REVIEW
Anyone
who thinks they could read a few books,
learn some general strategies, and then
be able to go out and regularly beat a
mid-limit casino poker game will be disappointed.
Beating the games populated by the better
players requires a more complex strategy
than a few rote generalities can provide.
It is necessary to have a deep understanding
of this game, an understanding that can
come only from experience and careful
thought expended about the game away from
the table. There is no "get smart quick"
scheme, but the fastest and surest path
to expertise is to learn what the best
players do and to understand why.
In
Improve Your Poker, Bob Ciaffone has assembled
many of the columns he has written over
the years and added some new ideas and
clarifications to comprise this collection
of essays. The first section covers what
Ciaffone calls "General Concepts". This
is followed by sections on "Gambling Skills",
"Reading Opponents", and "Deception and
Bluffing". Many of these essays provide
the most well-reasoned explanations of
some of the most important poker principles
that I've read. As an example, I believe
that Ciaffone's discussion of the value
of tells is spot-on. His explanation about
betting on the end provides lessons that
many poker players could use to significantly
improve their game. Also, the author's
description of the whys and hows of bluffing
is the best I've seen in print.
Ciaffone
then moves on to cover specifics from
particular games, including Texas Hold'em,
Stud, High-Low Split, and one essay concerning
Omaha. The author then spends a considerable
amount of time discussing "big bet" poker,
that is, pot limit and no limit games,
and concludes with a section on tournaments.
While I don't think these sections are
quite as consistently strong as the first
half of the book, there is still a great
deal of excellent information here, especially
because Ciaffone lets us inside his head
as he describes his thought processes
during big bet poker situations. Much
of the information on various poker types
is very strong as well. This is not to
say that I agree with everything that
he has written, but all his positions
are backed by reasonable explanations,
and in a vacuum people would be well advised
to trust the advice of "The Coach" before
mine.
Ciaffone
focuses on strategies that are predominantly
useful against players who are neither
clueless nor superhuman, such as those
lineups frequently found in mid-limit
or relatively small blind structure big
bet games. Many of the things that the
author discusses just aren't going to
be terribly useful in a common 3-6 Hold'em
game. Overall, though, Improve Your Poker
is one of the best poker books I've read.
It is filled with a large amount of nuts-and-bolts
suggestions that, with a significant amount
of thought and reflection, the reader
should be able to apply to their game,
although it assumes that the reader is
already a fairly seasoned player and that
they plan to devote some time to applying
its principles.
Capsule:
I
would place Bob Ciaffone's Improve Your
Poker as one of the ten best poker books
I have read to date. This collection of
essays by "The Coach" provides the reader
an example of how a highly successful
poker player approaches his craft. The
material in this book is squarely aimed
a relatively advanced player playing at
a level tougher than typical 3-6 Hold'em
games, so those just starting out or who
choose to play predominantly low-limit
poker can probably afford to pass on this
book. However, anyone who plays a little
higher (or wants to) will definitely find
considerable information of value in this
book.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
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