Texas Holdem Strategy

Doc T River

A number of players in my bar league know I own a lot of books and they routinely come to me for recommendations so I am thinking about putting a list of books together, but I wanted the forum members' input as to my possible selections. I thought I would divide the list into three categories (poker theory & thought, tournament strategies & mechanics, and poker math) and want to keep the list short (one or two books per category). The following list is my possible choices in each category. I have limited my choices to books I actually own.

Poker Theory And Thought
Caro's Secrets Of Winning Poker
Hold'Em Wisdom For All Players
Your Worst Poker Enemy/Your Best Poker Friend
The Poker Mindset

I intend for the books in this category to be more about the mental game as opposed to the theories behind poker. Most of the players in the league are playing for fun and not using the league as a tool to get better so books heavy on theory would probably be overkill. I am also thinking about leaving out any books on tells as that might be overkill, too. As it is a free to play league, bankroll management is not a serious consideration. I am leaning toward Caro's book and Negreanu's book.

Tournament Strategies And Mechanics
Poker Tournament Formula
Tournament Tips From The Poker Pros
Kill Phil

We play with 15 minute blinds (and starting stacks of 10,000 with 100/200 starting level) so my thought is to recommend a book, PTF, written specifically for fast tournaments. However, hyper-aggressive play is not appreciated in this area so I worry that people might get upset if a lot of people started playing hyper-agressive poker.

Poker Math
Texas Hold'Em Odds And Probability

The choices in this section are limited to this book because it is the only poker math specific book that I own although I have read through Killer Poker By The Numbers and Bill Chen's book.

So what books from above would make your final list if you were doing what I am? As I said, this is for members of a free bar poker league who are looking to learn, get better in this setting, but not necessarily move on to playing in an area casino.

I am going to have a supplemental list for people who do want to move on to playing in a casino setting on a regular basis.

egarevel · Joined: 20 Jul 2008 Posts: 21

"limited my choices to books I actually own."

I guess this limits things. Snyder's book is superior when it comes to preaching the importance of position, a very important fundamental concept that everyone must be aware of.

Stew21 · Joined: 03 Oct 2006 Posts: 753 Location: Orlando, Fl

If they don't/won't like the faster, more aggressive pace would Harrington's books be appropriate for them?

I was also thinking of Brunson's Super System but that might be for futher done the line.

Doc T River · Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:13 am Post subject: About HOH and Super System

I am leaning against HOH because it is a multi-volume set and might be more than people want to spend. I do own Super System 2, but won't be recommending that as the league plays nothing but tournaments while SS2 is for cash games.

We do have one player whose first and only book was SS2 and it really messed him up. He did not understand why people did not respect the moves he was making. They did not respect them because they did not recognize them. This might be a problem with any actual strategy books I recommend.

People might notice that there are no 2plus2 books on my list. I own many from them (including several books geared toward tournaments), but I think they are too advanced and too neophyte reader unfriendly for my purposes.

Doc T River

I have been doing some reading starting with a rereading of Snyder's first poker tournament book and it raised some suitability questions in my mind that I hope someone can allay.

Snyder's book is for tournaments with 9 or 10 people at the table while my bar poker league is 8 max and we frequently play starting with 6. Would the tournament section in Killer Poker Shorthanded be more appropriate? I have the book, KPS, but have not read it yet.

Also, our tournaments start out with a chip stack equal to the cost of 50BB which would make it a medium-speed tournament strictly on that basis according to Snyder, but, also according to Snyder, medium-speed tournaments have 30 minute blind levels while our tournaments have 15 minute levels which would make them lightning fast if it weren't due to the chip stack. Sorry for the run on sentence.

I am not sure what speed to consider them. I guess I just need to keep reading and do the calculations according to the formulas that Snyder provides.

But would the tournaments being such odd ducks in terms of number of players, starting stack, and level time make Snyder's book totally unsuitable?

janeg · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:16 am Post subject:

Assuming you start with $1,000t (50 x 20BB) and you're blind structure 20,30,50,100,150,200,200 300 with a 25t ante starting at the 2nd 100/200 level the blind-off would be 1.73 hrs with a patience factor of 3.0 and a skill level of 1 ... that's for a full table, since you start with fewer players, it's even faster and maybe Skill Level 0. In Levels 0 and 1 everything comes down to luck; you don't really have time for strategies.

Doc T River · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:25 am Post subject:

Thank you for your calculations.

We start with 10000 in chips and the blinds are 100/200 to start. They then go to 200/400, 300/600, 500/1000, 1000/2000, 2000/4000, 3000/6000 and 5000/10000. There are no antes.

You would think that no strategies are possible under this new structure or under our old structure which had us starting with 3650 in chips and the blinds starting at 25/50, but many of the same people end up at the final table. The league point leader, who is from this area and a friend of mine, has gone heads up 61 times winning 37 of those times. To me that is pretty amazing.

janeg · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:11 pm Post subject:

Blind-off is 1.54 hrs with a Patience Factor of 2.36 and Skill Level of 1. Interesting that the same people end up at the final table; could be those with a better understanding of pre-flop hand strengths last longer.

Bluedaq · Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 229

better understanding of relative pre-flop hand strengths.

Nutjob · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:51 am Post subject:

Don't read HOH2 first. or maybe ever.

Doc T River · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:41 am Post subject:

Doc T River · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:53 am Post subject:

PTF was written for 9 or 10 player per table tournaments and Snyder says the book is not written for tournaments where the tables have less than that number of players. I am wondering if the skill level goes down in a tournament with less people at the table or goes up. Snyder makes a point about the number of hands you will be dealt and a table with less people, you should see more hands, BUT you should also pay blinds more. Does that make it a wash?

Dogs · 1K Club Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 1079

I can't decide whether I'd give them Snyder or not. It seems more 'traditional' that a player learns the about the strength of the hands first, then position later. If they read Snyder, it will be the other way around. That could of course make it very interesting. I'm pretty curious now...

Another book I might consider is The Little Green Book. Short, well-written, cheap. Not strictly a tournament book of course, but that's no bad thing.

Internet Texas Holdem

Poker Forum

Party Poker Bonus

PokerStars Bonus