Name: Hold'em poker for advanced players
ISBN: 9781880685228

What Hacker News says

rattusDec 2012

If you're asking social engineering questions, you're already pretty well equipped for poker.

My picks in this realm were Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (which seems to be out of fashion now as it dictates a pretty tight game) and also Mike Caro's Poker Tells book is quite good about the most common types of tell behavior you will see at tables and tourneys. It's up to you to determine if they're real or if someone is putting on a show.

I wish I could learn all over again :)

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lionheartedMay 2010

Nice post overall, but his point about poker got me thinking about when I used to play:

> In poker, there are simple rules you can follow to put yourself ahead of 90% of other poker players. One of my favorite rules revolves around removing any attachment to the value of poker chips. When playing poker, the chips in front of you have absolutely no value, they’re just a medium for you to win chips from other poker players. Most players don’t play their A-game because they’re trying to “make the money” and don’t want to risk losing all their chips (which they end up losing anyways).

This is a good strategy to get from being a beginner to get a more skilled place. You should be playing stakes that you have the bankroll and emotion to be able to play reasonably aggressively, make correct plays, and afford to lose at. So, this is decent advice going from being a new player who is afraid of losing his money to thinking of the chips more abstractly and playing correctly.

However, play is considerably different at higher levels, and you should take and process information accordingly. I haven't followed poker so much recently, but when I was playing David Skalansky was generally considered to have written the definitive guides on playing well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sklansky#Books

Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players was one of the most incredible books I've ever read in my life, and though I don't play more than a couple times a year, I should probably re-read it at some point because it teaches you how to think.

I read Hold'em Advanced before Small Stakes came out. Reading Small Stakes was even more eye-opening - Skalansky came right out and said something like, "You shouldn't be using advanced plays at lower levels, instead you should adjust to the quality of opponent."

It was huge - I'd been trying to make elaborate, tricky plays in low stakes games and getting killed off of it. Small stakes talked a lot about managing your own psychology against bad players, and then just play hands that make strong hands, and bet for value a lot. Adjusting my play downwards let me absolutely destroy low stakes games after that.

I've never played incredibly high stakes, but at mid/high stakes you've got to think about folding to a 3-bet on the turn even with a decent hand sometimes. Small stakes you should only be betting if you want to be called, and then probably should call down after that. Calling down in a mid/high stakes game is going to brutalize you, but you should generally only be putting yourself in a position where you want to call down in a low stakes game.

Anyway, I agree with the general sentiment of the post, just wanted to riff on cards a little bit after reading that. The main point is abstracting the money considerations away is good for becoming an intermediately skilled player, but considering the stakes is valuable again at the higher levels of play.

And definitely check out Skalansky if you like cards, poker, game theory, or math at all, they're really marvelous books.

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strikingOct 2015

For the question "What are some of the best books to learn from that you recommend for a young startup founder?", I decided to transcribe the answers.

"Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" - http://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804...

"Republic" - http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Hackett-Classics-Plato/dp/087... (classic, feel free to grab a PDF)

"The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" - http://www.amazon.com/Principia-Mathematical-Principles-Natu... (classic, feel free to grab a PDF)

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" - http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/...

"Molecular Biology of the Cell" - http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Cell-Bruce-Alberts/d... (different edition, forgive me; free through NCBI, thanks jkimmel!)

"Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" - http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/...

"The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer" - http://www.amazon.com/Supermen-Seymour-Technical-Wizards-Sup... (note: "that one's particularly good")

"Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories" - http://www.amazon.com/Hateship-Friendship-Courtship-Loveship...

"The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership" - http://www.amazon.com/Score-Takes-Care-Itself-Philosophy/dp/...

"The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time" - http://www.amazon.com/Beak-Finch-Story-Evolution-Time/dp/067...

"The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison" - http://www.amazon.com/Constitutional-Convention-Narrative-Hi...

"The Art Of War for Lovers" - http://www.amazon.com/The-ART-WAR-FOR-LOVERS/dp/0671000632 (fixed! sorry about that...)

"Hold 'em Poker: For Advanced Players" - http://www.amazon.com/Hold-em-Poker-Advanced-Players/dp/1880...

"Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets" - http://www.amazon.com/Solution-Selling-Creating-Difficult-Ma...

"The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" - http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarc...

"Winning" - http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Jack-Welch/dp/0060753943/

I wish he had answered in text. That would have made things easier :) However, I'm still very happy to have some new additions to my reading list!

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ScottWhighamDec 2012

I hardly think "Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players" is a good book suggestion for someone who says they are just starting out. Mason's books, while excellent for what they are, are far from appropriate for someone wanting to learn the game from the ground up.

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