Hi there

I am quite new to poker and have purchased few books by Sklansky such as holdem poker for advanced players, holdem theory and practice, the theory of poker, and Sklansky on Tournaments (not sure if I've gotten the titles exactly right!).

My question is; is it a good idea to use these books and others that are more than a few years old to improve my game or will they be harmful to my game as poker has evolved a good deal since the time that they were published?

Also, I have asked around a bit and many players have advised I use training sites as the content is frequently updated and so I do not risk using outdated content. . Are there any thoughts on this?

Thanks

Just to add that another one of Sklansky's books that I have is Small Stakes Holdem, Winning Big with Expert Play... I have a feeling that this is definitely the kind of book that could be out of date now, since the playing style in small stakes has probably evolved a good deal since the time of writing...

However, I am still interested to know if the more theoretical books such as The Theory of Poker and No Limit Holdem Theory and Practice might still be relevant.

Would love to get some feedback!!

Actually not really...

For small stake online yeah, but not live.

And it does not matter really which stakes it is.

The book show how to play a certain effective style vs a certain line up on the table.

So if those conditions arrives, regardless being high,mid or small stake , it would still be effective.

Actually, i think Small Stakes Holdem, Winning Big with Expert Play probably is the best first step to learn how to play limit hold em up to this day still.

Agreed.

A good foundational book is a good foundational book.

Just making a general observation and not a comment on these particular books.

Thanks for the reply. After reading your post, I realised that the book Winning Big with Expert Play is about Limit Holdem and I want to learn more about NLHE! So I probably I wont be reading that one in any case


I certainly cannot repudiate that aphorism!

Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players is a limit book.

Are you playing online or live? In live play some of the players wouldn't be able to name a single poker book and they would have never heard of training sites. The OMC has been playing the same game for 30 years and figured this game out a long time ago so why would he bother with trying to keep up with online kids he will never play against? He is just playing with the tourists and local regs who can't even play a decent ABC game.

I think a lot of people boost their ego when they say things like "That stuff is outdated and I'm too cool to bother with outdated stuff. I'm into the new stuff now."

The material that's most likely to be outdated is material that says things like "Your opponents will do this so you should do that, and your opponents will respond in this way." Against live players that stuff may still be relevant because many live players don't study and don't make many changes to their game. Against online players that stuff can be outdated very quickly.

Books dealing with theory like the two you mention are more likely to still be relevant, and I think they still are.

Mostly online but I have played a little bit of live as well!

I must say that hasn't been my experience when talking to people. The reason they give for suggesting new content is that the strategies suggested in older materials are possible out of date and therefore could be damaging to my one's game. They don't suggest that older material is any more basic or easier to read or understand but simply that it is less relevant to today's game.

So yea, at some point I might start using a training site, the three that have been suggested to me are: runitonce, cardrunners and tournamentpokeredge... are these generally regarded as the best three sites today? (I am most interested in playing MTTs at the moment).

It's just my opinion from reading comment after comment on here about stuff being outdated. People were saying Small Stakes Hold'em was outdated years ago (and maybe even a decade ago) which is clearly false. It's still the book that is recommended in the small stakes limit forum. I recently saw a comment that No Limit Hold'em: Theory and Practice was outdated shortly after it came out. A book like that isn't going to be full of outdated strategies so I think that comment was ridiculous.

In general, I do tend to prefer more recent material and there is truth to many of the comments about stuff being outdated, especially for online play, but I do think there is too much of a tendency to dismiss stuff because of the date it was written.


I've heard good things about those sites but I'm not the best person to ask about this. I focus on live cash games. I do think training sites are awesome though, and definitely worth trying, but I'm not a member of those sites.

Hi Everyone:

The reason that many older books are bad today is that they were bad the day they were written. This is also true with many newer books.

However, those older books which were good when initially written, are still worth reading today. The difference is that when you go back 10 years, no-limit wasn't the dominant game, so many books, like my Poker Essays series hardly mention no-limit. But it doesn't mean the information is not worthwhile.

Best wishes,
Mason

Words of great wisdom. Also, reading widely and thinking critically about that reading never hurt anyone, in poker or any other topic. Don't be afraid to come into contact with information.

as mentioned by others, older books are generally fine.. they give the foundation of value etc..... read them for their real basics but not necessarily the hardcore tactics you may need

the problem with newer books is that they are often specialized or what i might call "finishing school" books. basically they assume that you have a decent foundation in hold-em poker already...

so maybe read the front half of something like SSHE. i would think most of harrington or sklansky's other books would be fine if you don't read them incredibly literally. harrington especially is basically teaching thinking anyway, he may have been applying that thinking to the tournaments that were prevalent at that point but i think he is clear that these are the right moves for those tourneys NOT some universally correct moves.

limit hold-em is not that bad a way to learn anyway.

lastly the books have to really old (start of boom) to be useless as i think the game and books evolved pretty quickly online and in big tourneys. low stakes B&M will always be somewhat soft but not SSHE soft.

Nice little read.

A book I read about 6 months ago that I was very disappointed with was Baluga Whales Easy Game. Super confused on how that book was well received by the community.

I know it's been mentioned before but this book is for Limit Holdem. I ended up starting out with this book, not realizing it was for Limit, but still really enjoying it...it helped with my No Limit game to some extent but by the time I was halfway through it I was already watching Deuces Cracked No Limit videos.

Anyways, I wanted to mention, there is a newer No Limit version of that book, it's called "Small Stakes No Limit Holdem" by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn. It focuses on 200NL 6max online games but the strategy can obviously be applied to other no limit holdem formats. Check out the reviews on Amazon.

Small Stakes Holdem, Winning Big with Expert Play

Might be the best LIVE limit hold em' book. And maybe one of the best books on poker. (imo) This book will be great for anything up to ~$20/$40 game. Yes I've read the other recently limit books. They are great for advanced play and suitable for higher limits.