Best Poker Books
Three Best Poker Books for New and Intermediate Players
This article will take a look at three of the best poker books ever written on texas holdem for cash game players.
1. Holdem Poker for Advanced Players
Written by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, this is the best overall book on texas holdem which is available. It covers basic and advanced strategic concepts including opening hand selection, position, with a strong focus on semi-bluffing and playing especially difficult hands. It is designed to be used by players in mid to high stakes games, although it is also useful reading for looser games like you would find in the casino. It also includes a very good section on short-handed strategy. It’s a must read book if you are planning to move up in limits and you already have a fairly good understanding of the game. I wouldn’t really recommend it for complete newbies, there are better books out there for new players.
2. Small Stakes Holdem: Winning Big With Expert Play
Written by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, and Mason Malmuth, this is the best available guide for beating low limit hold ‘em games. The book focuses on advanced strategic concepts such as pot equity, implied odds, and playing speculative hands. Although it’s geared toward small stakes players (obviously), even mid stakes players can pick up some useful tips from it, and add to their win rate. One big advantage of this book is that Miller is more forthright than most poker authors about describing the magnitude of certain errors many players make when playing hold ‘em, which makes it easier for the reader to absorb the information. It really is a must read for all texas hold ‘em players.
3. The Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How To Think Like One
Written by David Sklansky, this is easily the best book ever written on poker. Before this classic, poker books tended to be of the ‘how-to’ variety, and most were ineffective even at that task. Instead of telling you how to play a specific hand in a given situation, Sklansky instead highlights the theoretical concepts that apply to all forms of poker in all situations at the table. In the beginning section of the book, Sklansky states that he does not try to answer, “What do you do in this particular situation?,” Instead he attempts to get you thinking about what you should consider in particular situations before determining what to do. It includes extensive chapters on such vital ideas as position, free cards, semi-bluffing, bluffing, check-raising, raising, heads-up play on the last betting round, and much more. Don’t try to beat any difficult poker game without reading this book thoroughly. If you intend to play poker seriously at poker websites, you really need to own a copy and reread it many times.
Whilst there is a lot of literature on the subject of poker, you can’t go wrong with reading one or all of the books mentioned above. Your game will improve by leaps and bounds if you do.
