With poker's hottest time just around the corner, T.J. Cloutier's newest book couldn't have arrived at a more perfect time. With many major tournaments on the horizon, including the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in July, new players to the big dance should be looking for help in getting through the river of players vying for big money.
Cloutier has won at least fi ve dozen major tournaments to date and has been a consistent fi nisher at the World Series of Poker's fi nal tables. So who better to write a defi nitive work on accomplishing that kind of record but the man everyone knows as "TJ." In this work the former football player has produced 13 chapters, many of them geared to helping the reader examine his or her own level of play and illustrating methods to improve with each lesson.
Where most books seem to save the best for last, here Cloutier immediately stimulates potential tournament player's mind with chapters analyzing What Separates the Great Players from the Good Players including what constitutes a great sense of timing and why great players make very few mistakes. In another chapter he warns of the dangers of going all in too early and talks about how to recognize the impact of antes and blinds -- things Cloutier learned the hard way.
Cutting right to the chase he isolates what to consider when you're a table away from the money and you're looking at a small, medium or big stack, followed by how to survive and prosper once you've made it to the fi rst money table.
By Chapter Five the intensity of his instruction accelerates as he guides the novice or somewhat experienced player to the second money table with clues about how to modify your play while shifting gears after the last two tables combine.
Cloutier, who has faced some of the biggest guns in the game for more than two decades, advises how to play depending on whether it's l0-handed, nine-handed or six-handed at the fi nal table, including personal experiences --what went right or wrong.
His section on sizing up opponents including the superaggressive type is powerful stuff, as are how to put a power play on a short stack and how to play your relative position in the chip count. As you begin to taste potential success Cloutier (in Chapter Eight) guides you to special moves in a three- or four-handed fi nal table while adjusting to your opponents' style of play based on chip count and table position. He also focuses on the all-important quality of hands; raising and limping; playing heads-up.
The book moves at a fast pace, and by Chapter Ten, he's underlining survival techniques should you hit a stone wall in tournament play; avoiding pitfalls most amateurs make in no-limit tournaments and effectively using personal experiences to help you avoid tactical land mines.
Cloutier is a class gentleman and a survivor and his book defi nitely has value. -By Howard Schwartz
