Poker Books and Reviews

The best-selling account of a year spent in the tough world of the professional poker player. Poker is not gambling but is like chess, a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that brings out the best as well as the worst in people. Its heroes and eccentrics stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the games themselves.
Read Full Review of 'Big Deal: One Year as a Professional Poker Player'

Holden's original book, Big Deal, presented a great read about his quest to play and win his way to the top of the heap, the World Series of Poker Championship. Since that year, poker has turned out to be the hottest product in the world and that's the focus of this title. Holden' presents his vision of the book and of the future of poker. He becomes a guide to the world of the "new" poker -- to the players who dominate the modern game and the personalities behind the multibillion-dollar business it has become -- as he tries once again to win the world title. Holden is friends with most of the important people in the world of poker, from players to to managers to promoters, but his roots (an ongoing home poker game) haven't shifted as he brings both worlds together here for a totally captivating work.
Read Full Review of 'Bigger Deal: A Year Inside the Poker Boom'

This is a fascinating account of former world poker champion Bobby Baldwin's meteoric rise to the championship. The book covers everything from his early days playing poker in dangerous roadhouses to his high-stakes poker games against other poker legends.

Contains 11 solid chapters, packed with illustrations, sample hands, and interviews with players who pulled off some of the biggest bluffs in modern poker history. Where most books have a basic chapter, section or discussion on bluffs, Lessinger takes it many notches better -- almost honing it to a fine art where we'd all like to be -- way ahead ands brave enough to keep plowing over the opposition even when don't have a great hand.
Read Full Review of 'Book of Bluffs'

This is a poker novel that looks at three types of players -- any of whom could be based on real-life characters -- and follows them through their high-stakes quest for rame and fortune.
Read Full Review of 'Broke: A Poker Novel'

Mike Caro is one of casino poker's pioneers and he has been teaching people his brand of winning since the 1970s. He was a major contributor to Doyle Brunson's Super System and is the creator of the first videos on poker tells. In this title he continues with his lessons on hold'em by revealing some previously unpublished--and secret--strategies including rankings and anatomies of all 169 categories of starting hands. He covers every detail with chapters devoted to the concepts of bluffing, image, psychology, manipulation, pre-flop and post-flop conditions and follows these with treating poker as a business (doing it the profitable way), tournament concepts, tells and advanced hold'em concepts.
Read Full Review of 'Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice'

A. D. Livingston's indispensable and fully illustrated guide on to how to detect and protect yourself against cardsharps when playing poker, blackjack, gin rummy, and bridge at the table or online. Beginning with the eyeing of marked cards, false shuffles, and shifty cuts, Catching Poker Cheats helps to inform the uninformed who would otherwise be susceptible to hustlers and con artists.
Read Full Review of 'Catching Poker Cheats'

A fine, useful, timely resource, this book has 17 sections including a five-page index, ever so valuable as a time-saver when the inevitable incident or controversy occurs at the tables. As the authors explain, 'This rulebook considers fixed limit, spread limit, pot-limit and no-limit games.' To be as clear as possible, they cover Texas hold'em, seven stud and seven stud high-low split, razz, five stud, Omaha high and high low split, draw and lowball.
Read Full Review of 'Cooke's Rules of Real Poker'

Diary of a Mad Poker Player is the story of Richard Sparks' attempts to win a seat in the final event of the 2004 World Series of Poker. The first half of the book is filled with examples of Sparks' atrocious poker play, but the last half contains some fairly interesting interviews with poker luminaries.

One of the most hotly anticipated books in recent memory, Dirty Poker reveals the dark side of poker -- what the author describes as a rampant cheating scene. Marcus is a renowned casino cheat who's not afraid to tell it like it is, describing methods of player collusion, marking cards, chip dumping, and sophisticated forms of online cheating in both cash games and tournament play.
Read Full Review of 'Dirty Poker'

Everyone who has ever sat into a poker game for the first time knows the language is a bit different from everyday lingo. From ace-high to to brass Brazilian to Siegfried and Roy, to Zooted, Janeway gives the definition and origin of the game's colorful and unique terms. A clever presentation, perfect for trivia buffs, budding poker players.
Read Full Review of 'Drawing Dead to a Gutshot: How to Talk Poker'

Craig has interviewed the golden dozen players big-time competitors Huck Seed, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, Gavin Smith, Ted Forrest, David Grey, Mike Matusow, Andy Bloch, Rafe Furst, Richard Brodie and Keith Sexton for special insight into the world of high-stakes tournament poker. This book is very special because it carries original, smoothly arranged material for the highest level of play. It’s like being able to sit in at a small, round-table, specialized seminar and being allowed to ask those key questions few players have the time to answer. Craig pulls that information from the players and arranges it so it can be absorbed, analyzed and applied easily. There are 19 extraordinary chapters that include eight on no-limit play with topics such as the Theory of Leverage; Play Before the Flop; Play After the Flop; Big Stack Play; Short-Stack Play and Online Tournament Strategy. Chapters also focus on pot limit hold‘em; limit hold‘em; Omaha eight or better, and pot limit Omaha. Chapters also discuss seven card stud tournament play.
Read Full Review of 'Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide'

Low-Limit Texas Hold'em is the fastest-growing casino poker game. But new player often come to the poker rooms completely unprepared to play a winning game. Even so-called 'veteran' players are often long-term losers at the game because they have never taken the time to study how to play or analyze their own individual games. As author Bill Burton clearly shows in Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold'em, a savvy low-limit player can turn a profit at this game by exploiting the weaknesses of his or her opponents, and developing his or her own strengths.