What to read to understand poker, the best game ever

In poker, as in life, the calculus of decision-making changes with each new piece of information. The goal—to make the best possible five-card hand—is simple; The road to get there is zigzag, changeable and changeable. Therein lies the majesty of sport, its appeal to writers, and its peril to readers. Surveying a poker bookshelf reveals an endless array of books that promise to turn the reader into a “fearful shark” or develop an “unbeatable strategy.” Really the only thing that makes any player good is to play and lose a lot. But that doesn’t mean the entire poker canon is meritless. Here are six of the best—that is, most instructive and enjoyable—books on the coolest game ever invented.

Poker Theory: A professional poker player teaches you to think like one. by David Sklansky. Two Plus Two Publishing; 316 pages; $29.95 and £29.95

Given that poker games are won in practice rather than theory, and that players these days have developed a “GTO strategy” (game-theory optimal, resulting in the fewest possible exploitable mistakes) apps, books, and articles You can choose from a range. A 36 year old book on poker theory What is the value of each hand and position? First, reading about theory provides an invaluable foundation. Think of poker as a foreign language. The goal of learning a language is to communicate, but before one can proofread, persuade, or write poetry, one needs to learn grammar and pronunciation first. And before one can bluff effectively, for example, it helps to understand the conditions under which bluffing typically works.

The theory provides players with a set of intellectual skills to develop. As David Sklansky points out, “Beginner poker players sometimes ask, ‘What do you do in this particular position?’ There really is no answer to that question because it is the wrong question… The right question is: ‘What do you consider in this particular situation before determining what to do.'” This book is clear, patient, thoughtful and Best of all, it’s advertising-free. Before he became a poker pro, Mr. Sklansky was a reserve and—in the best sense—he still writes and thinks like one. They don’t promise to turn you into an unbeatable shark. Instead, he makes a series of hands, and walks through the possibilities, asking when, why and how: When is the right time to bluff? Why should you play a certain hand from one position and not another? How should you use the opponent’s actions to “read” his hand? This book teaches players the right questions to ask.

Every hand was detected. by Gus Hansen. Kensington; 224 pages; $15.95 and £11.99

It’s a perfect companion to Mr. Sklansky’s book: it’s 100% practice with minimal theory or abstraction. Mr. Hansen, who has won more than $10 million playing poker, is known for his consistently aggressive play, and in this book he presents a hand-by-hand account of a tournament he won in 2007. This begins on the first day with a 5-7 spade hand that he limped into the pot (meaning he called a low bet but did not raise, he got to see three shared cards with not much money), and it continues on day four. The latter ends with him winning a showdown on the final hand, in which his pair of aces is won when his opponent fails to make a straight. That was Mr. Hansen’s 329th hand, and if you’re thinking that somewhere around the 250 page mark this book gets a little tedious, the answer is, alas, yes. On the other hand, as wonderful a game as poker is, playing it professionally involves a lot of folding, waiting and watching: that is, a lot of dullness. Mr. Hansen’s prose is serviceable, but fitting for a player known for his aggressiveness—provocative, exclamation marks are scattered throughout each page. But as an insight into how a professional thinks, day in and day out, it is peerless.

The Education of a Poker Player. by Herbert Yardley. Ishi Press; 142 pages; $18.95 and £11.95

This book starts the less instructive, more literary and entertaining section of this list. Yardley, who published this book in 1957 and died a year later, was one of the most interesting people ever to sit at the poker table. He began playing as a teenager in Worthington, Indiana, when his mother died, leaving him $200, after which he “did as much as I liked”. Like many successful sportsmen, he had a facility for mathematics; Unlike many, he was running a 160-person division of cryptanalysts at the State Department before his 30th birthday.

After the department was closed, Yardley wrote a few novels, and was then appointed by Chiang Kai-shek to oversee the communications of Japanese forces in China. He returned to America when World War II broke out, and spent the rest of his life in Washington, D.C., often playing poker with reporters at the National Press Club.

His book harkens back to the early days of poker, before game-theory optimization and televised tournaments, when it was infamous with danger—when it could still inspire sentences like this: “I beat the big Swede, Bons Alverson.” , saw a poor weather-beaten corn farmer bet the last of his farm against the tent show, only to die three minutes later, his leaves clutched in his hands—a winner. In Worthington Clear one of the seven that had poker rooms. The book is a series of charmingly Socratic dialogues about poker, with Monty as Socrates and much of the story. The entire book takes perhaps three hours to read, and Worth every second.

Biggest Game in Town. by Al Alvarez. Picador; 192 pages; $18. Bloomsbury; £12.99

In 1981, The New Yorker sent Al Alvarez, a British poet and critic, to Las Vegas to cover the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Today, the WSOP is a six-week-long, televised event held at two casinos on the Vegas Strip, attracting approximately 200,000 entrants in 2022 and a total prize pool of approximately $350m. But in 1981, it was held at the pokie Binions Horseshoe, off the Strip, and the main event—the no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament—attracted just 75 players. The winner took home $375,000.

The book is a portrait of the world of poker when it was neither as controversial as it was in Yardley’s time, nor quite as mainstream. Alvarez characterizes the game as deeply romantic, which is true for most players, especially most recreational players. It includes the stars he profiles, “because that’s how the poker pros saw themselves: as the ultimate of gunslingers, ready for a showdown with any stranger who dared take them on.” Alvarez is a terrible listener and profiler: Mr. Sklansky, for example, “is like one of Dostoyevsky’s intolerant student revolutionaries: broad face, trimmed beard, steely glasses, stylised clothes”. This is another quick, memorable read.

Cowboys Fool: The Story of Poker. by James McManus. Picador; 608 pages; $26.00. profile books; £14.99

James McManus’ first book, “Positively Fifth Street,” treads on Alvarezian ground. In 2000, Harper sent him to cover the World Series of Poker; Instead, he spent his advance on purchases, and did surprisingly well. It’s an engrossing read — Mr. McManus is a good storyteller and had a good story to tell, even if his prose is a bit windy and self-indulgent — but “Cowboys Fool” fills a void. It tells the story of poker from the very beginning (“Every organism needs to manage a series of life-or-death risks,” he writes, shortly before starting a discussion of Egyptian and Sumerian gambling). . From there he swiftly flies to China, Korea, Persia, Mughal India, Venice and France, but poker, and this book, really set foot in America. Mr. McManus is equally at home discussing history, literature, film and poker strategy. His book has a long series of delightful digressions, variable enough for each reader to choose a favorite story or character. Your correspondent is partial to David Shoup, the one-time Marine Corps commandant described by one reporter as a “squat, red-faced man with the neck of a bull.” A hard-boiled, profane shouter of orders “who relaxes by writing poetry and becomes “the most formidable poker player in his circle”, “able to stare opponents in the eyes “like two holes in a burnt blanket”. “.

Biggest Hoax: How I Learned to Focus, Control Myself, and Win. by Maria Konnikova. fourth Estate; 368 pages. $14.99. HarperCollins Publishers; £9.99

This is yet another book from another journalist who immersed himself in the world of professional poker in order to enter the WSOP. Unlike Messrs McManus and Alvarez, Ms Konnikova had no prior experience. Unlike them, she trained as a psychologist, and knows her way around social-science literature, making this book more didactic and combative than gonzo-macho. In his books, all that matters is success at the table. What matters to Ms. Konnikova is that she gained self-knowledge during this time. For example, every serious player can remember, and sometimes has, stories of “bad beats” when they made every decision correctly but still lost. His teacher, Eric Seidel—a balanced, intellectually curious, wildly successful professional athlete—warns him against that habit: Bad beats happen to everyone; What matters is making good decisions, and dwelling on the outcome means dwelling on things beyond one’s control. “Do we see ourselves as victims or winners?” she writes, considering his advice. A victim: The cards are stacked against me. Things are being done to me, things are happening around me, and I am neither to blame nor in control. A winner: I made the right decision. Sure, The result didn’t go in my favour, but I thought right under pressure. And that’s a skill I can control.” Poker is not a game of chance; It is a test of character.

At times this book may come too close to self-help for some readers. But few do a better job of conveying the implications of the lessons learned around the table to the world beyond.

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we wrote why poker is a game of skillNo chance, as well as keeping a poker face doesn’t matter if you can’t control yourself. hands and arms, simultaneously, investors can learn One of the best poker players in the world. Finally, consider the joys of teaching your kids poker (and keeping your money).

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