I hope everyone is having a great holiday season.  I haven’t posted anything with vacations and family but I have read a book I though I would post.

I recently came across the book The Frugal Gambler by Jean Scott.  Being a bonus chasing, rakeback loving cheapskate, I had to know if I could learn anything from this book for when I go to Las Vegas or the local casinos.

I read the first edition and the first thing I have to warn you is this book is old.  It was first published in 1998, so many of the specifics are very out of date.  There is a 2005 second edition which I would like to read to see how it is updated, but I suspect that will be fairly out of date as well.

The first thing one must do when reading this book is to read specifics as if they are anecdotes.  As I said earlier, this book is over 10 years old, and the second edition is over 5 years old.  A LOT has changed in Las Vegas where the majority of this book is written about.  Many of the promotions are long gone, video poker games and their pay tables have been tweaked, and her beloved Stardust is now actual dust.

If you approach the book in this manner there is quite a bit you can learn.  For starters, the casino looking for your money at every turn, use players club cards, coupon books, and promotions to make sure you are getting something back for patronizing a specific casino.  The house has an edge at almost everything so if you pick up on the ideas she champions you can lower the house edge or sometimes put it in your favor.

Another big point she makes is to ask, ask, ask.  Casinos have a lot of promotional dollars to earn and keep your business but if you don’t ask for it the casino does want to offer it to you when they feel they have your action anyway.  Ask about coupons and fun books, ask what it take to qualify for a free meal, show ticket, room.  You might not think as a low roller you can get anything but a yes will be a pleasant surprise because the casinos want to keep your action with them.

The money, freebies and bonuses won’t come easy for the low roller but they are there.

If you see value in picking up a nickel off the sidewalk or using coupons at the store you will love this book.

If you go to Vegas and get frustrated with your losses or think you are too small of a fish for the casino to care about, then this book has some important things to teach you.

If you go to a casino and think a free buffet, every other trip, is the best comp you can get, this book might surprise you.

Phil has written a quality poker book, but he tried to do a lot with it and the very first part that suffered was his coverage of position in the Hold’em section.  When you try to cover 6 different poker games, from set-up and blinds to intermediate and advanced theories including the pot limit, no limit and tournament variations in 386 pages, you too would have difficultly organizing all the material from start to finish.  By comparison Doyle Brunson took over 600 pages in Super System.

From the beginning of Play Poker Like the Pros Phil talks about the basics of Hold’em.  He introduces the blinds and the basics of how the game is set up.  This is first thing he should have skipped because  there are dozens of other beginner poker book out there, and you can tell from the start Phil does not wants to write another beginners book.

After Phil sets up the game he launches in his top 10 hands and tells beginners to raise with these hands at every chance pre-flop.  If he had assumed you knew the game he could have started there and worked on position from the start.  I don’t dispute how he advises to play the top 10 hands especially for beginners but almost all of his examples put you with no one to act after you post flop.  It is not bad advice, it is just missing a very important piece to help beginners understand why Hold’em works the way it does and help them take their game to the next level.

I think everyone would get more benifit from understanding Phil’s views on position as opposed to raising with 77 UTG and then capping if it is raised behind them.  There are many situations where you are behind or in a coin flip and out of position and going to lose 3 more big bets going to the river.  If you understand position you can get out this hand cheaper if you are behind, or win the 3 big bets or more when you are ahead.

Phil does mention position for beginners and his emphasis on position increases in the advanced section but this is where I think Phil falls fall short.  I do like how Phil divides his hands, the top 10 are good beginner hands, but they are even better if they are the “any position hands”.  I also don’t think the hands that Phil calls his Marginal Play hands are problems for beginners if he calls them his late position hands and teaches you how to play them from late position only.

If you are beginner to Hold’em, start with someone like Lee Jones (Review), or Matthew Hilger, or possibly Ed Miller.  If you have a solid poker understanding, then Phil’s perspective of Hold’em should have something for you.  I caution you get your game to that point before you read this book, some of the ideas are dangerous if you do not apply them properly.

I read Phil’s book and having never seriously played Omaha, Stud, or Razz online.  After following Phil’s beginner advice, I found 7 Card Stud to be a beatable game and plenty of other players not playing very well.  Phil’s beginner advice for Omaha High was also very helpful, and the games seemed to be fairly weak.  When it came to Omaha High/Low, I had some issues because there are players playing very weak hands and the redraws to better hands seem to always get there, also I did not have too many good starting low hands.  I will try that game again because I think you can win some large pots if you know what you doing.

I did not play 7 card Stud High/Low or Razz because while the games are played there were not enough players to find a full game.

I recommend Play Poker Like the Pros to players who have read a beginners poker book and understand Hold’em well enough to win at low limits.  If you play that well you will understand some of what Phil’s book is missing and the other parts will help and so the Hold’em section will add to your game.  If you have never played the other games, I think you can gain a lot from those sections but I don’t think the coverage goes anywhere beyond a beginners understanding of those games.

You can enter to win this copy of Play Poker Like the Pros.  All you need to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment to tell us of a good poker book you have read or plan to read.  If you tell us a book you have read, please tell us an important point that you learned and if you tell us book you plan to read then tell us why you have selected that book.  On December 1st, I will choose a comment at random and mail you this book to anywhere in the world for free.

This is the first book I read when I began to play online poker.  I understood poker, but I had never played anything more then a kitchen table game.  So I understood how to play poker in general but I knew nothing about what was good for Texas Hold’em. 

Winning Low-Limit Hold’em showed me what starting hands to play, when I was getting the right odds to draw, the importance of position, and how to play hands when I had the lead.

When I began playing online in 2004 the games were very loose.  As a result, you could get away with playing out of position and you almost always had the right odds to draw.   Lee’s information on starting hands and taking control of the hand taught me how to make a great profit at the low-limit game.

Recently, I reread the Third Edition of this book.  Lee has added information about playing No-Limit Sit and Go’s, and he has also revised some of his marginal points from the first two editions.  The first time I read this book it was the second edition and at that time I had very few preconceived notions about how to play hold’em let alone A5s in EP. (If you don’t understand what I am talking about in the last sentence, this book is EXACTLY what you need.)  Now with a greater understanding of the game, my first thought was this was not a perfect fit for my game, but I still found a majority of this book to be useful.  However, a few weeks after I read the book I noticed a few things that had improved in my game, such as the awareness of position.  So despite that fact I found myself mentally arguing with Lee about some points or how the games I play differ from the ones he talks about, I still found that I learned a lot and improved my game after reading this book again.

If you are just getting started playing hold’em this is a great book for you.  Some of the loose game specifics that Lee refers to, do not always exist at a $1/$2 or $2/$4 game online but $0.25/$0.50 and below…..this is perfect.

One word of caution, Lee talks about Low Limit Ring game hold’em and No-Limit Sit and Go’s.  While Lee tells you in both to play a tight aggressive game and take advantage of your position.  Make sure you understand that the strategies for one do not translate directly to the other.  I think the Sit and Go strategy is solid but I don’t feel it fits well with the other topics.  I also feel that after two editions when Lee has changed marginal points he then refers to the old advice to a point that might make it distracting for some new players and detract a bit from the topic.  Therefore I recommend the second edition over the third edition, but the third edition is still very good so don’t skip this book just because you cannot find a used copy.

What was the first poker book you have ever read?  Have you ever read it again?  How has that book helped your game?