[jojobinks]

it's good if you want to only raise with AA, KK, AK, or QQ, and always assume that the other guy's got you beat.

[scottwire]

I agree mostly with Jojo's list.

IMHO Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros is a piece of crap for Hold'em but does have decent beginner's sections on omaha, stud and razz.

[yeltzen]

You can't read Cloutier's book and apply it to tournament Hold'em today. Slapping "Championship" and "WSOP" all over that book was a publisher's ploy to cash in on that market. The advice in that book was very obviously (in my opinion) written at a time when that's how NL cash games were played. No one played the junk people play today. Everyone played tight and significant action meant a big hand. It's not his fault that people assume that advice applies to the ******* poker being played now.

[coyote]

Supersystem is in the 3rd category??????

I would argue that many of the other books build upon theories first presented in Supersystem

SuperSystem is still a must read.

[yeltzen]

Originally Posted by coyote

Supersystem is in the 3rd category??????

Yeah, that's a joke and a half.

[jojobinks]

Originally Posted by coyote

Supersystem is in the 3rd category??????

I would argue that many of the other books build upon theories first presented in Supersystem

SuperSystem is still a must read.

i mostly play tournaments, which SS doesn't cover. i play mostly low limit holdem when i play cash games, which SS doesn't cover. my list doesn't pretend to be THE list. it's just a list of how valuable my poker readings have been to me.

i certainly hope i haven't offended anybody...but SS just didn't do much for me.

[Q10 soooted]

Originally Posted by jojobinks

bad books
tournament poker and the art of war

This should have been in the category of 'books that should never have been published and where the writer, editor, and any contributing person and/or organization should be given 20 lashes during a break period of the WSOP main event.

Worst.....book.....ever......

[Q10 soooted]

In the book category, I recently got a pre-release copy of Moneymaker's "How an amature poker player turned $40 into $2.5 million at the WSOP". I got it for $0.50 (not bad for a book that's still $15+ at Amazon). It's not really about poker from what I've read so far, but I'll post a photo sometime and sell it when I'm done with it. Interesting novelty item to add to a poker collection.

[bolgenmod]

One book I notice missing from Jojo's list is "How Good is Your Limit Hold'Em" by Byron Jacobs and Jim Brier. This is an excellent book: it presents a series of hands and asks you to make decisions at key points. Most of the hands also offer alternate scenarios, ie, if player X bets instead of player Y, or if the turn is A instead of B.

These hand quizzes can be scored, and the authors weight the scores by what they think are the most difficult or important decisions, so the answers to some question are worth more points overall than the answers to other questions. In other words, the best answer to question 4 might be worth 5 points, the best answer to question 8 worth 20 points. And of course they don't tell you in advance how much each question is worth (although it is sometimes obvious which are the most important decisions).

It is really an interesting book -- the general consensus on 2+2 was that this was one of the better non-2+2 books out there. And it's part of a series: there are other "How good is your..." books out there. But since I mostly play limit holdem, this is the only one I have. In fact, I like the book so much, that I still haven't finished it: I'm "saving" the last few quizzes for later!

[mac40k]

I've been a little disappointed with the Cloutier books. I made the mistake of buying both NL & PL HE and NL & PL HE Hands. The second duplicates a lot of the material from the first and pads the book with discussion/review of various hands from the WSOP over the years. I dare say that some of the points made about how hands were played at the 95 WSOP final table (for example) might be applicable to tournament final table play today, but are of little or no use to the online ring game player. I don't play PL, so 1/2 the first book and 1/3 of the second I didn't even bother to read and while there was a nugget or two in the NL section(s), the duplication made the two books of even lesser value.

Theory of Poker and Small Stakes Hold'em were both excellent and based on everything I've read about them I look forward to starting Harrington's 2 books soon.