REVIEW
The
remarkable popularity of televised and
online poker has led to a tremendous surge
in poker interest, especially tournament
No-Limit Texas Hold'em. Two of the best
known professionals on the tournament
circuit, Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier
once again join forces to provide their
insights on how to handle certain situations
in Limit and No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournaments.
Championship
Tournament Practice Hands is divided
into three sections. The first, primarily
written by Tom McEvoy, focuses on Limit
Hold'em situations. The second, primarily
written by T.J. Cloutier, deals primarily
with No-Limit Hold'em tournament play,
although some Pot-Limit examples are mixed
in here. The third section examines the
play of some key hands that have come
up over the years in the World Series
of Poker.
Each
of the first two sections categorizes
the situations they cover by starting
hand. Both authors are known for playing
in a tight, solid style, and this is reflected
in the advice they give. While many other
tournament players play a wild, hyper-aggressive
game, McEvoy and Cloutier prefer to gamble
less. They intend to play solid poker
and wait for the right situation rather
than continually forcing the issue. Both
can be used to effect, as the authors
readily admit, but only their method is
given serious consideration in this book,
which is only appropriate.
One
place in which I was disappointed with
the authors' discussions is the focus
on starting hands. While it's important
to understand the dangers of playing hands
such as A-J out of position, I found the
authors' analysis of play on later streets,
when it is provided, to be more insightful
than their commentary on starting hands.
I believe this is because there is comparatively
little information available early in
the hand compared to later streets from
which to assess the situation. In any
case, I would have liked to have seen
more later street examples. At the same
time, in tournaments, especially during
the late stages, someone is quite often
all-in before the later streets occur,
which is a major difference between tournaments
and money games. So perhaps this is the
reason the authors emphasize decisions
made early in the hand.
Another
complaint I have is that the authors seem
to me to be a little bit inconsistent
in their starting hand requirements. Consider
one example from their discussion of two-gap
suited hands (e.g., T-7 suited) in Limit
Hold'em. They first say that this is a
trap hand that one should avoid playing,
even from the Big Blind in for a single
raise. Just two pages later, they say
that such a hand can and should be played
under the same circumstances. Warning
that such a hand can easily become a problem
for a player is entirely appropriate,
but I would like to see more effort made
to ensure that there is a consistent message
throughout the book.
One
more thing that concerned me was the near
fixation with holding fives and tens in
a hand as a blocker to opponents' straights.
While it is certainly true that one can't
make a straight without using either a
ten or a five, I believe this is a less
useful concept than this book might indicate.
For example, one makes (and blocks) as
many straights by eliminating all nines
from the deck as one does by eliminating
either all the tens or all the fives.
Further, jacks or fours are required for
four possible straights (each), almost
as many as the five that include tens
or fives. Finally, we're talking about
eight cards, of which only two can be
in one's hand, meaning that six of these
cards are still available, which is a
high percentage. Perhaps this is concept
might be more useful in Omaha, but I believe
it's of marginal value at best in Hold'em.
On the other hand, these two authors have
racked up a lot more tournament poker
wins that I have, so the reader should
feel free to listen to them and ignore
me.
The
last section of the book contains analysis
of some interesting and famous poker tournament
confrontations, almost entirely from World
Series of Poker tournaments. While many
of the explanations provide some significant
poker insight, a fair number of them feel
to me that they have been chosen more
for their bad-beat factor than because
they contain valuable lessons. The section
is entertaining, but I would have hoped
that it would contain more hands worthy
of deeper analysis than there actually
were.
While
Championship Tournament Practice Hands
does contain quite a bit of good advice,
and while the lessons the authors impart
are well worth learning, I would have
to say that overall I was a little disappointed
with the book. I guess I was expecting
some stronger insight, especially about
situations that deserve deeper thought
than most of what they discuss. I don't
think this effort is a bad book, I was
just hoping for a bit more.
Capsule:
In
Championship Tournament Practice Hands,
well-respected tournament professionals
Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier describe
the play of various hands in Limit and
No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournaments. While
the book does contain some good and useful
information, I found that it lacked a
consistent message and didn't contain
as many insightful explorations of really
interesting hands as I would have hoped.
They do give some good advice, but not
much that hasn't been discussed already.
Some players, especially those new to
tournament Hold'em, will likely learn
something of value from these pages, and
the third section on famous hands from
the World Series of Poker is entertaining,
so there does exist a significant audience
out there that will likely find this book
worthwhile.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
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