Hi there,

The premise of The Game Plan by Matt Matros sounds interesting. "Drawing from the most important strategic ideas in poker and distilling them into a rubric anyone can follow, The Game Plan allows home game players and other amateurs to vastly improve their tournament poker in weeks or even days."

But the cost of the book feels a touch high for 152 pages, and the number of reviews are limited.

Further, looking at the "requested book review" thread, I see the following comment my Mason about his previous book: "Matros recommends books by authors such as Ken Warren, Gary Carson, and Ken Buntjer which I feel should be left off of any reading list. For someone who is claiming to be giving expert advice, it’s my opinion that these recommendations show his thinking about some aspects of poker to be highly flawed." I usually give Mason's reviews significant weight before spending money on a book.

Any 2+2'r have experience with this book?

I noticed the book too.

I did read Matt's first book: Making of a Poker Player which is more of a bio than an actual strategy book.

I know a lot of these guys get slagged by Mason but these guys do make money and are successful players so there is probably something to be taken from them. The problem is we don't really know how to cut the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

Looks to me on the surface, it is more of a book for beginning/intermediate casual players and creating a workable strategy that has a fare chance of going far in tournaments without putting in the work of a serious hardcore player (which there are more in depth books out there). My suggestion is if you buy the book, have and manage that expectation that it likely won't have anything new beyond what is already written but it is summarized nicely in a concise book.

I don't know how much time to read I will have while in Vegas, but I might throw that in my suitcase along with a couple other books just in case. Those being Raymer's and Sklansky's.

It is worth pointing out that this book gets a recommendation from Ed Miller who is very well respected in the poker world especially as an author. That alone should be a worthwhile endorsement.
The book is very clear on its purpose - to give a very good and sound strategy that will enable any player to hold their own against anyone including experienced tournament players with minimal time studying the finer points of tournament poker.
Only in poker where an amateur or new player have a chance with a seasoned high level professional. According to Miller, this book is the resource that such a player would need.

Sounds like a book I should definitely take.

I have not played tournaments seriously in so long, I feel like a tournament virgin.

Though I like some of Matros's articles, I'm skeptical about getting this book because a lot of the five star reviews on Amazon seem... kinda fake. Could just be me.

I got it before there were any reviews and I generally ignore reviews anyway, but I could see how a book with nothing but five stars would give you pause

Read this book a while ago. Great for the beginner or casual poker player. Matros takes the complexity out and encourages implementing a simplified strategy that trades off small edges for a vastly simpler set of decisions. Too bad 30 bucks for this 120 pages book is kinda overprice (imo)

Hi Umpteenth:

On Amazon it says 150 pages. Are you sure 120 pages is correct?

Best wishes,
Mason

If you don't get an answer from Umpteenth by the time I have an opportunity to look later today, I will let you know.

Now I wish I had longer to be in Vegas so I could play some tournaments using strategies in this book and then play some tournaments using strategies from Harrington's most recent book.

Including acknowledgements, there are one-hundred and forty-two numbered pages plus pages using roman numerals.

So it seems Mason is right to believe the number Amazon gives.

Hi Doc:

From using Amazon's "Look Inside" function I can see that there is introductory material, but the "Introduction" of the book, as it should, starts with page 1. The very last chapter in the book, "Calling Jams," starts at page 120. "Amazon also says that pages 7-142 are not included in this book preview."

Thus, it appears that the actual length of the book, not counting the initial material that you mention, is 142 pages. On the Amazon page for the book it has "150 pages." But to be fair, authors/publishers often don't know the exact page count when they submit the information of the book to Amazon. So, I view this difference as being insignificant.

Best wishes,
Mason

Well, I am not a book publisher so I defer to your experience.

Counting the pages, whether they had printing or not, yields a page count of 154 pages.

Yes, I counted them all. Now, I know how many holes holes it takes to fill Albert Hall.

Well, I just had to laugh.

Well, the next line is actually, "I'd love to turn you on" but if you posted that, people might misunderstand.

I'll give it a look. I just checked out Raymer's as well.

I realize that, and as you've pointed out, I didn't really want to post that. The earlier line I used was a more appropriate response.