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There is a wealth of instructional material for beginning poker players available all over the internet, but there are some amazing poker strategy books for beginners that all aspiring poker players should study.
3 CARD POKER STRATEGY. As easy as Three Card Poker is to play, getting the most out of the game requires understanding the odds and learning a simple strategy. In this chapter, you’ll learn the frequency of winning hands, pay tables and odds for Pair Plus, and basic strategy for the ante-play combination.
Sure, poker training has become its own industry, with a plethora of professionals teaching players how to win on video. Plus, there are any number of poker forums with in-depth discussions on just about every situation you’ll face at a poker table.
For anyone new to the game of poker, the opportunities to learn and get better are almost endless.
But with a few thousand poker strategy books to be read, beginners should be use books as the foundation to any poker syllabus. That said, it can be almost impossible for beginners to decide where they should begin, so we’ve put together our very own list of the Top Five Poker Strategy Books For Beginners.
Poker For Dummies, Richard D. Harroch and Lou Krieger (2000)
A lack of understanding of the basic concepts of poker doesn’t necessarily make you a dummy. But since the “For Dummies” book series has taught people everything from how to fix their car to how to program a computer, it is as good a place as any to start with poker.
This book is ground zero for poker beginners as it covers all the basics and even some winning concepts along the way. It’s perfect for our list of top poker strategy books for beginners.
The poker book is written by lawyer and poker player Richard Harroch and veteran poker author Lou Krieger. Plus, it includes anecdotes from professional players like T.J. Cloutier and the late legendary Stu Unger. The book was originally published in 2000, but later editions now include a forward by 2003 World Series of Poker Champion Chris Moneymaker as well.
It goes into everything from setting up a game at home to the do’s and don’ts of playing poker in casinos. Plus, Poker For Dummies will give you a good grasp of poker jargon, and all the poker rules and etiquette the game employs.
The book doesn’t include a lot of the advanced modern game theory practices employed by young professionals today. It may be a bit cliché, but Poker For Dummies is exactly that and a great place to start if your knowledge of the game is in its infancy.
Doyle Brunson’s Super System: A Course In Power Poker, Doyle Brunson and Others (1979)
Doyle Brunson’s Super System is the original poker strategy bible. The book was written by some of the greatest minds in the game. Brunson was joined by late Cash Game Legend Chip Reese, World Champion and Casino Executive Bobby Baldwin, and respected Poker Theorist and Author Dave Sklansky.
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While there is a Super System 2 and several later editions, the original was published in 1979, making some of it dated. The concepts, though are pure, most are still relevant. If you believe in the old adage that you have to know where you’ve been to figure out where you’re going, it’s a perfect book for beginners.
Super System contains tips on Texas hold’em, Omaha and stud. The book dives into tournament poker and cash game strategy, and by and large covers all the poker bases.
These are legends giving you access to the moves that make up their own personal playbooks and a great foundation on which to build a poker education. Considering how much the game has changed over the past 20 years, anyone wanting to learn more about poker strategy isn’t going to end with Doyle Brunson’s Super System, but it is a great place to start.
Harrington on Hold’em, Dan Harrington (2006)
This book from 1995 World Champion Dan Harrington has now seen three volumes published. The book remains the best-selling poker strategy book in the history of the game.
Harrington focuses on Texas hold’em tournaments, the most popular type of poker. Even ten years later, Harrington’s concepts regarding all the different stages of a tournament remain viable.
These days, beginners might want to go beyond what Harrington teaches, but they won’t likely be successful in doing so without it.
The volumes also include quizzes where you can put your newfound knowledge to the test. This is a concept that reinforces the idea poker is a game that can be studied, with strategy that can be tested, not just played – One every beginner should grab hold of early on if they really want to succeed.
Positively Fifth Street, James McManus (2003)
James McManus’ Positively Fifth Street is not, strictly speaking, a poker strategy book. It is instead an account of McManus own run in the 2000 World Series of Poker Main Event. The book also examines the murder of Horseshoe Hotel and Casino owner Ted Binion, and is as solid an introduction to the culture surrounding poker as a beginner is likely to find.
McManus was hired by Harper’s Magazine to write an article about women participating in the WSOP and cover the Ted Binion murder trial. Instead, he blew his advance money on a WSOP Main Event satellite, ended up finishing fifth in poker’s World Championship, and came out of all of it with Positively Fifth Street.
Sure, there are some strategy concepts in the text, including advice McManus weaned by reading books by poker greats. There’s even a bit of a blow-by-blow account of his deep run in the tournament that beginners can certainly learn from.
However, Positively Fifth Street stands more as a great introduction to poker culture than poker strategy. Either way, it’s perfect for a beginner immersing themselves in the game.
Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em: Strategies to Consistently Beat Small Stakes Tournaments and Cash Games, Jonathan Little (2017)
Over the past few years, WPT Season VI Player of the Year Jonathan Little has put out several books. Little’s books cover both advanced and beginner concepts in tournament and cash game poker.
However, 2017’s Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em: Strategies to Consistently Beat Small Stakes Tournaments and Cash Gamesis perfect for our list of top poker strategy books for beginners. After all, unless you’re a billionaire hedge fund manager you’re likely starting out at small stakes.
Little presents an easy to follow plan for how players can exploit small stakes poker. While it’s great advice for beginners, it’s even something he claims advanced players can learn.
It’s all about a solid, competent, and moderately aggressive approach to the game that beginners will easily benefit from. Tthe book provides a basic strategy for crushing small stakes poker games. The book also identifies the adjustments needed for tougher opposition. This poker book is absolutely perfect for anyone just starting out.
Are you ready to take the challenge and start playing poker? Be sure to check out our list of legal poker sites in New Jersey and Nevada.
If I were teaching a new player to play no-limit hold’em, and my goal were to get this player up to a professional level of play, how would I do it? What would my lessons look like?
Let’s say I had only three months to do it. With most people, I will admit, it would be a tall order. The learning curve is steep these days, and I don’t think everyone could make it from zero to pro in that short a time.
I’d have to make compromises. I couldn’t try to cover every possible situation. I’d have to find the important bits and skip the rest.
I’d also have to tailor the lessons a bit to a specific type of game. The most important skills in some game types are not as important in others. With this in mind, here are what I think my top five lessons would be for a new player trying to beat the $2-$5 no-limit hold’em games in Las Vegas.
Lesson No. 1. Don’t limp into pots ever. And don’t call preflop three-bets unless you are trapping with an ultra-premium hand.
Limping into pots, calling the preflop raise, and then check/folding the flop when you miss is an enormous leak. It’s also one that nearly every player who hasn’t been specifically coached out of it exhibits.
In my opinion, most players would see an immediate improvement in their winrates if they simply refused to limp in with any hand, especially if they chose to instead fold most of these hands.
For most players, refusing ever to limp means playing much tighter, particularly from out of position. Until you’re already an established pro player, tighter is better.
Lesson No. 2. Don’t pay off big turn and river bets.
This lesson might be different in some types of games, but in the Las Vegas $2-$5 games, it’s easily a candidate for the single most important piece of advice. Do not pay anyone off. When someone makes a big turn or river bet or raise, your one pair hand (or whatever other hand you’re thinking about calling with) is a bluff-catcher. That means, in the great majority of cases, your opponent won’t be trying to make a value bet with a worse hand. Either you’re beat or your opponent is bluffing. And players in these $2-$5 games do not bluff often enough to make calling worthwhile.
So you don’t pay off. I know it can be frustrating to feel like you’re getting muscled out of a huge pot, but the fact is, most players in these games do very little muscling. They try to make hands, and then they bet the hands they make. A big bet usually means a big hand. You don’t need to call to find out for certain.
Lesson No. 3. Your opponents will limp into pots, call raises, and check/fold flops. Take advantage of this weakness by raising lots of hands with position, betting the flop, and often also betting the turn.
It’s a simple play, but it’s one that generates a very consistent profit in these games. Players play too loosely preflop, are too willing to call preflop raises after limping in, and are too willing to check/fold the flop or turn if they miss. With many players, you can ignore your cards and raise the limps, bet nearly all flops, and bet most turn cards as well.
Say two typical players limp in a $2-$5 game. You raise to $25 on the button. Both limpers call.
The flop comes 10 8 2. They check, and you bet $50. One player calls.
The turn is the 5. Your opponent checks, you bet $120, and he folds.
In this scenario, and in many like it, it doesn’t matter what you have. Your opponents are beating themselves by playing call/call/fold so often. All you have to do is put the bets out there and let your opponents run repeatedly into the brick wall.
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Yes, there is some nuance to this, and some boards are better bets than others. But against many opponents at the $2-$5 level, most flops, turns, and even rivers are good bets. Keep betting until your opponents prove to you that they won’t beat themselves by folding too much.
Lesson No. 4. With value hands, don’t try to blow opponents out of pots. Instead, play most value hands with the goal of keeping a player in through the river.
Value hands — hands like top pair, two pair, or any other hand you think is a favorite to be best — lose their value when all your opponents fold. If you win without a showdown, you might as well have been holding 7-2. (See Lesson No. 3.) With your value hands, you generally want opponents to get to the river.
Most players like to see showdowns if they feel like they can see them without losing too much money. No one likes to fold and think, “What if I was good?” If your opponents get to the river, often it’s an easy sell to get them to call a final value bet (as long as you don’t make it too big).
Calling these value bets is one of the biggest mistakes that $2-$5 players make. (See Lesson No. 2.) Allow your opponents to make this mistake.
Most players try to end hands early when they feel like they have the best hand. “Don’t want to get drawn out on,” they think. But this is backward thinking. End hands early with strong bets when you have nothing but a weak draw. Allow hands to reach showdown when you actually have something to show down! (Makes sense when I put it that way, doesn’t it?)
If I have top pair, I’d much rather get called for $30, $50, and $80 on flop, turn, and river than get called for $30 and then blow my opponent out of the hand with a $100 bet on the turn. The chance to win $160 with the hand instead of $30 outweighs the risk that I’ll get outdrawn.
Lesson No. 5. Think every hand about what strategies your opponents are using and how they’re thinking, and (almost) ignore the two cards in your hand.
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I’ll put it bluntly. Most $2-$5 players beat themselves. They tend to play strategies that are extremely transparent, overly simplistic, and inflexible. You can beat some of these players simply by betting every time it’s your action (See Lesson No. 3.) You can beat other of these players simply by waiting for hands that beat top pair/no kicker and then making value bets. (See Lesson No. 4.)
Your job as a poker player is to identify the strategy each opponent is using and deploy a counter strategy. In many cases, the two cards in your hand become irrelevant. My experience is that the players that are always thinking about their hands never figure it out. It’s the players who are thinking on the next level that do. ♠
Ed’s newest book, Playing The Player: Moving Beyond ABC Poker To Dominate Your Opponents, is on sale at notedpokerauthority.com. Find Ed on Facebook at facebook.com/edmillerauthor and on Twitter @EdMillerPoker.