In order to make money playing limit hold'em, one must play well. In order to maximize money playing limit hold'em, one must also strive to convince other players that you don't play as well as you really do. At least, this is the thesis to the book, Play Poker Like a Pigeon and Take the Money Home, by an anonymous author.

The first six chapters cover the theme of the book, how to increase one's poker profits by convincing other players at the table that you don't know how to play well. From there we move into other topics, including poker math, tells, money management, online poker, and tournaments.

The basic theme of the book is a reasonable one, although Anonymous is not the first author to consider the subject. Play Poker Like a Pigeon has some reasonable things to say on this subject, and on a few other topics too, such as tells. The problem is that the best of these chapters are filled with hyperbole by the author, and the worst are packed with incorrect information.

On the "not too bad" side, we have the author suggesting that a player should occasionally play weak hands that aren't as weak as they fi rst appear with the intention of showing these hands down, thus convincing others that he isn't very good. Anonymous makes it seem like this is a novel observation, but it isn't. In fact, many of the book authors Anonymous decries advocate occasionally playing non-traditional hands in spots where one can "get in cheap," be especially deceptive, or provide the "illusion of action."

The chapter on tells emphasizes the overall message that finding personal mannerisms, even in very weak players, is not nearly as important as correctly interpreting what their actions on various betting rounds mean. I agree with this as a general concept, although there's a lot of extraneous information that surrounds this basic point that doesn't work.

In this chapter the author also analyzes the famous Chris Moneymaker bluff of Sammy Farha, and I think his analysis here is pretty good. On the "much worse" side, we have the author's math chapter, which is wrong on just about every level. The tournament chapter is also simply atrocious, where his calculations of a player's tournament expectation are simply ridiculous. His understanding of online poker is so weak, it appalls me that he would choose to write on this topic.

Each of his chapters does contain at least a few nuggets of truth, but too few of these statements are insightful, and, at best, they are balanced by hyperbole. At worst they are buried in a morass of senselessness.

There's nothing in Play Poker Like a Pigeon that isn't already substantially covered elsewhere, and with less nonsense. Even if someone was curious about what the author has to say in the first few chapters, where the worthwhile information isn't completely overwhelmed by ignorance, I just don't think there's enough here to make the book worthwhile. Therefore, I can't recommend it, as a whole or in parts.
-Nick Christenson