REVIEW
I've
read many poker books by many authors
who have made extreme claims about their
own qualifications as an author and to
the benefit that might be realized by
reading their book. None of them have
made the sorts of claims that self described
"genius extraordinaire" William Barnes
has made about his book, When to Hold
'Em and When to Fold 'Em. In his own words,
"Expect to discover more Hold 'Em Poker
information and enlightenment in this
book than in all the bookstores and libraries
of the world." An extreme claim to be
sure. Can this book live up to its own
promotion?
The
book consists of three parts. The first
part consists of letters Barnes has sent
to various luminaries correcting articles
they have written. Mostly, these letters
correct some luminary's incorrect use
of some term describing statistical measure
such as "odds" or "probability". Sometimes,
the target of Barnes' friendly barbs has
made some other misstatement or fallen
victim to some simple logical fallacy.
I believe most people would consider these
corrective missives to be pedantic, but
with some effort I can bring myself to
understand why Mr. Barnes would feel compelled
to send them. What I can't figure out
is why he would think anyone would care
about the letters he sent?
The
second section, and the bulk of the book,
is a set of quizzes on various Hold'em
related math problems. Some of them are
interesting but most cover situations
that are covered in other books, such
as calculating the probability of hitting
a runner-runner flush if one has three
cards to a flush on the flop. It's useful
for a Hold'em player to be able to come
up with reasonable answers to questions
like these, but being able to calculate
odds precisely at the table is by no means
the most important poker skill one needs
to be a winning player.
The
third section is titled "Miscellanea"
and contains even less relevant material.
Included here are essays on defining intelligence
versus knowledge, some thoughts on chess,
and a few poems the author has written.
Like the first section, I couldn't find
anything either significant or entertaining
here.
In
truth, there is essentially no information
in this book about how to play poker well.
Barnes does provide some information on
how to calculate odds of various outcomes
during the course of a hand, but this
is hardly what I would expect from a book
that claims it will "... expand your thinking
exponentially... ." In fact, if one is
interested in learning about calculating
hand outcomes I'd recommend either my
favorite book on the mathematics of gambling,
Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic
by Epstein or Hold'em's Odd(s) by Petriv
rather than this book.
If
it weren't for the hyperbolic comments
that the author made about himself and
his book, I might dismiss it as just another
mediocre effort and mildly recommend it
to those who wanted a simple puzzle book
with a Hold'em theme. The author makes
the claim that his reason for the grand
set-up is so that we "... will read this
book with an investigative passion." Sorry,
instead the author has managed to make
me feel lied to and cheated. The author
may indeed be as smart as he claims. His
forte (the "e" is silent, as the author
points out) certainly isn't in writing
poker books. Save your money and your
time and avoid this book.
Capsule:
If
someone is looking for relatively simple
quizzes about the odds of various events
happening in Hold'em (e.g. given a pair,
the odds of flopping a set), this book
fits the bill. For any other purpose I
can imagine reading When To Hold 'Em and
When to Fold 'Em doesn't make much sense.
Don't be fooled by this book's grandiose
claims. Very little in its pages will
either entertain the reader or make them
a better poker player, so I see cannot
recommend this book.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
|
