Best poker book?

[pallister]

He's also drunk -- and $120,000 richer.

 

[Cape_Fear]

maberger's advice is good. Only bluff against players who can be bluffed. By the same token, don't even bother slowplaying if you have a monster hand against terrible players.

A good rule of thumb for no-limit is the worse the player the less likely your bluff is to work.

Bad player: "I got four diamonds I might get the fifth."

Good player: "I have four to a flush, but I'm only getting 2-to-1 odds, better lay it down."

In limit, don't even bother bluffing because pot odds almost always dictate a call even with a marginal hand.

 

[bigpern23]

maberger's advice is good. Only bluff against players who can be bluffed. By the same token, don't even bother slowplaying if you have a monster hand against terrible players.

A good rule of thumb for no-limit is the worse the player the less likely your bluff is to work.

Bad player: "I got four diamonds I might get the fifth."

Good player: "I have four to a flush, but I'm only getting 2-to-1 odds, better lay it down."

In limit, don't even bother bluffing because pot odds almost always dictate a call even with a marginal hand.

Bingo ... Though sometimes with a bad player you can take advantage of a guy who hopes to look good by "making a big laydown." You have to find the right guy to do it, but there are plenty of people who will show you they just laid down a set when you're sitting there with top pair/top kicker and they are pleased as hell with themselves for making the big laydown, sure that you had them beat. I usually encourage those guys. I just let them think it was the right move and try to make it easier for them to fold to me in the future.







Not that we haven't all made bad laydowns. Don't want to sound like I'm some kind of pro over here.

 

[BB Bobcat]

I would also recommend a couple of message boards: 2+2 forums are great and I like flopturnriver.com.

Personally I would avoid 2+2. Yes, there are a lot of good players there and a lot of good information, but it is surrounded by so much garbage. Many threads disolve into insults from some of these know-it-all players. Of course, that's similar to some other message boards you may frequent

My favorite message board -- on any topic, not just poker -- is http://www.internettexasholdem.com. The name comes from a book, but it's not only about online poker.

Another point I'd make about live poker is that, as stated here, a lot of the players are so bad that you should not try to outwit them. In other words, don't get too smart. At most live no-limit games, you can essentially sit back and wait for cards and play straightforward when you get them. The money you make will be the money you save by not losing all your chips with one pair and not drawing without the price.