by Paul 'Dr. Pauly' McGuire - @taopauly
 

By George “The Engineer” Epstein

 [Read Part 1] Continuing our review of Thomas M. Green’s unique new book, Texas Hold’Em Poker Textbook...

 The Flop (There are 19,600 possible flops). A “sparse” flop—three cards of different ranks, not in sequence and different suits—will occur almost 75 percent of the time.

by George 'The Engineer' Epstein

With so many poker books available (including my own two rather unique books), I hesitate to write about any. But Thomas M. Green’s Texas Hold’Em Poker Textbook is very different. So is Mr. Green. I have never met the gentlemen, except through correspondence. He is a retired math professor who knows the game of poker quite well, and uses mathematical concepts to perfection.

by Nick Christenson

 In many ways we can consider this the third installment in HP’s “Kill” poker book series, and, in fact, its French title is Kill ElkY. The book is divided into several sections with some chapters primarily written by different members of the authoring team. The book begins with a qualitative exegesis by ElkY on how he approaches the current tournament scene. The strategy provided is designed to exploit what ElkY sees as weaknesses in most contemporary players’ games. The explanation comes off as a bit jumbled at times, and it seems rather counter-exploitable, but there are a lot of interesting suggestions here.

By Lou Krieger and Shari Geller

 We had a chance to talk recently with Phil Hellmuth. In Part 1, we discuss his new venture, an iPhone app. In Part 2 we discuss Hellmuth’s amazing three near-misses at this year’s World Series of Poker, what else he’s working on, and his predictions for the future of online poker’s legalization.

 PPN: Why don’t you start with what the Phil Hellmuth Poker Odds Calculator is, how it works, and when you’d use it.

 Hellmuth: Well, it’s a really cool app. Any time you’re in a poker hand, you can pull it out and you can see exactly what the odds are. The unique thing about this—and of course you can run it on fourth street and you can run it on the flop—is that you can run your hand against a range of hands.

Review by Shari Geller

Decide to Play Great Poker by Annie Duke and John Vorhaus - Huntingon Press (2011), 450 pp. ISBN: 978-1935396321, $34.95 When the book “Decide to Play Great Poker” came across my desk, my first question was “Do we really need another poker strategy book?” It was a question I posed to the book’s coauthor John Vorhaus when he was interviewed on the Keep Flopping Aces podcast by Lou Krieger and me. But after reading the book, I can safely say the answer is yes.

Like most poker players, I am far more familiar with and comfortable playing Texas hold’em than any of the other poker variations. But, unfortunately, most of my opponents at the table are equally skilled in the game. But what if there were a poker game that, if you learned its unique complexity and nuances, you could become better at than most of the people you played against? That is the simple, yet intriguing, proposition behind the new book Mastering Omaha/8 Poker (2011, ConJelCo) written by Mark Tenner and Lou Krieger.

David Sklansky is best known as an author of gambling articles and books. However, I suspect he considers himself to be a general thinker for whom gambling problems represent just some of his many interests. He has written articles on diverse subjects including crime and punishment, race relations, and general expertise, and some of these were collected in a previous book called, Fighting Fuzzy Thinking in Poker, Gaming & Life. Written with psychologist and noted poker author in his own right, Alan Schoonmaker, DUCY?

Tournament Killer Poker By The Numbers: The Keys to No-Limit Hold 'em Success
by Tony Guerrera
Lyle Stuart (2008), 276 pp ISBN 978-0818407239, $14.95

Hats. Have you ever realized how a hat makes you what you are? How it changes your whole look and personality? You might look at someone at the table with an animal hat on and think, "Wow, what a jerk!" Or maybe he's wearing a hat to hide his eyes, hide his tells, hide his thoughts. There are mad hatter hats, derbies, baseball caps with every logo imaginable, fedoras, beanies, berets, bandanas, and bowlers, but there is only one bad hat!