I just got this book at the library to look at. Inside there's "50 strategy tips." I guess that might be useful. From the looks of it, it looks like more of a basic heads up book. I wish Seidel made a heads up poker book because he is way better than these women.

I'm not saying Annie IS a fan of Vanessa or visa versa. I'm just saying one gets the impression of a fan/leader relationship by reading the interplay between the two when they are discussing the way one of them played a hand.

I'll just assume that Josh Doody took massive liberties on how to deliver the content then.

uuugghhh... kinda makes me sick that these people can actually get published on the back of swimsuit shoots and apprentice appearances, even though only a select few can claim a worse reputation in the poker world than Annie Duke. The ridiculous thing is that if Serkules published a book with all his secrets revealed he would probably still get outsold on amazon by this garbage (I'm assuming here, would never dream of spending my time reading this)

I'd rather the masses read garbage

I disagree. Poker isn't fun when you're taught absolute crap that gives you no idea what to do in game.

Not saying this book is crap, I don't know, just specifically addressing your comment.

I read one of Helmuth's books from the early or mid 2000s and had no clue what I was doing. Poker was just a passing interest at that time. It wasn't until my buddy had made some money and turned me onto 2p2 that I actually got into poker. And I lost right away too, like many, but I saw that there was more to the game than "live poker tells" and "starting hand strength." The game became more fun.

I turned out to be a moderate winner, but I'm sure plenty of people get into the game and lose more money than they would've by reading stuff that is actually decent fundamental advice.

Games like heads up tournaments are far too complex for a few tips and ABC strategy to just make you an unexploitable player. Many people even know a lot of right plays but come undone when they are running bad or frustrated in general. There's other skills like knowing when to quit, who to face, not to mention the massive differences of top strategies when facing different opponents.

I think information has grown the game of heads up sit and gos in particular. I don't have direct proof that information is a leading cause for this, but it is factual that many more people are interested in heads up sit and gos today than 5 or 7 years ago, much more solid information exists on the game, and the best players are making more money than ever before in it.

ChiRy, is there any US-friendly sites where interest and good games are abundant? Been playing on Merge and every time I check there is usually one or two tables going with mostly scoped as winning players.

HU Cash games are really soft and so are the DoNs. Usually can get action between 3 and 8.

FWIW, I sort of agree and disagree with your assessment. I think that this Amazon comment on a review sums it up pretty good:

(That's "Decide to Play Great Poker" he is talking about)

I think that most people, especially recreational players, figure poker to be mostly luck and anything that is easily digested is taken with higher merit than anything with difficult math. The point is that they feel like they are better players for reading these kinds of books and that is all that really matters in the end. The esoteric math isn't interesting to these kinds of players and that is the difference in the mental approach of the game for certain people. For the masses, "reading hands" and "playing the player" is more akin to "real" poker. Should definitely make a few trips to those casinos you live by and check out the general population at some time. Quite eye-opening. So, yes, in a way, the expanded knowledge does feed the popularity of the game, but people ultimately want to read what confirms their prior beliefs, so ultimately, variety (both good and bad) feeds into the poker ecosystem.

If only good information fed the ecosystem, one would think that Omaha would be popular by now.