Poker books questions

[superwomble]

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, I did do some searching but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.

I've just got the 3 Harrington on Holdem books, and have noticed there is a recent 'sequel' called Harrington on Modern Tournament Poker.

I had been told that the first 3 used to be essential reading, but now are too dated. Would you say this is true, or are they still worth reading? And is the new book worth getting?

I was also told that a less dated, possibly better strategy-wise, series is the Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker series by Jonathan Little. I've not heard of these before, has anyone got any thoughts on them and how useful they are nowadays?

On a slightly different note, I have recently started playing in a poker league. We usually get 10-14 players or so, so play 2 tables until we get to 8 players, then go down to one. Starting stacks are 2500, blinds start at 25/50 and they double every 20 minutes. Is there a particular book that would help for a tournament structure such as this?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[bergeroo]

Dan Harrington has cashed in two tournaments in the past four years. I have no idea what he knows about 'Modern Tournament Poker'? But I haven't seen him grinding the Big 55.

The Winning Poker Tournaments one hand at a time series is good as it is written by good players who at least in the case of Apestyles and Pearlhammer, still play. I found the Elky book really interesting and insightful. I've heard people say they like the Jonathan Little books. But I have no idea why anyone would buy books anymore when training sites will accelerate your learning way quicker.

The tournament you are describing seems like a turbo, therefore I would also recommend the Kill Phil series of books for the push/fold strategy.

[superwomble]

Thanks for the reply. Will have a look at the ones you recommend too.

With regards reading books instead of watching training vids, I just prefer to learn that way. Plus I can read books at work but I can’t watch vids!

Apologies though, I made a slight mistake with the blinds for the league tourneys. We start at 25/50, go to 50/100 after 20 mins, then 100/200 after another 20 mins.  After another 20 mins we then get a 1500 add-on and blinds go up to 200/400. We then have 15 minute levels, first changing to 300/600, then 400/800, 500/1000 and so on.

Does that make any difference to recommendations? I wondered if Moshman’s Sit N Go Strategy might be a good one as we have so few players and only have two tables until we’re down to 9 players. At what point does a SNG become a MTT?!

[Rexas]

An MTT is a multi-table tournament, and so any tournament with more than one table is an MTT. A Sit N Go is a tournament which has a required number of players for it to start. In other words, a certain number of players must "sit" before the tournament can "go". As such, technically, your local league tournament is never a sit n go, because it doesn't have a fixed number of players. It used to be that sngs where mainly 1 table STTs (single table tournaments), but this is now not the case, as sngs can contain any number of players between 2 and 990 on stars alone.

However, in terms of strategy, Sit N Gos tend to be much shorter than mtts, starting with shorter stacks and with more significant blind increases. This is not always the case, but most sng strategy is based around this being a fact. As someone who is now playing a fair few sngs, studying nash charts and icm information, and having a basic understanding of these theories, will put you a long way ahead of anyone else at the table.

I actually started my poker career in a pub league, and from my own experience, remember to enjoy it? I got so wrapped up in learning the game that I often forgot that. It's probably impossible to beat the game you're playing (i.e. make a profit) given travel costs, buying food/drinks while you're there, and rake. So relax! If you really wanna learn the game, get yourself signed up to a poker site, pick a format of the game you enjoy, and get playing. Experience is just as useful as reading the strategy stuff, and pretty much all of the biggest lessons in poker I've learnt so far have come from experience.

Books wise, I don't really know, but anything reasonably modern to do with sng strategy and the maths of poker will help you out a lot. Good luck!

[Rexas]

O, and I'd also recommend looking at the PHA, and posting any hands you're unsure about and asking questions of anything you don't get. There are some really good players on there who for the most part are happy to take the time to answer any questions you might have

[George2Loose]

You're playing in a pub. Screw maths- just call them down when they've had 6 pints

[nirvana]

I actually started my poker career....

Pretty grand :-)

[superwomble]

You're playing in a pub. Screw maths- just call them down when they've had 6 pints

Most of them drive there, the others don't drink more than 2 or 3 pints! Very wide range of abilities from total fish to decent players.

Thanks for the reply Rexas, will take that on board.

[Rexas]

I actually started my poker career....

Pretty grand :-)

I know, they are aren't they

[vegaslover]

Whilst dated, if you play at the lower end of the market and haven't done much reading before, they will be a useful addition as they have good fundamentals ( something you dont generally find at the lower levels, especially live)

Forget Moshman for your local league, I would say it is way too advanced for the pub crap shoots.
Just play a few micro sit n gos online, you will soon pick up push/fold strategy and basic icm.

Watch and learn how the players play, with such small fields you will soon have em all eating out ya hand!!

[Sulphur man]

You get some good advice here. I posted when you put it up but looked up and it was all in capital letters except for the first letter so I gave up. Deuces cracked or Poker Tournament Edge try either of those. Book wise I have a shelf full the ones I took the most from are Jared Tendler's mental game of poker, Tommy Angelo elements of poker and I recently enjoyed Daniel Negreanu small ball just don't let anybody know hey.

For the past seven year's there has not been one point where I have not felt my game has improved loads from month to month, you just keep improving and improving. I would also add that if you are really serious and have the money coaching is in my opinion the very best way to improve. Jamie Burland coached me for a period of time and that really opened my eye's and was the fastest period of improvement yet. Best of luck met. Oh and as Rexes rightly points out just enjoy the game don't lose sight of that. Get as much played as you can and be sensible money wise. See you at the felt.

[superwomble]

Apologies for the late reply but thanks again for the further posts, all useful. I think one of the main areas I need to improve on is definitely watching how the other players play - my memory is so bad for stuff like that though!

[superwomble]

Dan Harrington has cashed in two tournaments in the past four years. I have no idea what he knows about 'Modern Tournament Poker'? But I haven't seen him grinding the Big 55.

The Winning Poker Tournaments one hand at a time series is good as it is written by good players who at least in the case of Apestyles and Pearlhammer, still play. I found the Elky book really interesting and insightful. I've heard people say they like the Jonathan Little books. But I have no idea why anyone would buy books anymore when training sites will accelerate your learning way quicker.

The tournament you are describing seems like a turbo, therefore I would also recommend the Kill Phil series of books for the push/fold strategy.

Picked up a cheap copy of Kill Phil off ebay but it doesn't have the strategy cards with it. Don't suppose anyone has these and could send me copies please, or knows where I could get them?

[vegaslover]

Dan Harrington has cashed in two tournaments in the past four years. I have no idea what he knows about 'Modern Tournament Poker'? But I haven't seen him grinding the Big 55.

The Winning Poker Tournaments one hand at a time series is good as it is written by good players who at least in the case of Apestyles and Pearlhammer, still play. I found the Elky book really interesting and insightful. I've heard people say they like the Jonathan Little books. But I have no idea why anyone would buy books anymore when training sites will accelerate your learning way quicker.

The tournament you are describing seems like a turbo, therefore I would also recommend the Kill Phil series of books for the push/fold strategy.

Picked up a cheap copy of Kill Phil off ebay but it doesn't have the strategy cards with it. Don't suppose anyone has these and could send me copies please, or knows where I could get them?

I havent read killphil so do not know what the cards are but for push/fold Nash charts will probably do the job just fine.

[Rexas]

if you just google the book title with pdf after it, most of them are on the internet