 | By: David Sklansky Mason Malmuth Binding: Mass Market Paperback Publisher: Two Plus Two ISBN: 1880685019 ISBN-13: 9781880685013 Released: 13 Jan 1992 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Where to apply the poker tools this book gives you? Anywhere, reallly - I used to play at my local casino 4 times / wk, but now play almost exclusively online, since play goes so much faster - I go out of my mind with boredom when I try & sit at a casino nowadays.
The problems however are that a lot of the ideas are applicable to tight aggressive high limit games, which the authors now frequent. With the explosion of poker, especiallly the online varient, you will find a large quantity of weak loose passive/aggressive players playing on the lower limits, where many of the plays described in the book will be wasted. Though there is a section on how to play loose games, if this is your game of choice, you might be better off buying a book devoted to the subject.
Also pot limit/no limit is mostly played in Britain & this book is meant to be applied to the limit games prevalent in America. However there are no books which focus solely on this available & the concepts are still valid.
The last problem is that it might encourage you to play too rigidly to their guidelines, ie the constant use of the hand tables. Winning poker play is about how to use your cards in the best possible way in a particular situation, rather than following a set of rules.
All in alll though, this is a must buy for any serious player. Many people consider this to be the 'bible' of Texas Hold'em, & after you apply these stratgies to your game, you will probably agree with them.
(As a direct response to gamboler, the chance of making your flush from any two suited cards is about 13%, & anyone can see that if you have two suited cards, you are more likely to make a flush than if you have one. The reason why Sklansky rates J 10s as high as A Q is because it is a large money maker in multiway pots, compared to A Q, which will probably only win a smalll amount of money heads up)
The book then goes on to consider strategic concepts which includes freecards, semi-bluffing, check raising & odds & implied odds.
The next section titled miscellaneous topics gives advice on some of the typical situations found in a hold'em game, such as playing when a pair flops, playing pairs in the hole etc.
Following this there are chapters on loose games, playing short handed, playing non-standard games & other skills. To finish with there is an extensive question & answer section with questions on each chapter in the book.
The writing in the book has a very intense feel with often a dozen points hidden within a single page. This makes multiple read-throughs almost mandatory to gain the most from it.
It has been suggested that the advice in this book is too loose for the modern game. This may or may not be true, but if you are an advanced player surely you can take some parts of the book that are of use, & discard the rest.
I personallly feel that this book will be of help to my poker, & is worthy of further study. I am also more than happy to take the advice of the experienced poker writers listed above by studying this book. Im sure they know more about the game than i do!
Particularly dangerous is the book's oft stated theme of rating suited hands much higher than non-suited hands. For instance, 10 J suited is rated equivalent to A Q offsuit. Playing smalll suited connectors is suicide in the average high limit game (seeing the flop against one or two opponents for two to three bets). There is only a minimal difference between say A Q offsuit & A Q suited in this type of game because (1) you hit flushes very rarely (about 4% of the time when you're suited) & (2) you'll actuallly make more flushes with the off suited hand. Playing garbage hands in hopes of hitting a 1 in 25 flush is the biggest single error made by bad players & this book sytemicallly reinforces this error. This 1 in 25 shot is particularly ill advised when you play in game with lots of two or three handed flops.
The other problem is that strategy suggestions repeatedly encourage callling way too loose & raising way too tight, just the opposite strategy that consistent winning players employ. I suspect that Malmuth knows that the strategies suggested won't work in high limit games & are thus of no use (or even detrimental) to advanced players.
It is certainly true, however, that an amateur player could benefit from the book as long as they understand that the book will not turn them into a pro or enable them to overcome the rake in low limit games.
Finallly, the authors discussion focused almost exclusively on structured limit games. There are only a handful of truly successful limit poker pros in the world. Anybody that can play, even a little bit, should focus on playing no-limit or pot limit. Even the authors admit that many of the reallly difficult situations are break even decisions in limit poker. In open limit games, however, these situations are extremely critical.
Psychology, tells, & betting strategies are so much more important in no limit that most working, practicing holdem/omaha pros refuse to play structured limit. Limit poker is great for the house, because they end up with alll the money. If you have some talent (and some passion) for the game & you're trying to become a serious player, pass on this book & pass on limit poker in general.
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