Several Reviews Of Today's More Popular Poker Books

Finding a good poker book these days is not quite as easy as it

seems. There are more and more poker books popping up everyday. Especially books

on no limit holdem. I am going to be reviewing several books on poker. Here are

the covers I will briefly discuss: Harrington on Holdem Vol I, II and III, Mike

Caro's book of poker tells, and Sklansky 's Holdem Poker For Advanced Players.

I am reviewing these books on poker theory and tells because

they have been most helpful to me in becoming a profitable poker player.

Educating yourself on no limit holdem is not to difficult to do with all the

books out there. Just visit Amazon and type in no limit holdem and you will get

lots of selections. I recommend Amazon for this because they have a big

selection, you can buy the books used for a fair price and their are reviews of

the books right below the book. These reviews are written by people that have

purchased and read the book. I have found some of them helpful and found them to

be truthful because not all of them are good. So if you are looking for a book

on holdem I think Amazon is a good source.

Review of Dan Harrington 's Volume I-III: Dan Harrington

has been a successful No Limit Tournament player for a long time now. He has 3

books out that are actually best used as a set. Volume I talks about the

beginning stages of a poker tournament and hand selection. Its a great book for

beginners that want to learn the basic idea behind playing in tournaments.

Harrington goes over lots of different things in this book that every beginner

should know. The big one is hand selection and odds. He talks about how to play

tight aggressive which is his playing style. The next Book Volume II assumes

that you have read Volume I so it goes right in and builds on the principals

from the first book. Volume II talks about the end game, meaning towards the

middle or close to the money stage of the tournament where blinds are high and

people tend to get real tight. If you combine the knowledge of these two books

and have a little talent for the game of poker you will soon be successful in

playing no limit poker tournaments. I know after I read these two books I made

significant changes to my game and went from being a hit and miss tournament

player to consistently making the final table or at least close too. No matter

what you do you can not always win in my opinion however if you follow the Poker

strategies Harrington lays out in these two books you can get pretty close

consistently. Volume III is actually a test of your knowledge. What you will

find in all of Harrington's books which I really like is that he will explain a

theory and then give several scenarios where it can apply. This way not only do

you get an explanation of the tactic but also a couple of examples of where the

tactic fits in to your game. Well Vol. III is basically the test it is full of

scenarios for you to navigate through and after wards the book scores you. Now

depending on your score you can go back and review certain parts of the other

two books to improve that aspect of your game. This is almost like having a pro

go over your game and then show you the flaws you need to improve upon.

Sklansky 's Holdem Poker For Advanced Players: Let me

start of by saying that this book is not an easy read or at least it wasn't for

me, however Holdem Poker For Advanced Players has lots of gems in it and is well

worth reading. I have actually read the book 3 times now and I pick up something

I missed every time. This book is definitely not for total beginners but if you

have logged some time at the poker table you will find it very useful. I have

found this book to be helpful in playing cash games rather then tournament style

poker. Most of the theories in the book are more geared towards cash play in my

opinion. The book splits different tactics in to different types of games. It

talks about average games, tough games and loose games for example and then

gives you advice on the hands you should be playing according to the game you

are sitting in. This book is definitely worth reading over an over if you play

in cash games. You will find that if you use tournament tactics in cash games

you are not going to be as successful.

Mike Caro 's Book of Poker Tells: Mike Caro's book

of poker tells is a great read for any poker player that is interested in

reading their opponents. This book is full of poker tells that you will see at

the poker table and how to interpret them. Their are different types of tells.

You have tells that suggest a strong hand and tells that suggest a weak hand.

This book by the mad genius of poker is an eye opener to anyone that is trying

to figure out what their opponent is doing. This is the aspect of poker that

deals with playing the player not the cards. I say this because if I can read a

player properly the cards he are not as important. For example lets say you

notice that a player is weak and is wanting to lay the hand down. Now with this

information you make a bet and he folds the winning hand. If you could do that

would that not put big time bucks in your pocket? Or lets say you have a tough

call to make and you pick up something on the player that lets you know he has

you beat and you fold therefore saving you money. This is what Mike Caro's

Book of Poker Tells tries to teach you. I can honestly say that at least on one

occasion the only reason I made the final table was because I read this book. I

made 3 tough reads that got me in the money. This is not the only time that

tells that are talked about in this book have made it possible for me to get out

of a hand or to make the right call. If you are serious about playing live poker

I highly recommend this book on poker tells.

I hope these poker book reviews have been helpful in giving some

insight in to the books mentioned above.

By Dominik H webmaster of Lucky8s.net (for more poker book reviews [http://www.lucky8s.net/poker_forum/forum-4.html] visit us).

The 3 Most Popular Poker Strategies You Must Avoid

There are three accepted poker strategies that you simply most avoid if you want to win a poker tournament. I am sure you have read each one of the following poker gems many times, and now believe them to be poker truths. Unfortunately they are just plain wrong if you want to win.

Poker Strategy #1: "Play tight early in a no limit poker tournament."

There are many ways to play in the early rounds of a poker tournament, yet you may have read this poker strategy most often. Why is this poker strategy so popular?

Think about it. If you got knocked out early, would you trust this guy's opinion?

Unfortunately, the worst poker advice for no limit tournaments is to play tight early. Poker is about gambling. Poker tournaments are about winning. Embrace the risk in the game because you need chips to survive those bad beats. You are not going to outplay the luck in the game.

The right strategy early in a no limit tournament is to put at least 20% of your chips at risk with drawing hands like suited connectors, so you can win big pots.

Remember this: No one has ever folded their way to victory. Never.

Poker Strategy #2: "You need to be selectively aggressive to win a poker tournament."

Oh my, is this nonsense or what? Being aggressive is bad, but being selectively aggressive is good.

I guess that key word "selectively" means that if you are aggressive and win you are being selective. But if you are aggressive and lose you are not being selective enough.

What if you go card dead for an hour and are bleeding out your chips? Are you being too selective by not being aggressive?

Forget this nonsense strategy. You need to be aggressive to win a poker tournament. You need to accumulate chips. Raise and re-raise by making the right plays.

Poker Strategy #3: "It depends."

This has got to be the biggest joke of poker advice ever. It depends is so popular it's become a pseudo strategy.

But what's the winning play in a given situation? It depends...

I think we should put "it depends" next to "Depends" diapers..it's all wet.

The leaking is over! Make the right play at the right time.

Of course sometimes in poker you make the right play at the wrong time. Yeah, you take a bad beat. But other times you will be wrong and make the wrong play at the right time. Yeah, you put a bad beat on your opponent.

Don't think "it depends." Ask yourself what is the right play at that moment. And if you still are not sure, err on the side of being aggressive by asking yourself the following:

"What move will put fear in the heart and mind of my opponent?"

It's time to follow the winning strategies for no limit poker tournaments. The Poker pros know them and you should too.

Get 10 free winning plays and 5 free tips at Tournament Poker.

Mitchell Cogert is the author of "Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves." It is the only reference book to reveal the plays the Pros use to win a poker tournament. These plays are based on reviewing 20 years worth of tournament poker strategies and by actual play against Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, David Pham and other top pros. The book is highly rated with 5 out of 5 stars on amazon.

For more information go to http://www.APokerExpert.com

Why Is Poker So Popular?

Every day it seems that in one form or another, the game of poker is slowly taking over the world. Televised poker tournaments have generated massive worldwide interest in the game. Casual players have become tournament champions and millionaires have been made overnight. The proliferation of new technologies has made it possible for players anywhere on the planet to experience poker in a virtual setting. Whether you're browsing the web or surfing through the channels of you TV, it's hard not to bump into evidence of poker's sensational rise as the most massively appealing game in the world.

Poker has been around for quite sometime, so what exactly caused this game to become so popular so quickly? The finger, in my opinion, has to be pointed first and foremost at television. A few years ago, you might catch a rare glimpse of a poker tournament on ESPN 2 in the middle of the night, if you were lucky. Now it seems like poker tournaments are on TV 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Just waking up in the morning, there's bound to be a World Poker Tour tourney on the Travel Channel. Staying up all night with nothing to watch, there's has to be some poker action of Fox Sports. Missed what happened in the 2005 World Series of Poker? Not a problem. ESPN reruns the entire tournament on a weekly basis (I lost count of how many times I've seen Aussie-sensation Joe Hachem say "Pass the sugar!").

Baseball games are televised all the time, but you don't see more people deciding to play baseball because they saw it on television. There's something else at play here and it has something to do with underdog, long-shot amateurs overcoming ridiculous odds and winning millions of dollars.

In 2003, Chris Moneymaker made headlines when won his first bracelet at the WSOP main event. Moneymaker qualified for the WSOP after winning a satellite tourney on Poker Stars. This amateur bested a field of over 800 entrants and converted a $39 poker room deposit into a $2.5 million payday. ESPN's coverage of the event and its subsequent efforts to constantly re-air the WSOP, forced people to take notice of what was transpiring in the world of poker. Without having to pay the $10,000 buy-in, an amateur player with an award-winning poker name stunned the professionals around him and began an uprising in the poker community.

Online players were no longer seen as second-rate. The following year, Greg Raymer, another online amateur qualifier, repeated the impossible. He beat out over 2500 players and took home $5 million. In 2005, Joe Hachem, another unknown player, bested a field of over 5000 and walked away with a bracelet and $7.5 million.

Look at the growth of the number of WSOP entrants since Moneymaker's dramatic 2003 victory. From 2003 to 2004, the number of entrants tripled (from 839 to 2,576). Twice the number of entrants would compete in the main event the following year (from 2,576 to 5,619). The 2006 WSOP main event promises to be another record breaker as far as entrants go and the winner will take home $10 million.

In poker, people don't just want to root for the underdog, they want to be the underdog. The recent success of amateur online players at the WSOP has created an atmosphere of why-not-me. Casual players now see themselves as possible bracelet winners and even Hollywood actors are getting in on the action.

Poker's booming popularity isn't just the result of increased TV exposure. In this age of reality-inspired entertainment, people enjoy seeing average Joe's take home millions of dollars. There's a big sense of it-could-happen-to-you going on here and as a result, more and more people are turning to online poker. It's not that everyone online wants to win a million dollars. People just want to be involved with something special and poker's phenomenal rise in popularity is defiantly something extraordinary.

Rick ?Stone Face? Ellers started playing poker while he was a paratrooper stationed in Fort Bragg, NC. He currently writes part time for PokerListings.com where you can read about Poker Chips and the exciting World Series of Poker.

A Review of Some Popular Poker Table Cloths

When you go to put together you poker room for your home or restaurant, you don't want to neglect the poker cloth that you'll use for your table or tables. Poker cloth is one of those things that easily gets taken for granted. Hey, you know--it's just some felt or something, right? Well, believe it or not, the poker cloth you select makes a huge impression. Also, you want it to be quality material that will last a long time and can handle things like spilled beer!

When you've seen casino poker games on TV or in the movies, you may have well gotten the impression that every poker on earth has to have have a green baize cloth! Well, that's just not true, and these days people use different types of poker table cloth material other than mere felt, and they use material that comes in a wide array of different colors.

Time was that whatever went on top of a poker table was selected strictly by a person who had specialized knowledge about building poker tables. However, poker is a very, very well-known game and is seeing a resurgence inpopularity--especially Texas Holdem Poker, which is the "in" game in poker rooms these days.

In some places, the game is so popular that people have started hosting Friday night poker games in their homes as well as joining one of the many Texas Holdem poker gaming rooms to be found on the Internet. Whichever you choose to do, you definitely want to have a poker experience that gives pleasure to your eye as well as to your mind.

Well then, what design in poker table cloth should you select in order to make an attractive poker room? Simply put, the one that will go the best with your room's overall theme. And there is quite a selection available to you.

One of the favorites is the suited waterproof stalwart table felt cloth. This eye-catching design, which features a pattern made up of the four different card suites, comes in colors like blackberry; royal blue; midnight blue; polo; platinum; emerald; forest; burgandy; red; gold; bronze; purple; silver; chocolate; yellow; and lavender. You can't go wrong with this poker table cloth. You just need an eye for good color combinations so that your poker table cloth color doesn't clash with the prominent colors throughout the rest of the poker room's areas.

As a matter of fact, when it comes to poker table cloth, that standard green baize from the movies is out these days. "Speed cloth" like these choice colors of suited waterproof stalwart table felt cloth is the happening thing! Why is this poker table cloth known as "speed cloth"? You can probably imagine why.

Those cards just glide right across the surface, so that a poker amateur can deal the cards like a pro...and you don't have those annoying instances where the card catches part of the cloth and flips over to reveal itself to all.

Oh, yes, and this is also a great stain-and-liquid-resistant material! If you want to be the toast of the town when you host your in-home Friday or Saturday night games or when people come to your tavern and start up a game, select some "speed cloth" (typically 70% polyester and 30% olefin).

In addition, this type of poker table cloth is especially cut and designed to accommodate the size of a standard or octagonal poker table. Whether you order your speed cloth from a local poker supply merchant or from a website, you'll receive a swathe of material which is the number of chosen units (yards) long by fifty nine inches wide. You'll find it priced out by the linear yard.

But, if you want a classic look for your poker room, the poker table cloth you may want to go with is the casino grade single color. Whether you go with red, green, or blue (the classic casino colors), you'll be sure to give your poker room that professional look. People will feel as if they have jetted off to the Sunset Strip, the Atlantic City boardwalk, a South Dakota saloon, or exotic Monaco! Well, alright...maybe not. Nevertheless, you will have your poker tables dressed for success!

As we said earlier, the big game in poker these days is Texas Hold'em. If you're planning on making that "thee" game at your place, why not check out some Texas Hold'em poker table cloth? This comes with the special design markings on it exactly like what you see on all of those televised Texas Hold'em tournies. At 36 x 72 inches in dimensions, this cloth comes with authentic betting lines and is cut from thick, durable felt in vivid casino colors.

So, once again, don't take your poker table cloth choice for granted. Don't throw just any ol' cloth over your poker table. Would the Trump Plaza do that?

Learn more about Poker Chips and Poker Table Cloth from Brian Garvin & Jeff West at Poker Stars Direct.

A Review of Some Popular Poker Party Supplies

For the home poker players, every poker night is a party. Nowadays, any one can host their own poker parties with the appropriate supplies in tow. It is usually wise to stand by the basics of poker, insert in a little flair, and create this kind of party enjoyable for everyone. A poker game party can be a great experience to get acquainted with the neighbors as well if you are new in town. You can deal for real cash or just for fun. As poker is quickly becoming a sought-after activity, poker party supplies are in demand as well.

Some poker party supplies include a huge table with lots of chairs to squeeze in the guests. Consider adding some poker playing tips inscribed on the invitations to encourage your guests to participate in the party especially for those who are not familiar playing poker. Add some extras like pennies, used poker chips, or counterfeit coins to put across your message that your poker party is going to be fun and exciting.

To run things smoothly, supply yourself with the basic poker party supplies. They include clay poker chips, table seating cards, penalty cards, chip covers, card decks, even a face card protector, and of course, a poker table. Poker chips vary in colors so you can dole out unique values for each poker chip.

Table seating cards referred to as poker placement cards, usually seat your players fast and with more precision. Penalty poker cards are handed to those who do not follow poker rules accordingly and it is also a great way to have some organization. One of the most popular poker supplies are the face card protectors. Poker players use these items to secure their cards during gameplay.

Poker players may say that poker parties are not the same without beer in it. But you can also serve some non-alcoholic refreshments and drinks like chilled water, wine, and colas. Food supplies are staple of poker parties. Do not forget to pull that pizza out of the oven, have some submarine sandwiches prepared, finger foods with dips, and chips. Create a simple menu without the formalities since a great way to enjoy a poker night is to have that easygoing atmosphere, a tradition of every poker night.

But before playing a serious game of poker with your friends, check whether playing for real money is legal within your area. While some areas permit small stakes poker games among at home, some places have stricter gambling laws. It is a fine idea to note the risks of an open low stakes game. You certainly do not want to get raided during your poker parties. Of course, you can always opt to play for prizes instead.

After you have settled on whether the party will be for real or just for fun and preparing the appropriate poker party supplies, the next thing to check when preparing your poker party is the number of people who will be invited. This is essential because that will also establish the number of chairs and tables you will require for the party. Planning accordingly saves you enough time to flex your poker skills if ever a guest arrives early.

Let Brian Garvin and Jeff West teach you more about Poker Supplies and Poker Supply stores at our Poker Stars Direct blog.