The Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How To Think Like One |
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 - Good theory book, at least for fixed limit games.The Theory of Poker is very good in theory. The "fundametal theorem of poker" is a very good one. But the book was first published several decades ago and it shows. Personally I don't mind examples from fixed limit 7 card stud because it's one of the games I play, but the book is clearly written from the point of view of fixed limit games and not all of the advice in the book would apply to no limit games, which are more popular today than when the book was written. The theory of the book is based on mathematical expectations of certain plays. And some of the examples are very hypothetical. I'm not very good with math and found parts of the book somewhat complicated. I'm sure mathematically-minded readers will find it more accessible. So, while the book feels a bit dated, it's still a good book and I recommend it for poker players who play more than one game and players who mainly play fixed limit, but if you are only interested in no limit hold'em (or pot limit omaha, which is not mentioned at all in this book) this should not be your only, and perhaps not even your first, poker book. Rating:  - as advertisedeverything was great with my purchase... the book was in good condition as advertised, and it was shipped in timely fashion. recommended seller Rating: - Won't change your game overnight, but a must readAs many have noted, the general idea of what Sklansky tells you isn't revolutionary. It's downright simple. Basically, if you could know exactly what's in someone's hand, there would be a correct play that would be better than all others, and give you the best chance of winning. Each time you play a hand differently than this you are giving your opponent an advantage. And each time you play it correctly, you are giving yourself a better chance of winning. Of course you can't actually see the cards in your opponent's hand. But starting with this as the goal, you begin to realize what kinds of questions you should be asking each time your enter a hand and what kind of information you want to find out in order to give yourself the best chance of winning. A lot of the specific information in this book has been disseminated through a variety of sources and you may find yourself reading something that you think you already know or think somebody else said. Well guess what? It started here. But like any information the further you get from the primary source, the more likely it is to have been corrupted by someone's misinterpretation or attempt at improving upon the original idea. It's really one of the best texts for the fundamental theory of poker and to help ground your decision making. No you may not use this like you would Doyle's Supersystem to change your game immediately, but it's the kind of important information that your game would be hollow without. Rating:  - Not recommendedThis book might have been very good ages ago, but we there are a lot of better poker books by now. I found nothing new after browsing through the whole book, and it was also very boring. There are better books for complete beginners. There are better books on advanced aspects of the game. Rating:  - Not enough explanationFor understanding strategy this is a good book. Good depth on bluffing, drawing out bluffs, etc. But if you're looking for an explanation on how to compute odds or "do the math" of poker this isn't the book for you. Since most of the understanding of the strategies revolves around how you "do the math" I would say this book is lacking in proper explanations on the probabilities. But, if you know how to "do the math" then this is a great book. |
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