Best Tournament poker books

I once played a tournament against the best poker books in the world. All of them timed out and folded every hand.

Poker books are written by top tier players who are playing other top pros. Books build a solid foundation, but don’t be surprised when a lot of what you read fails in its application when playing casual players. It’s all about the application.

Read some, sure.

Then play more, observe more, adapt more… write your own books.

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I agree up to a point. Books are not useful unless they are addressing exactly the same kind of game that you are playing. Also a book is only as good as its reader is good at interpreting and implementing the ideas discussed.

I do find that Snyder’s books on tournaments are extraordinarily useful, because they seem to match up to the higher denomination RP tournaments.

By the way, your tip on how to adjust the amount of bets on RP by tapping the slider has been invaluable, and I have been on a winning streak since that discovery. Won back to back MTTs the day before yesterday, one MTT yesterday, one MTT tonight, and then finished third in the Widow’s Bite 5 million chip buy-in tonight after leading most of the final table and picked up consolation prize of 15 million, hit a new chip total high, and a new high in the RP rankings. So thanks.

So I could say that the most valuable tips of all come from reading this forum. I think I can reasonably say that I would not have won those tournaments if I was still playing just with the half pot and pot sized bets, but I suppose playing just with the presets is good training.

The problem with most books is that they probably address a different form of the game from what you are playing. I was berated by a top tournament player tonight because I called a preflop shove from AK with Q8 and won, but I pointed out that although AK is indeed the better starting hand, the disparity in stack sizes (he small, me big) made the bet worthwhile, and that anyway I had two live cards.

Most players on RP live and die by AK. If they shove those cards preflop and everyone folds, they proudly show off their cards. If their AK is cracked, then they sometimes depart throwing barbs about fish and donkeys calling the mighty AK with pocket 4s and 5s as if this is some form of lese majesty.

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Everyone has a book out about poker. You can only learn so much from a book because every situation is different because no one speaks about a players “ free will “ and “ common sense “ doesn’t anyone feel that experience is the best teacher ?

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Yes, absolutely. I am sure you did not win your billion chips by following instructions from a book. But where are you going to learn to play poker? From videos? I find books a lot more useful than videos.

But then I was watching a video the other day of, maybe, a semiprofessional player playing in a $1000 buy-in online tournament and finishing in the money, and the guy is mentioning all kinds of fairly sophisticated concepts as if they were common knowledge, and he must have learned it from somewhere. Perhaps if you grow up in Las Vegas and misspend your entire youth at the poker tables, then you just absorb it from the air.

Can’t find that video now, but it featured a rather chubby, rosy-cheeked young man. Will post a link if I find it. It was on my phone a couple days ago.

But, yes, you can learn a hell of a lot from experience and from trial and error, but then if you can find the same ideas in a book, then the material is more organized and sometimes the author provides further development and tweaks for the ideas discussed.

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Thank you for responding but what are we talking about actually, learning online or live poker tips from books. Huge difference in two different settings.

Just on the general value of books on poker: personally, I’ve found them hugely valuable. But I do think it takes a deep reading of a book, where you are asking “why” almost every sentence, and thinking about how ideas apply, or don’t apply, in various contexts… nothing really works that well as a recipe: follow these instructions and win all games. But as you get to the point where you are able to freely substitute ingredients, and can integrate the different components in a balanced manner while making subtle shifts everywhere based on the larger menu you’re preparing, and the ingredients available, then some tasty dishes emerge.

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What do you think is the best way to learn and improve your poker game, other than just OTJ (on the job) training?

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I guess since I’ve exhausted everything learning online and live the last step would be actually taking that 1 week intensive poker workshop for $10,000 and actually playing with the pros all week and learning with Doug Polk and Ryan Fee.

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That would be rather expensive compared to a book for playing on RP.

All of this for play money poker?
The 3 books I would recommend are the the series “Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time”.

By the way, I am not saying you shouldn’t read poker books. You should read and understand them before ignoring them.

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Also not really cheap for use on RP since buying all three volumes on Kindle will set you back most of $100. Would have been better vfm if they had just published it as one volume, but I guess they were trying to maximize their equity.

Can you really put a price on knowledge?

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Can you really put a price on knowledge?

Of course, people do it every day. The people who sell poker books do it. And there are many people in the world who will try to sell you knowledge that is of no use to you, because this is profitable for them.

You would not have got to the position where you have already won a billion play chips to your account in 6 years if you did not already have a very good grasp of the concept of overpaying for information or of obtaining value for money.

The book I recommend costs a hair under $10 on Kindle, and in my opinion would help most MTT players on RP to understand many basic concepts of tournaments and improve their game.

Of course we can put a price on knowledge. That’s the whole point of a market economy–paying someone for what they know (perhaps in how to make or grow something) or can do–to save ourselves the trouble of having to come up with every concept and application independently on our own.

Gentlemen, this Capitalism at its finest. No one would be in business if they didn’t make money. Online poker, card rooms, casinos.

Universities are the worst. Let’s put you in debt for the rest of your life but we will give you knowledge.

Isn’t the old saying “ you get what you pay for “ still hold true?

It takes 2 lifetimes to master poker.
I’ll be a paying student forever…

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