ITH Poker Forum

[Romez]

Hello to all,
So recently i read the mindset and had a crisis, the crisis was in the form of how little I truly know about poker, so I was wondering would anyone be able to give me a list of books starting from beginner level to advanced level, I want to go start from the beginning, and learn poker the correct way
thank you very much for your time
greatly appreciated
Romez

[Romez]

Hello to all,
So recently i read the mindset and had a crisis, the crisis was in the form of how little I truly know about poker, so I was wondering would anyone be able to give me a list of books starting from beginner level to advanced level, I want to go start from the beginning, and learn poker the correct way
thank you very much for your time
greatly appreciated
Romez

sorry forgot to add,
I want to play NL MTT, and eventually move to cash, NL
thank you very much

[sleepyEDB]

I'll recommend what I started with (and am still working on, actually!):

Tournaments: Harrington on Hold'Em - Volumes 1 through 3

Cash: Harrington on Cash Games - Volumes 1 & 2


I found the writing style to be very understandable and the end-of-chapter hand problems are great for visualizing and digesting the concepts. I recommend that you work through the problems one by one like they were story problems on a math exam; don't just read through them all at once or they probably won't sink in.

This is an example of how I work through the problems. I copy down the problem into a Word doc up to the point it asks me the question (the part in bold type) regarding the hand, at which point I type out my thoughts. Only then do I read the given answer, evaluate my thoughts, and then proceed to the next part of the problem.


sleepy

[Romez]

hey sleepy yea i started with Harrington, was wondering anything else that is specifically good out there that could really help me improve my game
many thanks

[Damien]

I want to play NL MTT

Winning Poker Tournaments Volumes I & II by Dimat featuring Rizen, Apestyles, and PearlJammer. TBH, I don't have Vol. II, but volume I was invaluable to me. It is all hand examples, giving you the thought process of the player pre-flop and on each street. They also take into account what stage of the MTT they are in, villains playing style (reads).... all sorts of concepts. At the end of volume 1, there is also a section where a single hand is analyzed by all three players, so you can get a feel for different ways to approach the same hand.

You should be able to purchase these right through ITH. I'm sure there's a link on the home page somewhere.

[chrisjp]

I think the two books published by Matthew and authored by Pearljammer, Rizen, and Apestyles are terrific. Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Vol 1 and 2. Also, I really like Gus Hansen's book Every Hand Revealed.

These books are advanced from Harrington and will help tremendously IMO if you have gotten all you can out of Dan.

Chris

[Romez]

thank you very much for all your help, will make sure to get around to all of those books for now ill work through all the 3 books by Harrington

[Perrygarl]

I am doing a challenge for myself, where later on I hope to delve into other poker formats, (first SNG, then CG, then MTT.)

I have based the books in that order, along with "General Theory"

General Theory

Beginner - Phil Gordon's Little Green/Blue Book - As much as I have seen forum posters slate the guy (not here, I don't know yet, only second post, mean 2+2 ^_^), I have to say his books helped me a hell of a lot with general theory. More importantly, as he states, his goal is to help me with the thought processes necessary for poker, I didn't have to agree with his ideas, that was a good thing, I was making my own theory to the game.

Key Part - Hands in Poker and how to play them - When first starting out, this opened my eyes on how to play a pair, or two pair in certain spots. He does this with all the hand-rankings and it helped to consider afterwards the situations needed to play an unoptimal method in order to profit more.

Intermediate- The Theory of Poker - Similar to the bible, you don't read it the whole way through after you've read it the first time, you go back to it to look at a certain concept. I would say this was advanced, though, I think this book takes credit for that.

Advanced - The Mathematics of Poker - Bill Chen is a genius, we all know that. I haven't yet got this book, I don't know if I will, as I think you need a masters in mathematics to understand, a PHD is optimal. But, if you understand it, it will teach you mathematically optimal poker.

MTT

Beginner - Harrington on Hold'em Series - Perhaps the most significant book in the online poker-age at the beginning. It is perhaps starting to show its age a little, but it is still essential reading. You need to understand the TAG style before adopting a looser, more aggressive game, and there are going to be a large number of players still basing their game around it.

Intermediate - Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Series - The nu-school MTT books, they are more adapted to the game MTT poker has become. What I like a lot about these books is how it shows all styles of play. Harrington discussed LAG styles, but didn't really delve into it. WPT-OHAT is written by three players, with varying styles. Jon "PearlJammer" Turner's style is what I relate to the most "Tight is right at beginning, loosen up near the end". But then you have Apestyles is more aggressive early on and shows the LAG style of maximising edges and looking to build a big stack early on. Eric "Rizen" Lynch, can change gears into both and can show when it is best to do so. Must-reads now.

Advanced - Every Hand Revealed - I call this advanced over WPT-OHAT, because there are going to be elements in his game which you couldn't put in yours. But, having one of the best MTT players go through every hand to his victory at the Aussie Millions, it's essential reading to look through his thought processes, particularly about a player who was once considered to just play any two cards.

Cash Games

This one is tough, becuase a lot of material has come out, and I haven't read into them yet (I am still trying to get through other books in the lists above.) So here are books I think will be suitable

Full-Ring
Harrington on Cash Games - Series
Professional No-Limit Hold'em

6-Max
Secrets of Short-Handed No-Limit Hold'em
Killer Poker - Shorthanded


Other Considerations

Winning Cash Game Poker
The Poker Blueprint (Online E-Book)
Ryan Fees 6-Max (Online E-Book)

This is just a small selection to, there are going to be tonnes of books out there, and if you learn just one or two new concepts, their worth buying. This is just, I think, a good starting point.

Hope this helps.[/b]