So it is about time I wrote a bit about my current obsession / compulsion, poker. I, like many, have been bitten by the poker bug thanks to the WPT, WSOP reruns on ESPN, and other televised poker. I found the online games at Party Poker, Paradise Poker, Pokerstars, Etc. then some folks at work started the semi-regular home game. And the next thing you know, old fhwrdh is a millionaire … not.
Of course, the way I do things is not to casually play and enjoy it. Its total and complete immersion, to the exclusion of most everything else. I’ve been reading every website and blog I can find (more on these later). I’ve been devouring the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup. Remembered that a former colleague from sf, patti beadles is a serious poker player and long-time rpg-er.
Another standard part of any obsession/compulsion are the books. Oh, the books. Oh, the joy of researching a completely new topic via books. Getting the recommendations from the newsgroups, message boards and Amazon reviews. I settled on three to start with:
- Winning Low-Limit Holdem by Lee Jones – this has been the most immediate help. Geared toward the limit holdem newbie, this has been the best at helping my figure out what starting hands to play and when. it seems that the first and biggest mistake the newbie makes is to have loose starting hand requirements.
- The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky and Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth – I haven’t found these books easy to get through. In the preface to HEFAP, Sklansky and Malmuth freely admit they are poker players first and writers second, and both books prove it. There are many instances that read like this: “When you have X in position Y, always raise. Unless you are facing Z, then fold. Unless N, then you call if M is P. Otherwise raise.” Granted, the nature of the material makes some of these concepts difficult to express, but at times it seems that no editing has occurred, that they just spoke these paragraphs out loud, transcribed, and published. That said, it is clear that both these books have many important concepts. A little extra effort is needed to extract the content. Also, some of the ideas are beyond ‘poker 101′, so I feel that these will be worth the
effort and will help later, as I digest the basics and start to need the slightly more advanced stuff.
I feel I only made one mistake book-wise, and that was an early, pre-research decision: Hellmuth’s, Play Poker Like a Pro. A bit of an impulse buy in the heat of the moment when I walked into the bookstore and could not find the Jones book. To be fair, some have found some value in it. I had a tough time fighting through Hellmuth’s ego. This purchase happened before I fully understood Hellmuth’s … um … ‘personality’. Perhaps another attempt is in order.
I don’t think fhwrdh.net will turn into a straight poker blog, as I don’t know enough about the game yet to have anything significant to contribute (of course, now my next ten posts will be about poker). But I will mix in posts amongst the other nonsense.
Coming soon: Online poker, poker blogs and my first bad beat story!
