Our Favorite Poker Books - Team Full Tilt

In recent months, many of our players have asked for suggestions on what poker books provide the best insights into the game. Being curious ourselves, we put the question to our pros and the answers we got back included some long-time favorites, along with a few surprises.

While our pros all have poker books that they like, not all of them believe that reading about poker theory is essential to improving their play. In fact, a few of our pros expressed sentiments along these lines:

We're not big fans of poker books. Once you get the basics down, is there something you can read that will drastically change your outlook on poker? Probably not. If there were a secret formula that would guarantee you'd always win, or one certain technique to win the most money, wouldn't everyone be playing that way already? The best teacher is experience. Choose a playing style and game mentality that fits your style, then get out there and actively think about the game. See what works for you and what doesn't. No book will be as effective as your own thought process.

Still, many of our pros do have some suggestions about which titles you might want to add to your personal library.

Chris Ferguson believes David Sklansky's Hold 'em for the Advanced Player and Theory of Poker are perhaps the two best books out there. Both of Doyle Brunson's Super System books, and Mike Caro's Book of Tells have helped his game, too.

Steve Brecher agrees with "Jesus" about Sklansky's Theory of Poker for its idea of the semi-bluff and its analysis of the concept of odds in poker. Sklansky's Hold 'em for the Advanced Player and the rest of the Advanced Player series are also solid reads.

Brecher also likes Doyle Brunson's chapter on No-Limit Hold 'em in his Super System for its emphasis on the importance of implied odds (although that's Sklansky's phrase, not Brunson's).

Erik Seidel notes that he hasn't read many of the poker books out there, but his all-time favorite is The Biggest Game in Town by Al Alvarez.

Being friendly with Phil Gordon, Perry Friedman has gotten to read an advance copy of Phil's Little Green Book (due out in October), which he thinks provides the best example of how to teach people to think about the game. He adds that both of Dan Harrington's books are filled with incredible advice for tournament play.

When it comes to "non-strategy" books, the pros' choices are as varied as their playing styles at the table.

Howard Lederer says, "I've recently started reading some books on Zen Buddhism. Zen has always been associated with the fine arts of flower arranging, calligraphy, and tea making. But there is also quite a tradition of Zen in swordsmanship and archery. Through reading these books and, in particular, Zen in the Art of Archery, I have a greater understanding of the process one goes through to master an art form. And poker is most certainly an art form."

Other more poker-related titles on our pros' bookshelves include Positively Fifth Street by James McManus, The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King by Michael Craig, and the recently published Tales from the Tiltboys by the Tiltboys. They're also looking forward to reading Nolan Dalla's biography of Stu Ungar, One of a Kind.

It's safe to say that the books listed above will provide you with an eclectic and comprehensive view of the strategies, techniques, and personality traits that can help you become a winning player. So enjoy these books, and good luck at the table.

27% Rakeback at Full Tilt Poker

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Poker Books Sale - 50%-95% Off, Plus Free shipping until Dec.31st

Hey guys, I bought about 25 Poker books from Bookcloseouts and I paid less than than $100. And right now they have Free shipping on order of $35 or more. I like to look in the scratch and dent section, because you get an additional discount and usually they just have a small scratch. If you get some books, enter this coupon to get free shipping.

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Here's a couple books I got. Good deals:)







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Free Shipping details. Please read carefully.

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* Order subtotal must be equal or above $35.00.
* Free shipping promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any additional coupons.
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Discounted Poker Books - 50%-95% Off!

Hey guys, just found a book site with very good deals. They have Poker Books and I bought about 15 books for $60 and used a coupon code for an additional $10 off. All the books are 50% to 90% off and even sometimes 95% off! Good shipping rate and fast delivery time. It only cost me $7 for shipping 15 books and received the books in less than a week:)

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Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

Okay, heres one of the best no limit tournament books to ever come out. I heard so many good things about this book. I just purchased it and only have read 100 pages or so and it gave me a new perceptive on the game of hold'em. It has really changed my game for the better.

This book is not really for the beginner, it is called expert strategy and is intended for average to advanced player.

Poker has taken America by storm. But it s not just any form of poker that has people across the country so excited it s No-Limit Hold Em the main event game. And now thanks to televised tournaments tens of thousands of new players are eager to claim their share of poker glory. Harrington on Hold 'em takes you to the part of the game the cameras ignore the tactics required to get through the hundreds and sometimes thousands of hands you must win to make it to the final table. Harrington s sophisticated and time-tested winning strategies, focusing on what it takes to survive the early and middle stages of a No-Limit Hold Em tournament, are appearing here for the first time in print. These are techniques that top players use again and again to get to make it to final tables around the globe.

Now, learn from one of the world s most successful No-Limit Hold Em players how to vary your style, optimize your betting patterns, analyze hands, respond to a re-raise, play to win the most money possible, react when a bad card hits and much, much more.

Dan Harrington won the gold bracelet and the World Champion title at the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold Em Championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. And he was the only player to make it to the final table in 2003 (field of 839) and 2004 (field of 2576) considered by cognoscenti to be the greatest accomplishment in WSOP history. In Harrington on Hold Em, Harrington and 2-time World Backgammon Champion Bill Robertie have written the definitive book on No-Limit Hold Em for players who want to win ... and win big.

About the Author
Dan Harrington began playing poker professionally in 1982. On the circuit he is known as Action Dan, an ironic reference to his solid but effective style. He has won several major no-limit hold em tournaments including the European Poker Championships (1995), the $2,500 No-Limit Hold em event at the 1995 World Series of Poker, and the Four Queens No-Limit Hold em Championship (1996).

Dan began his serious games-playing with chess, where he quickly became a master and one of the strongest players in the New England area. In 1972 he won the Massachusetts Chess Championship, ahead of most of the top players in the area. In 1976 he started playing backgammon, a game which he also quickly mastered. He was soon one of the top money players in the Boston area, and in 1981 he won the World Cup of backgammon in Washington D.C., ahead of a field that included most of the world s top players.

He first played in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold em Championship Event of the World Series of Poker in 1987. He has played in the championship a total of 15 times and has reached the final table in four of those tournaments, an amazing record. Besides winning the World Championship in 1995, he finished sixth in 1987, third in 2003, and fourth in 2004. In 2006 he finished second at the Doyle Brunson North American Championships at the Bellagio, while in 2007 he won the Legends of Poker tournament at the Bicycle Club. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most respected no-limit hold em players, as well as a feared opponent in both no-limit and limit hold em side games. He lives in Santa Monica where he is a partner in Anchor Loans, a real estate business.

Bill Robertie has spent his life playing and writing about chess, backgammon, and now poker. He began playing chess as a boy, inspired by Bobby Fischer s feats on the international chess scene. While attending Harvard as an undergraduate, he became a chess master and helped the Harvard chess team win several intercollegiate titles. After graduation, he won a number of chess tournaments, including the United States Championship at speed chess in 1970. He also established a reputation at blindfold chess, giving exhibitions on as many as eight boards simultaneously.

In 1976 he switched from chess to backgammon, becoming one of the top players in the world. His major titles include the World Championship in Monte Carlo in 1983 and 1987, the Black & White Championship in Boston in 1979, the Las Vegas tournaments in 1980 and 2001, the Bahamas Pro-Am in 1993, and the Istanbul World Open in 1994.

He has written several well-regarded backgammon books, the most noted of which are Advanced Backgammon (1991), a two-volume collection of 400 problems, and Modern Backgammon (2002), a new look at the underlying theory of the game. He has also written a set of three books for the beginning player: Backgammon for Winners (1994), Backgammon for Serious Players (1995), and 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (1997).

From 1991 to 1998 he edited the magazine Inside Backgammon with Kent Goulding. He owns a publishing company, the Gammon Press, and lives in Arlington, Massachusetts with his wife Patrice.

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My Book Every Hand Revealed Has Been Released! - Gus Hansen

Gus Hansen's book is finally out. I'm a big fan of Gus, I love his style although it is very different than mine. His book look very well written and describes his hands in great detail.

Finally, after months of hard work, months of editing and what seems like months of post-production, my book "Every Hand Revealed" has finally been released. The book is already available online at Amazonand lots of other eBookstores and it will hit the "real-life" shelves at your local book store on May 6 at the very latest. To give you an impression of the style and the format of the book, I have included an excerpt from the foreword as well as one of the 329 hands I was involved in during my journey to victory at the 2007 Aussie Millions. Hope you will enjoy it.

From the foreword:
This book will give you the opportunity to see the hands from my perspective and get a grasp of the basic concepts and principles of my poker philosophy. What you will discover is that my kind of poker requires constantly attacking your opponents, constantly accumulating chips, constantly keeping track of pot odds and winning percentages and constantly gearing up as blinds and antes increase.

It is the first poker book to go behind the scenes and actually show you what I had, and how I played it during the Aussie Millions Poker Tournament 2007. All the hands that I played are turned face up and every decision I made is explained in my pursuit of the title. The revealing is made possible because of the little tape recorder that I always bring to the tournament tables. After having played a hand I take a couple of steps away from the table to record the action. On top of the play of the hand I of course also take note on my opponents, if he/she has displayed any patterns, mannerisms etc. Information I hopefully can use profitable for later encounters.

"Every hand revealed" is a visit to my world. It is the story of a crazy five day rollercoaster ride from my first hand – 5s 7s – to my last hand – Ac Ah. It is a story of moves, big lay-downs, bad beats, suck-outs and lots and lots of stealing. Of patience, pressure and aggression. Of bluffs, reads and tells.



From chapter 1:
Hand 38

CRUCIAL HAND 3 - MAKING THE WRONG READ – FOLDING TOP PAIR

Blinds: 400/800/100, My position: 2 off the button, Hand: Jc 3c, My chip stack: 73,400

New round, same procedure. Or maybe not?

I make it 2500 two off the button with Jc3c. The BB ponders for a while but finally decides to call. It felt like he was thinking about the re-raise and not the fold so my instinct tells me that my J3 is probably not the best hand…

The flop comes:

Jh 8c 6s

Top pair, ridiculous kicker - but top pair nonetheless!

He was supposed to check but instead he decides to fire out 6000. What was that all about? It is not very often that I am facing a substantial lead-out bet when I am the initial raiser and therefore I wanted to take my time to make sure I made the right decision…

My opponent had another 14k in front of him which meant my maximum down-side from this point on would be a total of 20k. Maximum up-side 26k.

Options:
Folding: Seems very odd now that I finally flopped top pair.
Calling: Putting in 6000 and awaiting his next move.
Raising: Shooting 20k into the middle hoping my J3 was ahead.

Three very different approaches and whichever one to take is gonna be decided solely on my read on the situation.

Read:
• He looked eager to re-raise pre-flop – not a good sign.
• He led out 6000 which is a significant part of his stack – not a good sign
• He looked mighty confident about the situation at hand – not a good sign.

I can remember three times in my career where I raised pre-flop, flopped top pair, and folded facing a single bet! Was this going to be the fourth?

The only holdings that made some kind of sense to me were the AJ, the QQ and hands of similar strength. The more I thought about it the more confident he looked, and in the end I saw no other choice than to muck my hand! I folded.

Because of my very curious nature I showed the Jack face-up, as I was certain he was going to turn it over if he had bluffed me. Don't worry – he did! He turned over two Tens displaying his victory to the table, or should I say – my ridiculous fold…

Where did I go wrong?

My initial read about him wanting to re-raise before the flop was correct - re-raising pre-flop with TT would be the normal play.

My read on his confidence level after his lead-out bet was also correct – I think taking my time made my opponent certain that his TT was the best hand because how could I ever be taking that long with a Jack in my hand?

My read on his lead-out bet was incorrect – I took it as a sign of strength where it was in fact meant as a stab to take down the pot if I didn't hit the flop.

I made an informed decision based on all the facts I had available at the time. I came to the wrong conclusion but that is bound to happen when you sit 10+hours at the poker table. Maybe I should think twice next time I am about to fold top pair on the flop…

In case you have any comments about the book, good as well as bad, you are more than welcome to post them in the forum at www.theplayr.com.

WPT Championship

Oh, right – I came second in the WPT Championship! Almost forgot to mention it J. I am still very disappointed but I will following up on the experience in the coming blogs as well as in CardPlayer Magazine. No further comments at this stage.

- Gus

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