REVIEW
Recently,
I reviewed Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit
Hold'em by T.J. Cloutier (with Tom McEvoy)
and pronounced it the best book I've read
on the topic of "big" bet poker. After
reading Reuben and Ciaffone's book, I
feel compelled to revise my opinion. I
now believe that their Pot-Limit and No-Limit
Poker is the single best work I've read
on big bet poker, although Cloutier's
book is also top notch and well worth
reading.
Reuben
and Ciaffone are well known in big poker
circles. Both are tenacious winning players
who are well respected by their peers.
Ciaffone is well known for his seminal
work on Omaha, Omaha Holdem Poker, and
Reuben has been writing poker columns
off and on since the '60s. Both have a
great deal to teach us about high stakes
poker.
This
becomes apparent immediately in the first
section, titled "Big-Bet Poker Concepts"
which provides the best introduction to
the basic concepts of pot-limit and no-limit
play, and how this differs from limit
games. Before entering a big bet tournament
or a ring game for the first time, anyone
would be well served to read through this
section carefully.
The
second section is on specific poker forms,
including no-limit Hold'em, pot-limit
Omaha (high), Stud Hi-Lo, etc.. Almost
every game section is followed by a quiz
on the material covered. Most of the quiz
questions are quite good, but I don't
think that the scoring system used should
be given that much credence. Not that
the answers given are incorrect by any
means, just that I would expect that one's
point total, and therefore "rank" by the
author's estimation, may not always correlate
well with one's true abilities.
Some
of the games discussed in this section,
like London Lowball and five and six card
Omaha aren't familiar to me, and I doubt
I'd play them. Similarly, I don't think
it's likely that I'd play Strip Deck Poker
or big bet Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo. I also
don't think all of these games are especially
illustrative of important poker concepts,
but these sections don't take up a whole
lot of space, so there's certainly no
harm done in including them here, even
if the reader's main interests are in
Hold'em and Omaha. Further, if I ever
expect to play London Lowball, I'll now
know what I need to read in order to have
a chance.
The
third section is titled "Special Situations"
and has two short chapters on tournament
and shorthanded play. I found these sections
to be a little bit lacking. Fortunately,
Cloutier covers tournament situations
fairly well in his book, but there is
a lot more that could be said about shorthanded
poker.
The
fourth section is titled "General Information"
and covers a brief history of the game
of poker, pot-limit rules, ethical considerations,
and cheating. This information is good
and most of it should be understood before
sitting in on a big bet game.
Finally,
we end with some information on calculating
odds and tables of probabilities of certain
events occurring. This information is
similar to information found in other
books, but these are things the skilled
poker player needs to know.
In
any case, the authors do a great job of
teaching big bet poker, and this book
belongs on the shelves of every serious
student of the game.
Capsule:
Revising
an earlier opinion, I believe that Pot-Limit
and No-Limit Poker is currently the single
best book on big bet poker and should
be read by all serious players. However,
Coutier's book should also be considered
a must-read, and it's coverage of tournament
strategy is superior.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
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