Hello all,

Been years away from the tables semi regularly and facing facts I was never great to begin with.
Have read the standard HoH, Supersystem, beginners articles and undoubtedly need to go back and re read before making a return to the micros and tourneys.

My question is what should I be reading in 2018 to bring my game in to the modern age.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

All the best

Janda's book

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Most books are outdated, get Raise Your Edge if you're looking at MTTs and Run It Once if you're looking at cash.

Can you stop perpetuating this myth that books are outdated kthnx

Why's it a myth?

Because, with few exceptions, no books will be telling you how to beat a certain game that is no longer spread. Take the Harrington donkaments books - they're telling you how to beat NLHE donkaments, not how to beat NLHE donkaments in 2004, the fundamental game has not changed. Do you not think you can extract value out of TOP despite most of the book being about games other than NLHE?

Sure, if you can find a book telling you how to play STT's in such a way to maximise your chances of winning Battle of the Planets, or how to adapt your cash game to get SNE without going busto or burning out trying then you can probably chuck those in the bin, but I doubt you find them.

As I said in another thread, if a book costs $20 and you only pick one thing of use out of it but that saves you a $50 pot, then it's worth the money. A good book will explain concepts and ideas in a general enough way that you can then adapt them to your game in 2018

edit - let me rephrase this - we are in beginners questions. The OP is indicating he is wanting book(s) to get him up speed in the micros. He's not wanting a book to be a winner in Bobby's Room, to beat a table of GTO bots (I'll write that one for you - don't try) or to win the SCOOP main event. Here, you're wanting a book to beat NL5, to beat your 20p blind home game or 1/2 live casino NL game, or to beat your local £10 rebuy (or, at least if not beat any of these games, not get obliterated in the process). There's not a huge amount of new material here because, for playing in these games, you mostly just need solid fundamentals and, if playing against the same opponents a LOT, the knowledge of how to mix it up (assuming the opponents are paying attention in the first place), hence how to do so has not really changed since the OP last played.

Totally agree the fundamentals remain and are probably enough to get through the micros if applied correctly.
Having watched some YouTube videos lately on hand breakdowns there are lots of changes from when I used to play. Take bet sizing for example, the days of the standard 3x pre, half pot c bet are gone. There is also now more 3betting/4betting light it seems and also a lot of talk about ranges.
Where can I get up to speed with this stuff quickly so I can get back to playing without feeling the game has passed me by.

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I disagree with this to some extent. The fundamental rules of the game have not changed, but playing styles are radically different to what they were 5 years ago. I mean, people (regs, I mean) actually have 4-bet bluffing ranges at 2NL today. You can't read "Crushing the Microstakes" or "Harrington on Holdem" and immediately start winning at 10bb/100 like you could in 2012.

Most books are in the $20-40 range, if he buys 2-3, he's already at a RIO membership when he'd literally be better off with it.

Tournaments, forget about it, nobody has up to date ranges and strategy books, so it doesn't matter how many books you buy.

Sorry, the best way to get better is not through books, it's through the best courses online.

kthxbye

Lol "up to date ranges", this is exactly what I was saying good books don't do, you'd rather have a list of hands that might work right now in one guy's opinion, rather than a framework of being able to see what your opponents are doing and exploit the hell out of it from solid fundamentals, good luck with that in the long term

I liked reading the discussion above and agree that no books are outdated,
but as op asked the best book i found for todays games was The Grinder's Manual from Peter Clark. GL

Well, probably not. That said, so what if playing styles are different now, and people are lighter and more aggressive? A book from thirty years ago would have told you how to adapt to that type of opponent, heck, they'd have given you more than one idea of how to do it

So SPR and M are outdated and have no value to an up and comer?

I'm with seven4 on this one. Read em all.

Read Theory of Poker
Read Something Else
Play a little

Reread Theory of Poker
Read a new Something Else
Play a little

Rinse and repeat

Can you list the books that all the best crushers read and recommend? That's what I thought.

If he wants to be successful in any avenue, the best stuff is online, not some guy going over 50-75 hands in a book and that's it.

Btw, not sure if you're aware, but they do hand review in online courses as well!!!

You seem to be unable to read, which is probably why you don't like books. OP is not intending to be among "the best crushers". He's looking to become competent at lower levels.

People talk about Theory of Poker likes it's the bible. I actually found it to be worthless.

Hold on, are you saying that the mid to upper level pro's don't read any books on poker?

I guess not, but if they did, that'd clearly be the only thing to look at. I mean, I can't drive, but if I wanted to learn, the first thing I should look at is the technical manuals Lewis Hamilton might refer to when configuring his Mercedes amirite

It seems theres a view that online courses may be better than books, I presume sites like ROI will go over the fundamentals etc aswell? In terms of books we have Jandas book (applications of no limit hold-em), the theory of poker and the grinders manual. Would anyone recommend any others?

What about articles/threads etc.? I've started looking at the beginners section on here again and presume the fundamentals threads are still valid?

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It also wouldn't be how to drive a 1920s Ford.

With regards to your other posts as you always like to say this is BQ. What you are saying requires some requisite knowledge to pick out what is and isn't rubbish. I do however agree with the value you gain only has to outweight the value you pay but you also need to factor in time spent on something that is netting you a lower EV than reading something better.

Like others, I think some books get out of date and become dangerous to the beginner because a beginner does not have the knowledge base to understand which concepts have gone down in value and which new concepts have become more significant.

for example...

Old online cash books were written before Fast Poker (Zoom etc) were deployed. Anybody that plays Fast Poker knows that population tendencies are far, far more important than individual tendencies because the vast majority of the time you will be in read-less spots (and it's not even close). Concepts like Bayes Theorem, which is a timeless math based theorem, rises in significance because the Fast Poker player is constantly looking for the slightest hint of info to add to the population reads.

Much of what is written in old cash books is fundamentally "how to play exploitive poker against a specific villain". In Fast Poker, much of the time you will either playing "GTO style" (not my "expression" and I hate it but w/e) or trying to exploit the population, not the individual, and that applies all the way down to 5nlz where many beginners start out.

In order for the beginner to get anywhere in this environment, they have to start constructing ranges, balancing ranges, as well as applying basics like ABC poker.

A modern book like The Grinders Manual will teach you all this stuff from the get go. An old book like Harrington on 6 Max will not (and I doubt Harrington gets most of it anyway, he's probably never played Zoom in his life )

Of course that's just one example... there are loads of different structures and playing environments and and oldish books for example again, Professional No Limit Holdem with all it's SPR stuff, will still have validity in live environments were very little evolves and it will always be about exploiting fish. But the online beginner who picks up this 2007 book and reads it expecting it will serve them well online is heading for a world of pain.

tl/dr If you are starting out in the modern game and books are your thing...buy the most modern (well-reviewed ones) run a mile from the old stuff.

Thanks all. Opted for the grinders manual and have made a start. I'm sure I will learn loads from it and plan to start posting hands once I'm playing regularly again

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People are reading Culture of Critique.

Well cheers for that

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Get Equilab, open up excel and load up some hands you played for review. Repeat this and that is basically all you need. Passive learning is fun and all and it can get you up to a certain level of understanding but without doing the actual work it doesn't work.