Poker Forum - Two New Poker Books Aimed ay Tough Players and Pigeons

If you’re a tough player and like to pretend you’re a dunce, two new books have arrived at Gambler’s Book Shop that aim to help you perfect your skills at the poker tables.

Nick Grudzien and Geoff Herzog have a fresh one entitled Winning in Tough Hold ‘em Games: Short-Handed and High Stakes Concepts and Theory for Limit Hold ‘em (347 pages, paperbound, $29.95), while an anonymous writer has written Play Poker Like a Pigeon And Take The Money Home (213 pages, paperbound, $14.95).

The Grudzien and Herzog work addresses low-limit games ($3-$6 and below); middle limits ($5-$10 and $20-$40); upper limits ($25-$50 to $100-$200) and sky-high limits ($150-$300 and up), so there’s something here for everyone.

The authors provide specific guidelines based on position to help you decide whether to play pre-flop. They recognize that players sometimes remain undecided when to play because “circumstances change and decisions get more complex.”

Here they help the player become more disciplined via more than a dozen charts, including one reflecting potential strategy for open-raising from all non-blind positions at a six-handed table. They offer similar in-depth strategy charts for the steal situation.

The book delivers a powerful package of material for the serious ploy-seeking, thinking-man’s player. It covers vital areas such as re-stealing; limping; playing in the small and big blinds; blind defense; playing heads-up post-flop; responding to check-raises on the flop and the turn; understanding why the “free card” play may have negative expectations in tight-aggressive games and making thin value bets. The section on semi-bluffing also addresses the heads-up, post flop situation; semi-bluffing a loose player and betting and raising for value with strong draws.

The book winds down with an army of hands to emphasize correct strategies involving big and small blind defense hands; quizzes and summaries to test what you’ve learned so far. Small sections review table and seat selection, as well as psychological and tilt control.

This work is indexed so a potential buyer can review the concepts covered quickly.

Play Poker like a Pigeon is certainly going to ruffle plenty of feathers. The author is from a veteran of the tables (30 years of action). His work is clearly intended for the player who swims upstream many times when everyone else is floating along in the opposite direction.

He offers moves, disguises, approaches and opinions contrary to what most accept about limit hold‘em, online poker, tells, starting hands, who the great players are and when to play loose and aggressive.

The author is opinionated as heck, but he believes altering your style of play is key to winning—and he explains why with examples, shifty ideas and personal examples, pigeon moves. Drawing from his own experiences, observations, the mistakes he’s made and those he’s seen others make, Anonymous takes us through three decades of play around the nation.

He enjoys limit play because he believes he says it, “gives you the best chance of ducking the broke factor.” He’ll ramble, analyze, offer advice about table play and about life. It sounds to me like he’s definitely been there. In this offbeat, easy reading, well-opinionated book, you’ll pick up some gems, some semi-precious stones and maybe more than a little understanding of what to expect if you plan to turn pro and leave your job.