Poker Library

Among the Immutable Laws of the Universe is the Law of Legends:

In any group, there can be only one First.

In the world of poker, the game that took over America and become the third most watched sport on television, the first has always been and continues to be, the legendary Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson.

Brunson, now 75, is the Babe Ruth, the Michael Jordan, and the Arnold Palmer of poker. He virtually invented the phenomenon that is Texas Hold'em. He paved the way for a sport once viewed to be played by only roughnecks and criminals, but is now played by today’s world leaders and top executives.

He was the star of the infamous band of traveling poker sharks, the Texas Rounders. He was the first of the high stakes hotel poker players in Las Vegas introducing his “power poker” to the world. He has won an unprecedented and record ten World Series of Poker events, including the two back-to-back world championships. In addition, he is a best-selling author and in the world of professional poker, he is king.

"Doyle learned early on in life, no matter what you’re dealt, anything can be turned into a winning hand. Raised dirt poor in rural Texas, he was a natural athlete who went to college on both a basketball and track scholarships. His NBA career with the then-Minneapolis Lakers ended before it began when he shattered his leg in an accident at the gypsum factory where he was working pre-season. The leg never did heal properly, and to this day, his place at a poker table is easily spotted by the crutch standing nearby.

In order to survive in Texas after the accident, Brunson took up the game that would prove to be his lifeblood, poker. His upbringing and early life as an outsider made him a lifelong observer of people, and his skill at reading faces was his ace in the hole; he got very good, very fast.

But then life took a turn for the worse in 1962 when he was diagnosed with cancer and given a mere three months left in this world. But he called that bluff and the other guy folded, and 40 years later, Brunson is still at the table, and still winning.

Considered the patriarch of modern poker and the person most responsible for its rise from smoky backrooms to the pop-culture spotlight, Brunson was the leader of the Texas Rounders, a group of men who, in the words of The History Channel, "cleaned Texas dry" playing high-stakes poker in the 1950s and '60s. Outrunning both the law and the hijackers who preyed on winners of illegal big-money card games, he eventually landed in Las Vegas where he became one of the city's earliest tourist attractions: audiences would gather in awe to watch him play.

In 1978, Brunson changed the game of poker forever with his book Super System, a complete guide to Texas Hold'em and other games of poker. Essential reading for everyone from weekend dabblers to high-stakes gamblers, the book remains the bible of poker, the top-selling poker book of all time, still selling 14,000 copies a month. Following the books success, Brunson recently published a sequel, Super System 2, which includes new games, new strategies and insight from not only Brunson himself but also some of the other biggest names in poker today. As well, Brunson has an autobiography, a recently released book specifically on online poker, and the tales of the greatest hands he's ever seen all scheduled to be published in the coming months.

Doyle, at the ripe young age of 75, continues to play at the elite level. Where most poker players’ skills usually deteriorate with age and time, Brunson is sharper than ever still eliminating the competition day in and day out. In 2005, he won both his record 10th WSOP bracelet, and hundreds of thousands more in tournament play.

He is a spokesperson for the online poker website DoylesRoom.com, an avid blogger, and writes a syndicated poker column in the London Telegraph. He plays poker every day and often hosts high-stakes Texas Hold'em games that cost $100,000 just to sit down. He'll win, and sometimes lose, $50,000 or more on a single hand. But as he recently told the History Channel, "to be a successful gambler you have to have a complete disregard for money." That and a keen eye for what's happening in the eyes of the other guy.

Most recently, in January 2006, ahead of ESPN, the World Poker Tour, and the rest of the world, BLUFF magazine voted Brunson the #1 most influential force in the world of poker. Despite all these accomplishments, Doyle shows no signs of slowing down. He still has the eye, the nerve and the skill and just in the fall of 2004, won another million-dollar World Poker Tour event at the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles, CA.

Doyle continues to defy the odds and play with the best, but he’ll be the first to tell you, it’s not always what you’re dealt, but how you play the cards.

www.doylebrunson.com/biography/doyles_history.cfm

"Ace on the River" is different from most poker books. It has less to do with strategy than with what could be called "the poker lifestyle." Nonetheless, intermediate to advanced audiences will find the book useful for finding a greater understanding about the poker world.

In this book, Dan gives you problems to test how well you grasped the principles of the first two volumes. In addition, many of the problems focus on the key area that causes difficulties for so many aspiring players: how to play after the flop.

Dan Harrington won the gold bracelet and the World Champion title at the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em Championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. And he was the only player to make the final table in both 2003 (field of 839) and 2004 (field of 2,576) - considered by cognoscenti to be the greatest accomplishment in WSOP history. In Harrington on Hold 'em, Harrington and two-time World Backgammon Champion Bill Robertie have written the definitive books on no-limit hold 'em for players who want to win - and win big.

The first section of this book is really a continuation of the topics found in Volume 1, an extended exegesis on the topics of bluffing and slow-playing. Just about every conceivable bluffing situation is covered here although, perhaps strangely, less consideration is given to making large semi-bluffs with high-quality draws than we might have expected. There's a lot of good stuff here, and anyone who plays the bigger buy-in tournaments or cash games will eventually be exposed to all of these moves.

Harrington begins his endgame analysis with an explanation and examination of what he calls "inflection point theory". Basically, his thesis is that as players' stack sizes change relative to the blinds and antes different strategic considerations apply. This is well-known and has previously been addressed in the poker literature, but never with this level of depth. Much of this is understood, at least instinctively, by many, if not most, tournament veterans, but Harrington's analysis is extremely detailed and meticulously thought out. This may not be as revolutionary an idea as it is presented here, but it is important and well worth understanding.

These are the common questions that we usually ask ourselves when playing poker.
How much will it cost to keep playing this hand?
How much money am I likely to win if I catch the card I need?
Do I want to get lucky?
Should I call or should I fold?

That is why computing pot odds is important. Without this technical skill in your arsenal kiss your dreams of being a good poker player goodbye.

So how do we compute pot odds?

These calculations involve comparing the total number of unknown cards with the number of cards that will complete your hand ? the “outs” ? then doing a bit of division.

For example, whenever you hold four cards to a nut flush on the turn in a Texas Hold’em game, there are 46 unknown cards, (52 minus your two pocket cards and four on the board). Of those 46 cards, 37 cards won’t help you, but those other nine cards are the same suit as your flush draw and any one of them will give you the nut flush.

The odds are 37-to-9, or 4.1-to-1, against making your draw. Percentage poker players will call a bet in this situation only if the pot is four times the size of the bet. In a $20-$40 game, the pot would need to contain at least $160 ? or else you’d have to be able to count on winning at least a total of $160 from future calls (this is called “implied odds,” and is a guestimate of sorts) ? to satisfy this requirement.

If you’re the kind of player who’s fond of inside straights and other long shot draws, consider this: You have only four outs on the turn. That’s not much when you consider that 42 of the remaining cards won’t help you at all, and chances of completing your hand are less than nine percent. If you’d prefer expressing that figure in odds, here’s the bad news. The odds against completing your inside straight draw are 10.5-to-1, and you’d need a pot that’s more than ten times the cost of your call in order to make it worthwhile.

If you had two pair and knew for a fact that your opponent had a flush, you’d be in the same kettle of fish, since only one of four cards will elevate two pair to a full house. When can you play hands like this? On two occasions. The first occurs when you hit the multistate powerball lottery, win 90 million dollars or so, and $20-$40 hold’em now becomes the equivalent of playing for matchsticks. The other occasion is in a game with complete maniacs whose collective motto is: “All bets called, all the time.” You would need to win more than 10 times the amount of your call to justify this kind of draw. But if you figure to win a $450 pot by calling a $40 bet with an inside straight draw, go ahead. Go for it.

A chart is provided that makes it easy to learn the odds against all the common draws you’re likely to come up against in a hold’em game. If you memorize it, you won’t have to waste even a fraction of a second doing arithmetic at the poker table. Personally, I find it tough concentrating on the cards in play and my opponents while trying to do calcs at the poker table. Fortunately, there are simplified methods that allow you to approximate the percentage of time you’ll make your hand.

An easy method involves multiplying your outs by two, then adding two to that sum. The result is a rough percentage of the chance that you’ll make your hand. Suppose you have a flush draw on the turn. You have nine outs. Nine times 2 equal 18, and 18 plus 2 equals 20. That’s pretty close to the 19.6 percent chance you’d come up with if you worked out the answer mathematically.

If you have only four outs, our quick proximate measure (four outs x two, plus two = ten) is very close to the actual figure of 10.5. If you have 15 outs, our quick measure yields a figure of 32, while the mathematically precise figure is 32.6 percent.

The strategic implications of this are simple: If you have a ten percent chance of winning, the cost of your call should not be more than ten percent of the pot’s total. With a thirty-two percent chance, you can call a bet up to one-third the size of the pot.

While the “Outs times 2 plus 2” method is an easy calculation to make at the poker table, it’s even easier to commit the chart to memory. That way you never have to figure a thing. Just tap into your memory banks and pull out the correct figure. And anytime you find yourself fighting a tinge of self-doubt, you can always double check yourself using the “Outs times 2 plus 2” approximation.

If you want to estimate your chances on the flop without the need for much arithmetic, try this: If you have between one and eight outs, quadruple them. Eight outs multiplied by four yields 32, while the precise answer is 31.5 percent. With four outs, the quadrupling method yields 16 percent, while the accurate answer is 16.5 percent.

With nine outs ? a common situation, because it represents the number of outs to a four-flush ? quadruple the number of outs and subtract one. You’ll be spot-on when you do, since the arithmetical answer is 35 percent. You can use this method up to 12 outs, though with 12 outs our shortcut method yields 47 percent, while the precise answer is only 45 percent.

For 13 through 16 outs, quadruple the number of outs, subtract four, and your results won’t be anymore than two percent off dead center. And remember, anytime you find yourself with 14 outs or more, you are an odds-on favorite to make your hand and pot odds of any size become worthwhile.

This chart shows odds against making your hand with two cards to come (flop to river), as well as with one card (turn to river) remaining.

Hanging on to unprofitable draws for whatever reason ? and many players persist in drawing to long shots even when they really do know better ? can be a major leak in one’s game. For many it’s the sole reason they are lifelong losing players instead of lifelong winners.

There’s no real excuse for that kind of play. Even if you are not mathematically inclined (and if you’re in this category, you’re in the majority. Most people I know loath doing calculations while playing poker) you now have two surefire ways to get the answers without having to do anything more difficult than multiplying by two or four, or memorizing a simple chart. Now all you have to do is count the size of the pot, or even approximate it, compare one to the other, and make your decision. It’s that easy. Really.

Somebody once uttered the words “those who can’t do, teach”. The unspoken implication of this cliche is that those who can do, don’t bother mucking about in classes teaching their competition ways to be more competitive. If this phrase can be considered a rule, than Harrington would easily qualify as that rare exception.

Dan Harrington brings an impressive resume to the world of publishing. Not only has he scored World Series of Poker gold, but he has been a familiar face at the final table of the WSOP main event. Four times he has been in a seat where some of the biggest names in the game can only dream of. A strong background though has not always translated into good poker books. Many professionals have jingled their bracelets in the hope that we will be impressed into buying their literary efforts. In the end many ring hollow and are just pages filled with tips that are simply common sense playing. Harrington is a bright spot in this world of bad hold’em literature.
Harrington gives you full access to the brain that has brought him so much success. He holds nothing back in his advice, and to the horror of the professional playing public, gives away almost all of his secrets. His strategy advice is spot on, and, if followed, can make a newbie good, and a good player great.

The real genius in this book is not only is the advice absolutely top notch, but the presentation is flawless. He doesn’t try to prove he is the smartest guy in the room by talking above the heads of the reader. His writing is intellectually accessible to a broad range of readers, just about everyone, regardless of reading level, can get something out of this book.

Until this book was written, the best advice on playing Texas Hold'em in Pot Limit or No Limit games was the section from Doyle Brunson's epic, Super System. Since the writing of Super System the state of the art in poker writing has advanced considerably. There certainly remained a lot to be said about "the Cadillac of poker games".

T. J. Cloutier, who has been competing in big time poker events for the better part of two decades, has impeccable credentials as an expert in pot-limit and no-limit Texas Hold'em. The question is, will his expertise translate into a good book? This was especially of concern because although his collaborator, Tom McEvoy, has been one of the most successful tournament poker players in the last 20 years, his book, Tournament Poker was a mediocre offering at best, offering few, if any, significant new insights into being a successful tournament poker player.

I'm happy to say, that these fears turn out to be unfounded. This book was written clearly, as a spoken exposition by Cloutier. The topics in this book are well organized and carefully spelled out. All aspects of the play in these poker games, with a special emphasis on tournament play, are covered. More importantly, there is a significant amount of information here that has never before seen print.

Cloutier goes through how to play starting hands in various positions in detail, covers having various hands on the flop, turn and river. He discusses carefully how to get a read on one's opponent, the skill Cloutier believes most critical in winning these games. This is a difficult topic to discuss, reading players is much more instinct than science, but he does a respectable job of it.

There are two chapters specifically devoted to tournament play, a very good set of practice hands with commentary by Cloutier, and the book concludes with a set of tales from Cloutier's colorful life.

I like this book quite a bit, but it is by no means perfect. First, charging $39.95 for 206 pages of paper bound content seems a little steep to me. While one could rightly argue that if this book saves you just one bet at a game of these limits, or moves you up one money place in a medium sized tournament, you've recovered this money, it's out of line with what I expect from books in general.

My second complaint, with which it may be fair for the author to take issue with me, is that I get the sensation that the author is holding back a bit. There are several places, where Cloutier does a good job of explaining what one can expect in situations, except that one has a feeling that the author was almost ready to continue with an "... except in these cases..." or "... but watch out for ..." but didn't.

This has been a point of a great deal of soul searching by poker writers for years and can be found in Super System and Ray Zee's introduction to Texas Hold'em for Advanced Players among other places. However, the sense I've gotten from Brunson, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth is that after a great deal of soul searching, they decided to "damn the torpedos" and bare all to the poker public. I don't get the same sense from Cloutier. Again, this is merely my impression. I'd be very interested in hearing how the author answered this question, very diplomatically worded, of course.

Nonetheless, this book represents the current best information in print on pot-limit and no-limit Hold'em. If you are a beginner or intermediate Hold'em player interested in pot-limit or no-limit ring games or tournaments, this is the book for you!