author makes as the book progresses. The book opens with somewhat trivial (although important) points, such as "money flows clockwise" and "the fundamental theorem", and progresses to more advanced topics. The book ends with a few "player profiles": cross-sections of the styles of some of the world's most famous NLHE players, which are rather fun to read. Nothing in this book is particularly advanced, but that seems to follow the themes of his other books. In addition, the advice in this book is more focused towards cash games, while he does throw in some tips at the end for tournaments (WHY must he do that?!).

Strategy: If you've noticed this theme in the LxB series, I have too: The advice in these books is quite clearly for players who barely understand the fundamentals of NLHE. Anyone who's spent a few months reading forums or other texts will recognize most of the advice in these books already. But I digress. Gordon stresses the importance of positional and aggressive play. In this text, he also emphasizes the importance of stealing blinds (a synergistic strategy with positional play). This is a much larger focus than in his previous books. In addition, there are a few topics that are related to poker psychology and are completely irrelevant to online poker. Most of these are related to the famous Mike Caro observation: Weak means strong and strong means weak. There are also quite lengthy sections on what, exactly, to do in certain situations, for example: You've flopped top and bottom pair out of position, you should play aggressively, etc. My issue with these sections is the fact that they are too rigid to be of any use on the felt. In general, the strategy in this section should probably be ignored for moderate - advanced players, as they don't allow enough flexibility to tackle real poker problems.

Overall: This one gets a 4 carrots out of 5 for focusing very well on its intended audience (new poker players).

[bigloser2448]

Bump.
Is the "Book Club" going to happen. I'm just about done with a very popular book that should make for some great discussion. Just Curious.

[Randy]

Yes, I'll try and ge this done soon.

[sfustsh]

blah blah bleh

I finished the third book a while ago but never got around to writing a review.

I'll hold off on it.

[Randy]

Moved

[Ugignadl]

Sorry, I'm going to have to revoke my offer to provide reviews for anything.

Thanks to all who have been contributing, especially SFU, in this regard.

[Randy]

Originally Posted by Ugignadl

Sorry, I'm going to have to revoke my offer to provide reviews for anything.

Thanks to all who have been contributing, especially SFU, in this regard.

No problem Ugi, I know you have a lot on your plate right now..