Poker books can improve your poker skills faster than any other form of poker education. Poker strategy books are the most popular, teaching new players how to improve their poker game almost immediately. Below are some poker books that I’ve recommend, starting with the best poker books at the top.
- Super System 2 – Doyle Brunson et al
- The Theory of Poker – David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth
- Harrington on Holdem – Dan Harrington
- Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold’em – TJ Cloutier
- Small Stakes Holdem – Ed Miller, David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth
- Tournament Poker for Advanced Players – David Sklansky
How to Choose a Poker Book
No matter what level you are playing poker at you can always improve your game, and you should always try to improve. You should always try to learn more. One way to learn more and get a better understanding of the game is to read books. Books about poker allows you to get information and knowledge in hours or days that otherwise could take years to learn the hard way. Poker books can’t teach you everything, you also need experience, but they can give you an edge right from the beginning. If you played for a while they might help you from to get away from some bad habits that you not even are aware about.
What Poker Books to Read
When you decide to study the game of poker you should start of trying to learn the basic and the theory about and behind poker. This will give you a solid ground to stand on when you move on deeper into the different variations of poker. The second thing you need to ask yourself is what game do you want to play. Is it the game you are playing right now or do you aim to move up or to change to No Limit? Our belief is that the best way to study the game is to get a couple of books about the specific variation of poker that you enjoy. Maybe you play online poker and only fixed limit Texas Hold’em. Well, then you have no or very little to gain by reading the book “Championship No-limit & Pot limit Hold’em” by T.J Cloutier and Tom McEvoy, while that book could have a lot to teach the players that plays live games at the casino or local poker room. The same applies to the great book written by Mike Caro about Tells. On the other hand a book like “Small Stakes Hold’em” could teach you to become a money machine.
Poker Theory Books
Before you go into the game specific books we suggest that you study some general poker theory and the read one or two books about general poker. David Sklansky has written a great book that we recommend everyone to read. It’s the book “The theory of poker”. It will teach you a lot of the underlying theory that poker is built upon. Sklansky showed at the world poker tour tournament “WPT – poker by the book” that he knows what he writes about, when he beat the rest of the great poker authors and finished first. Also the “Poker bible” Super System falls into the category.
Online Poker Books
If you are an online poker player you should know that most of the top of the line poker books are written about live games and of players with many years of experience of live games, traveling to the tournaments al around the world. We only say that you should be aware of it, because these books are still the best, but maybe you need to also study some specific about online poker. There has been an explosion of releases of online poker books. Maybe you choose to read the “Internet Texas Hold’em; Winning strategies from an internet pro” by Matthew Hilger.
Game Specific Poker Books
When you know what game you prefer to play you should like we said above choose the books that suits your interest. For instance if you like fixed limit there is great books about that. The two top books about fixed is probably “winning low limit Hold’em” by Lee Jones or “Small stakes Hold’em – winning big with expert play” by Ed Miller, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth.
When it comes down to No limit a lot of people advocating the chapter of NL in Super System, written by Doyle Brunson. And it is a great chapter but you need to consider the fact that the description is not designed for low levels Hold’em playing online. So if you go with this book also study some online specific books to if you are trying to make money out of your online poker career.
If you are going to play tournaments, which is the way to the big money and the stars of poker you should definitely choose to read some books about the special nature of tournament play. There is for instance a great pair of books written by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie called “Harrington on Hold”em”
Poker Book Alternatives
What if you don’t like to read books? There are great alternatives for you. You could join one of the poker schools or why not get some of the DVDs that some of the pros put out there. Howard Lederer has some DVD:s for beginners. Phil Hellmuth also have some DVD movies to study. He has also written a great book called “Play poker like the pros”.
We suggest trying an online poker school such as CardRunners or the Full Tilt Poker Academy.