some more book reviews

[MrConceit 0]

First off let me say... I'm in NO way trying to usurp Daniel on writing reviews, I just have about 30 times more time than he does, and I'm in the mood to give some reviews. Anyone is of course welcome to agree/disagree or flame. I've already given 3 starting books for playing low limit hold'em in a reply to another post. Here I'm going to post some more general books. Either covering multiple types of games, or not a literal how-to book.Theory of Poker by SklanskyI won't go into a lot of detail, I see others have talked about this. I will say I believe this to be 100 percent necessary for everyone to read when they get to a certain point in the game. It's is truly a bible of sorts. Everybody else good will have read this book, and why be at a disadvantage? Others have talked more on this so I won't say anything further.Improve Your Poker by Bob CiaffoneAn interesting book that covers a lot of topics and a lot of different types of games. He talks about general topics first, such as gamblings skills, reading your opponents, bluffing etc. Then he goes into some detail on Hold'em, Omaha, and Stud. His true love is "Big Bet" poker, a common way to speak of NL/PL games. This is a overall good book. In general I agree more with the 2+2 style of thinking, but this offers a definite good different perspective on poker, and Ciaffone's long record speaks for itself.Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky/MalmuthThis doesn't belong in this section per se, but I'll throw it in and be brief. This is another must read EVENTUALLY, but it won't apply to most any of your games, especially for online for quite a while. But it covers many topics and discusses many things, and if you don't try to overuse the "advanced tactics" in your lower limit games you can learn quite a lot from this regardless of what level you are playing in. But depending on what you are playing, you don't need to bother with this book for a little while yet. This book is for approx 15/30 to 60/120 as I recall. And it tends to assume your opponents are reasonably good, which is a very poor assumption to base playing online 15/30 in my experience (in other words it is more talking about live play perhaps?). Those who loves this book will possibly yell at me here.Real Poker II: The Play of Hands by Roy CookeThis isn't a howto book, each chapter is an actual live hand played by Roy in a cash game. Roy has/had been playing poker for many many years for a living, primarily in 15/30 to 60/120 range. More often in 15/30 and 30/60 I believe. This is simply an amazing book for those of you looking to understand thought processes on how a good player thinks during hands. He goes through his thought processes on everything: From the obvious, his actual hand, and how that relates to the board throughout; His reads on various players, both in general and during the hand in question; and many many other things. It's actually a truly fun read too.Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by SklanskyThis book is a vital read for anybody who is an aspiring tourney player, of which it seems like 95 percent of the new players are. It discusses key things like the Gap Concept and the relative value of your chips. I think Daniel himself has reviewed this book or at least mentioned it before, so I won't say anything more.I think that's more than enough for now. Good luck to you all.