allaboutpoker

Whether or not to call on the river in poker can be a difficult decision, but once you read this blog you should have a better idea what factors to consider when facing a river bet.

For this blog, we’re going to assume that you hold something which has some value, but is not worthy of betting or raising yourself.  Also, you don’t have enough of a hand to raise, and the circumstances don’t warrant attempting a bluff raise*.

The basic rule here is that if  your pot odds are better than your odds of winning, you should call, and if not, fold.

Suppose you hold one pair, aces, in a seven card stud game.  On the river, your opponent bets.  At this time, you notice that you are getting 4 to 1 odds.  Basically, if your hand  has a 20% chance of being best, you break even by calling here.  However, if you think there’s a 30% chance that your opponent has not made two pair, you must call, because your pot odds are better than your odds of winning. A 30% chance of winning equates to almost 2:1 odds against your having the winning hand.** Note that you’re getting far better than that from the pot tho.

In this situation, you will lose more often than you will win.  However, you will win so much more when you win, that you must call.

Here’s a hand I played a few years ago that once again showed the value of “calling for pot odds.”

No limit hold’em.  One player, Mr Agro, has been raising every pot preflop.  He ALWAYS bets if he makes one pair or better on the flop.  Preflop I have KQs in the big blind.   Agro raises and six players take the flop, which is T A 3 with one of my suit.  Everyone checks.

On the turn one of my suit hits.  It’s checked to Agro, who bets $20.  Two calls back to me.  I note my pot odds and I’m getting plenty enough to draw to my flush and gutshot straight.  Three see the river.

On the river, an offsuit deuce comes.  I check and Agro bets $40.  The third player folds and it’s back to me.  Note I only have king high here.  However, from the way Agro plays, I don’t think he has a pair, or he would have bet the flop.  I think he took a stab at the pot on the turn because of his extreme aggression.  It’s not that likely he actually caught anything here.

More importantly, I note the pot odds, which are 280:40, or 7 to 1.  There was $240 in the pot, plus his $40, and it cost me $40 to call. I figure that I’m good at least once in eight tries here, as I actually put him on QJ.  I call and he shows precisely QJ.  He flips out mad at me “how can you make that call?”  I just smile and take the chips, flipping the dealer a tip along the way.

Although there was some player and hand reading going on here on my part, the primary consideration I considered was my pot odds.  And I figured I would probably lose, but that there was more than enough to try for the longshot bluff-catching call, due to the large pot I would win if I was right.  It was cost effective to try, so I did.

Sometimes these calls are referred to as “peace of mind calls.”  Because folding on the river when you have the winner will make you very angry with yourself, but losing one more bet won’t.

We’re going to discuss more about playing on the river in the future, including overcalling, inducing bluffs, bluffing, and more.

PokerGuru

* by the way, the bluff raise should be an extremely rare  play if you play well.

** in time you should learn how to convert percentages to odds, and vice versa

In limit hold’em there’s a play you should frequently use called the free card play.  Basically what you are going to do is to raise the flop with a draw in late position, attempting to get everyone to check to you on the turn, thus allowing you to check behind.  The “free” card play is somewhat of a misnomer, because in reality you’re raising on the cheaper round in order to get a freebie on the more expensive round. The play would more accurately be called the “less expensive card play,” but that doesn’t have much of a ring to it!

Here’s an example of the use of this play:

You call on the button with 9s8s after four other players call.  The small blind calls as well and the big blind checks.  Seven see the flop for one bet each.

The flop comes 2s 4d Js giving you a flush draw and a backdoor straight draw.  The SB bets and two players call.  This is a good time to use this play.  You raise, and the other players call, four players remain.  [Note: often times this free card play will also be a value raise play, which makes it even better]

The turn comes the 3d.  Now the SB and both other players check to you.  You check behind.

What you have done is to pay an extra small bet on the flop in order to save a big bet on the turn.   This has allowed you to pay less overall money to see the river card, which you were going to do anyway with that flop.

The best times to use this play are when you have a good draw, are in last or almost last position, there is an early position bettor and several callers, and this play also has a raising for value component.  Flush draws and open ended straight draws are the most common holdings which call for a free card/value raise play.

Weak draws such as gutshot straight draws are not usually candidates for this type of play, because you will cut your own odds down so far as to make it unprofitable to continue.  We’ll talk more about gutshots in another future blog.

Another time when you don’t want to use this play is when the bettor is in late position and you are next to act, but there are multiple other players in the pot.  This is because the  savings you get by getting a free card on the turn don’t make up for the value you’ll lose if you drive several other players out of the pot when you have a good or great draw.

If you try this play and get reraised, you’ll obviously have to call, but sometimes you should reraise again.  This situation occurs when your reraise also constitutes a further value raise.  In our example, suppose instead of calling, the small blind reraised you again, and then once again, everyone called.  You should cap it (in a four bet max game).  You’re getting value on your draw, but once again, you might get a free card on the turn if the small blind becomes hesitant.

The basis of this play is essentially this: if you were going to call a small bet on the flop and a big bet on the turn anyway, it will be less expensive to see the river if you raise the flop and get a free card on the turn (2 small bets instead of 1 small and 1 big bet).

Of course if you try this and make your flush on the turn, bet away!  The beauty of this is that your flush isn’t completely obvious now as it will be if you take the free card on the turn, then make your flush on the river, and you might get paid off by someone who’s drawing dead.

That’s the free card play in a nutshell, don’t be afraid to use it!

PokerGuru

OK, here’s the next installment of our KQs hand, but today we’ll discuss raising for value.  It’s the same hand and the same action, but a different take on what we’re doing here.

You hold KsQs and call a raise in the BB after multiple players call.  Six players take the flop, which is Kd 2s 4s.

(note there are now 12 small bets in the pot)

The preflop raiser is very solid.  You bet and another player calls, then the preflop raiser raises again.  Two players call the raise, you reraise, get called again, and the raiser caps it.  Both other players call, you call, five players left.

(note there are now 27 small bets in the pot)

OK.  Here is the new concept for today’s discussion: raising for value.  You flopped top pair, good kicker, and thus a bet is  in order.  There’s a caller and a raise, then two more callers.  That’s four opponents likely to finish the round, yet your chance of making the flush by the river is only 1.86:1 against.  You know you’ll be going to the river here, no matter what comes, and that no amount of turn betting is likely to get you to fold.  Reraise.  Hope your opponent caps and everyone calls.  Getting the money in now, while you’re holding a terrific draw, plus there’s some chance you might have the best hand, is a great idea.

The turn comes the 2h.  You check, the preflop raiser bets once more.  The other two opponents call, you call, the last player folds, four players.

(note there are now 35 small bets in the pot)

There is no need to continue raising on the turn, because now your chances of making the flush have dropped.  However, you’re still getting great pot odds.  Some case could be made for betting again here, but given the situation, I’d probably check/call the turn.

The river is irrelevant.  Bet if it’s a spade (unless that spade puts two pair on the board). Otherwise check/call no matter what card it is.

You must get value on your draws, and raising the flop with a flush draw can often be a great way to do this.  We’ll discuss more about raising with draws in a later blog.

PokerGuru

I’m going to use the limit hold’em hand in this example in two blogs, to illustrate two different concepts, raising for value, and calling on the river.  Today we’ll do calling on the river.

A basic concept that’s critically important in poker is calling on the river.  By the time you have gotten that far in a game like hold’em or stud, where the pot is often large or very large, you usually can’t fold to a river bet unless you are very certain to be beaten.  This is because the chance of your having the best hand does not need to be very large in order to justify calling based on the pot odds.  Let’s take a hold’em example to show what I mean…

You hold KsQs and call a raise in the BB after multiple players call.  Six players take the flop, which is Kd 2s 4s.

(note there are now 12 small bets in the pot)

The preflop raiser is very solid.  You bet and another player calls, then the preflop raiser raises again.  Two players call the raise, you reraise, get called again, and the raiser caps it.  Both other players call, you call, five players left.

(note there are now 27 small bets in the pot)

The turn comes the 2h.  You check, the preflop raiser bets once more.  The other two opponents call, you call, the last player folds, four players.

(note there are now 35 small bets in the pot)

The river is the Ad.  You check, and your opponent bets.   The other two players fold.

You have missed the flush.  You flopped top pair, but at this point your opponent has played his hand like he can beat top pair, queen kicker.  The ace on the river is not the card you wanted to see, not by a longshot.  It doesn’t look good, but if you ever consider folding here, you’re nuts.   You’re getting 18:1 on your bet, which means you need about a six percent chance of having the best hand to break even on your call.  Folding would be insane!  All you need is one such pot like this one and you’ll understand how great it feels to make a terrific call on a large pot like this one.  However, if you fold here, then your opponent turns up something like KJ, you’re going to hate yourself!

Just because it appears you are beaten does not make it correct to fold.  You need to figure your chances of being beat versus the pot odds you’re getting if you call, and then make your decision.  When the pot is very large, you need a very small chance of winning to make calling the right play.  Remember, calling when you’re beat here costs you one bet, but folding the best hand would cost you 18 bets!  These “peace of mind calls” are vitally important.

Next blog will show another aspect of this hand, raising for value.

PokerGuru

Poker is a game of egos, and television hasn’t helped matters any.  There are many players out there who think they know it all, think they’re better than everyone, and will loudly proclaim it to anyone who will listen.  Sometimes these players are obnoxious and abusive to the other players, dealer or staff.  Here are some tips to dealing with these problem players.

If you can, switch tables.  Usually when there’s an obnoxious player in the game, they will cause enough tension to make the other players tighten up (because nobody wants to lose to a jerk).  Thus the game is likely to not be very good, and not very fun either.  Thus switching tables is probably a good idea.  And remember, if you have no other choice as to which game to play in, leaving a lousy game is always better than continuing to play in a lousy game!  There will be more poker somewhere else, at a later time.

If you are unable to change games, which would be the case in tournaments, there are some ways you can deal with obnoxious players.

Don’t let them get under your skin.  Allowing an obnoxious player to get you emotionally upset will only cloud your mind and prevent you from making good decisions.  Ignore their tauntings, musings and abusiveness and just make your choices based on your knowledge of poker and assessment of the situation at hand.

Keep in mind that seriously obnoxious players are often very aggressive, and thus you must adjust to their play.  If someone is playing super aggressively, you’ll have to lower your standards somewhat when playing against them.  You’ll also have to be prepared to raise and reraise to isolate them when they’re being too aggressive with weak hands. You cannot fear them, nor can you let their excessively aggressive play cause you to become too cautious or adjust your own play in a way that forces you to play less than optimally.

Also keep in mind that some obnoxious players are full of hot air, but are actually playing quite well.  Just because someone’s a jerk doesn’t mean they are playing overly aggressive poker.  In fact, they may be playing very well, but using verbal banter to try and get their opponents to play worse.  Always assess someone on what they do, rather than just what they say.

Never let someone’s verbal banter get into your head when you’re in a hand!  Certain players will ask you questions… “you got the flush draw?”, “Big slick, eh?” etc etc… just ignore them.  Do not give them the reactions they are looking for in order for them to draw a conclusion about what you hold.  Don’t react… it’s far better than reacting and giving away what you hold.

The crux of the biscuit here?  Don’t play with jerks who are pissing you off.  And if you’re in a tournament where you cannot quit or change tables, don’t let them get under your skin!  The short version is every bit as good as the long version here!  But you will eventually appreciate this advice if you play long enough…

PokerGuru

When choosing which game to play, you should consider a number of factors, which I will discuss in today’s blog.

I’ve already discussed the size of the game you should play in, so now I’ll discuss the things you should look at when choosing between different games of the same size.  Although you usually won’t get a choice when you first get seated, if you’re sure which game you want to play in, just ask for the first available table change when you are seated.  Make sure you know what table number you wish to change to, as this makes things run more smoothly.  If you’re uncertain, it doesn’t hurt to ask for a table change anyway, then perhaps turn it down when offered if you wind up liking where you’re at.

The first thing you should look at is the average pot size in a particular game.  You’ll need to watch a few hands and see how many people are staying in each pot, and for how long. It’s an average, a rough estimate, not an absolute measurement.  If all the pots are small, with few players, you should be looking to find a better game.  You want medium to fairly large pots, as these are usually the easiest and most profitable games to play in.

Games with extremely large pots may or may not be for you.  First off, you should see just how the pots are getting so large.  Are there many players staying in to the end, or are there a few players who are doing lots of raising?  Lots of raising means extreme aggression, which is a whole different animal from a typical “good game.” Next, consider that large pots will surely be contested more fiercely, and thus you won’t have any opportunities to bluff.  You will need the best hand to win, and you’ll always have competition to the end. Also, you can expect to have large fluctuations in these games, and thus you’ll need to be prepared to buy-in for more money.

Next you should consider the players in the game.  Are there happy, loose players?  Or are they silent, serious, tight ones?  Are they drinking?  If so, how much?  What’s the mood at the table?  Happy, fun tables tend to be good games.  Serious, quiet games tend not to be.  Chatty, talkative games are usually good.  Games with no conversation, other than perhaps someone engaging in questionable table talk, are poor ones.

When you’re watching a table, see what hands get shown down.  If someone is clearly playing poorly, take note, especially if there’s more than one.  Same as if you see one or more players who clearly know what they are doing.

When you’re at a game, if it’s a great game, pay attention and learn what you can learn in order to increase your expected value in the game.  However, if you’re in a so-so game, or a good game that turns bad, feel free to get up and walk about between hands, and check out other games.  You may see a loose player has arrived, some formerly cautious players have been drinking and thus become loose, or something has changed to make a previously unappealing table more appealing.  In this case you may now wish to change tables, thus you should ask the brush or floorperson for a table change.

If you decide that the game you’re in just plain sucks, or moreover that the game you’re in sucks and none of the other games available to you are worth bothering with,  QUIT.  Whether up or down, the best move you can ever make is to quit a game when you no longer have a good reason to stay.

More advanced aspects of game selection will be discussed in future blogs.

PokerGuru

The most important thing there is in poker is realism.  Be realistic.  If you are realistic, there is hope for you to have a long and plentiful life of enjoyment out of poker.  If you’re not realistic, there is only gloom and doom in your poker future.

Realism comes in many forms in the world of poker.  You need to be realistic about your skills, the skills of the competition, the amount of money you’re putting at risk, the structure and cost of the game, and a variety of other factors.

Your skills are the first and foremost thing you need to be realistic about.  If you go back and read my blog entitled “The Question” you’ll start to see what I’m talking about.  And you need to be realistic about your skills, your answer to the question, and every other aspect of what you’ve learned about poker so far.  If you’re a beginner who’s worked your way through two poker books, but wants to join myself and nine of my most skilled poker buddies for a nine-handed game of no-limit Texas Hold’em, you’re fooling yourself!  It’s unrealistic!  If you cannot see this on your own, you’re NOT ready to succeed in poker!

And let’s get one thing clear: success in poker does NOT mean making millions as a professional on TV.  Success in poker means that you have a lifetime of fun and make a profit along the way.  At least that’s my definition of successful poker play.

The skills of your opponents are important.  You MUST be able to reasonably assess how skilled your opponents are, hopefully before you sit at the table with them.  However, if you wind up at a table and discover you’re outclassed, you should LEAVE.  It’s nothing shameful to realize you’re outclassed, it’s more of a mark of skill to recognize these situations and opt-out while you still have money left!  Even playing at a game of people who are almost, but not quite as good as me, I might realize that the rake is going to eat us all up, and realize that this is not the game to play in.  The skill to recognize when you’re outclassed is not something that can be taught overnight, but is essential to your success.

In tournaments you can’t leave the game if you’re outclassed.  Thus you must be realistic when entering tournaments as to which ones you SHOULD enter in the first place!  Whether you can afford it or not, you should NOT enter a tournament where everyone is a better player than you, because you have just allowed yourself to take a negative EV bet.  This might mean that when you’re in Vegas, your tournament dollar limit is $120 per tournament, or whatever.  It takes skill and practice to figure out these things, but if you start small and work your way up slowly, the skills will come with time.

If you want to know the truth, in the city of Las Vegas, I don’t enter no-limit Hold’em tournaments that cost more than $1000 to enter, because I no longer figure to have a high enough EV to beat the house fees (rake).  During very busy times, I might change this policy to entering slightly larger tournaments, but basically I’m realistic in knowing that I perform best in tournaments that have 100-200 people, with entry fees of $100-$500.  If H.O.R.S.E. tournaments were more popular, I would enter higher priced tournaments of this type, but these tournaments are so rare that in Las Vegas the only ones I typically enter at the $300 or $500-ish tournaments that happen during the Venetian’s Deep Stack events.

The previous paragraph shows one thing… I’m REALISTIC about my play.  I’m NOT the greatest poker player of all time, and don’t care to try for such a distinction.  However, I’m realistic, and I will remain successful throughout my life by maintaining realism and not playing above my skills or bankroll.

-Fin!

OK, someone has suggested that I do a weekly question/answer blog type party setup.  I’m considering doing just this in the future.  If you have any suggestions on the matter, please do elaborate in great detail!

-PG

The cheating scandal at absolute poker that caused a huge stir in the online poker world opened some eyes about the possibility, and in all  likelihood, the reality of cheating in online poker.  Here’s a good link regarding this story:

http://www.poker-king.com/poker-king-articles.php?article=282

The absolute scandal was a major cheating scam, but that doesn’t mean it was the only one.  Problem number one with any online poker site is that online poker is not legal in the USA, and therefore all online poker sites are based overseas, often in Costa-Rica (which is where absolute poker is based).  Well let’s just say that the Costa-Rican government is probably not especially thorough in regulating the many online poker companies that are being run from their country.  It’s not likely to be much better in other countries, although European based countries may have better regulation.  I’m not going to recommend any online poker sites  because I’ve already stated that I don’t play online anymore, and recommend to my readers that they don’t either!

There are far more common and more problematic issues when it comes to cheating.  The most obvious of all is that this is the age of cell phones.  What’s to stop someone from calling up their buddy and sharing information?  Nothing, actually.  Although not especially useful in the early stages of tournaments, if two or more players make it to the later stages and wind up at the same table, this sharing of information could give them a nearly insurmountable advantage.  This type of situation could be even more pronounced in a ring game, and undoubtedly happens all the time.

Online poker sites do take measures to prevent this, but for every measure taken, cheats will figure out a way around it.  The IP addresses of each player are monitored to see if the same players are constantly at the same tables, and the hand histories can be looked at any time that cheating may be occurring.  The problem however, is multifaceted.  Players often have several accounts, despite the sites not allowing this.  The players may have several computers, several locations, and many people involved.  Imagine trying to play against a team of players who are sharing information… you’re doomed from the start.  And if these team players are sophisticated poker players you’re in even more trouble, especially if they’re also sophisticated computer users.  In addition, these smart cheaters are probably cheating out of dozens of sites, thus making tracking them down even more difficult.

The sites themselves sometimes screw players out of money.  I’m not even going to mention specific sites, but it’s happened before, and it will happen again.  Players deposit money and never see it again.  Sites go bankrupt or simply get a bunch of deposits, then keep the money and shut down.  What you gonna do about it, fly to Costa-Rica?  This has been less of a problem or no problem with the largest, most successful sites, but even then, getting your money out can sometimes be quite problematic.

You’ll need something like Paypal to do your online transactions easily, and even then it’s not always that easy.  Add in the ban on internet gambling that occurred a few years ago, and you wound up with enourmous sums of money tied up for long periods of time, the owners unable to cash it out.  I cannot comment as to the exact state of the online gambling situation now because I no longer play online, the reasons for which I’m explaining in these blogs.

Yet another concern in the online poker world is bots.   These are computer programs that are meant to play a positive expected value game without being controlled by an actual person.  They rely on computer programs that have winning strategies and can play all by themselves.  Poker sites go to great lengths to keep bots off their sites, but cheats go to even further lengths to figure out how to get around these safegards. While a good poker player will be able to beat these bots, they surely won’t get much out of them, but the real problem is that you wouldn’t even know who they were.  I’m a very good and experienced player, but I have no desire whatsoever to play against a table full of bots.  Most bots rely primarily on a preflop strategy which will be so difficult to beat that the rake would eat me up if I tried to play against a table full of them.

• Update -  How ironic that as soon as I published this post, I see an advertisement for a poker bot program on my own blog.  **  I guess I’ve been out of the online poker scene for a while now!  Still, nothing I have said about bots is different, except that they may be more common now than they were in the past, and sites may not even be blocking them at all (probably they gave up trying because it was an impossible task).  You can’t beat the bots.  That statement may be arguable, but you’re better off just taking my word for it.

Yet another concern is programs that players may have to be able to see the hole cards of other players.  While internet sites don’t send the information of other people’s cards to your computer, sophisticated hackers are trying to figure out how to get this information anyway.  The biggest concern here is a super-user account like the one involved with the absolute poker scandal.

With all the uncertainty and difficulty of online poker, I once again strongly recommend that my readers just don’t play online.

Am I saying that all poker sites are cheating? Definitely not.  Poker sites rely on trust to get business, and most will go to great lengths to ensure their games are fair.  However, there are lots more cheats than there are security personelle, and the cheats have all the time in the world to figure out new ways to cheat.

Do I think cheating occurs online?  Absolutely.

PokerGuru

** Keep in mind I do not control which ads are posted on any of my pages, and do not endorse anything in those ads. If you have a question about a specific ad, feel free to contact me and I’ll look into it and give you an answer.

Years ago I made the majority of my income playing poker, most of it online.  I even worked as a prop (player who is paid by the house to sit in games) and as a security agent.  I was a strategic hand history analyzer, not a computer security expert.  I played on approximate 20 sites and played as a prop on eight sites.  Please don’t ask me which sites I worked for, because I’m not going to put that in print!

Back in the days I played online, the games were easier, much easier.   However, even back then, the games online were much harder than the same limits would be in a casino.  $3-$6 limit hold’em is often the smallest casino level game available, and you can expect this game to be full of loose, inexperienced players.  To find a game with similarly loose an inexperienced players online, I would need to play 50c-$1.00! On a huge site like party poker I was able to find similarly easy games at the $1-$2 level as well, but on smaller sites, forget it.  I say I was able to find easy games, but this required considerable game selection, the topic of a soon to be published blog.

The reason smaller sites tended to have tougher games at smaller levels was that they employed props.  Props are players who are paid by the house to sit in games and keep the tables full.  Typically a prop will be paid by getting all or part of the rake back from pots that they have won.  A prop player can’t sit all day in a full ten handed ring game, they are there to keep the short tables going. Therefore these players tend to be quite good at short handed play!  The bottom line is that props who aren’t good poker players don’t last long, because the rakeback they receive from the site won’t be enough to cover their losses over time.  Thus, only good poker playing props remain.

Most sites use props or have used props in the past.  It is almost impossible for an upstart site to get games going without props.  However, once a site gets big, they will no longer need them, as there are always plenty of players available for starting and maintaining games.

Another reason online poker is so difficult is that everyone who plays online gets a lot of experience quite quickly.  Online poker is fast, sometimes nearly twice as fast as live poker.  New players often have a tough time keeping up with how fast things go online.  However, the speed means each player plays many, many hands.  You could easily play thousands of hands in a single day if you had more than one table going at a time.

Multi-tabling is playing more than one table at at time.  In fact, I used to play up to six or seven limit hold’em tables at once, or three to four no-limit hold’em tables.   When I was playing seven card stud, or seven card stud high/low split eight-or-better, I would play a maximum of two tables, but usually just one, due to the need to concentrate on watching other people’s upcards.  Also, as the stakes would go up, I would have fewer tables open, due to the games and decisions being tougher.  Some players have far more tables open than I would play, in fact I’ve watched someone play 15 games of limit hold’em at one time!  This requires that the site have good software and you have a big computer screen.  It also requires that you make very fast and accurate decisions. Multi-tabling online is NOT for beginners!

These days there are many more online players, and many more good online players.  The ones that started back when I started now have a decade of experience or more.  Everyone gets much better very quickly or they simply go bust, simple as that.  The popularity of poker on television has also sparked a huge jump in the sales and publishing of poker books, which many people are now reading.  Although some of the books are downright terrible, even the worst books are likely to improve your game a little bit.  However, some of the most popular books give very good advice, which is making the “average player” better and better every year.  This effect is seen to a much higher degree online than in live games.

In part II cheating, security and money handling will be discussed.

PokerGuru

If you are going to be a serious poker player, you’re probably going to need to read some poker books.  There are literally hundreds of poker books available today, some of which are good, some of which are terrible.  But how to know which ones are best for you?

The first thing you should realize is that just because someone is famous and on TV does not mean they are qualified to write a poker book!  Although certain professional poker players have in fact written good books, some of them have also written quite lousy ones.

Most poker books are not very fun and exciting to read.  They’re mostly boring, because poker strategy just isn’t that easy to make fun and exciting when you’re reading a book that’s 200+ pages long.  However, you need to get through certain key books, and comprehend their content in order to become a good player.

I’m going to recommend a few here that I know are good books.

Winning Low Limit Hold’em, 2nd Edition by Lee Jones - an excellent starter Texas Hold’em book for beginners.  Covers all the basics for limit Texas hold’em.  I highly recommend this book if you have never played in a casino before and want to learn Texas Hold’em.

Theory of Poker by David Sklansky -  Excellent book that covers the fundamentals of every type of poker, every basic poker play.  A difficult book to read, but an essential one.  You’ll probably need to re-read it several times, one or two chapters at a time.  Don’t try to digest this one quickly, it’s tough reading.

Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players, 21st Century Edition by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth - definitely a great book, but will be hard to digest if you haven’t read a beginning book like the Lee Jones book.

Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker -  An excellent book that helps you learn playing styles and player tendencies, excellent for beginning players, but not a substitute for strategy books like the Jones book.

Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning Big With Expert Play  by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, and Mason Malmuth - a book with exceptionally good strategic advice, but very difficult for a beginner to grasp.  Not for beginners.

Getting Started in Hold’em by Ed Miller - An excellent primer for no limit hold’em, and generally an all-around great book for beginners.

No Limit Hold’em: Theory and Practice by Ed Miller and David Sklansky - an absolutely essential book if you want to play no limit hold’em.  Difficult to digest, complex, along the lines of Theory of Poker.

Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, Expanded Edition by David Sklansky -  terrific book if you want to play tournaments.  This book expects that you have read several of the preceding books and fully understand the concepts.

Gambling Theory and Other Topics by Mason Malmuth -  Essential to understanding the basics of gambling and developing sound fundamental skills and practices.  Considerable information on poker is presented here, along with some tournament information and some general gambling information.

It should be noted that these books are all published by TwoPlusTwo publishing, except for the Lee Jones book.  The bottom line is that these books are IMO the best, and the ones I recommend.  This does not mean there are no other good books out there, just that these are the ones I am recommending to my readers.  If someone wants an opinion on a specific book they have or are considering purchasing, feel free to contact me and I’ll give you my opinion (or perhaps blog it)

PokerGuru