Hey there,

Have a buddy who completely at random decided to take a shot at a wsop ME satty at our local casino and binked one.

This was his first time playing in a casino-- he's a smart guy, has played some poker before but nothing super competetive in a long time, and obviously nothing like this. He understands basic concepts like positional advantage and hand selection, but ideally I would like to drive those points home as much as possible, as well as get him something that will work for this specific tournament.

Looking for ideally a one-book primer that would go over some of the aspects of what will be the super deep-stack play and long levels that he is unaccustomed to, as well as diving a little deeper assuming he wants to make an actual run at this.

I play zero tournaments and therefore have no idea what the 'standard' or 'best' tournament books would be to suggest, except one or all of the Harrington books. Any books on deep-stack cash play that might also be relevant seem like a good idea.

Thoughts? TIA

With only a short time to absorb a couple books I have two recommendations:


This one was published is 2009 so there may be some more current literature that others can recommend, but this does come very well reviewed.

My advice would be sell the seat if possible. Probably better EV by getting 5k for it than playing. If he wants to play it, I'd get a training site membership and tell him to study his ass off till the event and play some smaller online tournaments for practice.

Even if he could sell the seat for 5k, which is unlikely that it will be allowed, he should definitely play it. It could be a once in a lifetime opportunity. The main event is one hell of an experience that he'll remember for ever.

Eh I tried this while he was still in the tourney. Told him he could easily negotiate the chop for like ~8.5k. When it was 4-handed for 3 seats everyone offered him the amount of cash up for grabs (7.8k) and he turned it down.

The money isn't a huge amount for him, and I think the experience was worth it at the moment (he's probably slightly regretting it now but whatever). He gets to go to vegas and play the main, he'll be happy and won't miss the hypothetical money.

Kill phill book
Amateurs needs to force the better player to gamble

how is your friend going?

I saw this thread too late, but I really liked the sample chapter I read in Nate Meyvis's 'Thinking Tournament Poker', in which he annotated (and discussed) every hand he played in the 2014 WSOP Main Event.

Not ideal. He did not make the first dinner break, obv

Lol tough break .

I like Hellmuth and Navarro's Read em and Reap