Rating: 
Summary: *** Read This Before You Venture Into Tournaments ***
Review: "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" by David Sklansky is solid background information on how to cope with the details of Tournament Poker. If you have never played in a tournament - even if you have watched a number of Poker Tournaments - you should read this book before you venture into the deep end of the pool.
Even if you already play a pretty good side game, you need to know just how tournament strategy differs from regular play. It is not enough to appreciate that you have to make minor adjustments your stragegy to get into the next round. Rather than always working with the psychology of shearing the sheep, you need to focus on the immediate details that will get you into the big money in the here and now. (Sometimes you have to just go ahead and do the obvious.)
This book provides the kind of grounding in the fundamentals of tournament play that will keep you from kicking yourself for making mistakes that are obvious, after the fact. Even if you think you already understand the differences between tournament play and regular side games, you could do a lot worse that to spend the time and money to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Does it work?
Review: A book that provides help in converting a good ring game player into a good tournament almost sounds too good to be true. I thought that at first, but my personal disappointment in my first hold'em tournament sent me running for help.This book cannot work miracles so you need to be a good player before becoming a good tournament player. Reading this book you will learn one of the most powerful tournament principles-The Gap Theory-and learn how to apply it. The last third of the book are quizzes that discuss possible situations that arise during play. One concept that is very important to understand is there are times you fold a great hand in tournament play. Once you can throw them away, you will be better off. My first tournament, I left in the second round. Two weeks later and this book, I finished second out of fifty. I would say it works.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Good Tournament Book
Review: a few things first. i believe his holdem for advanced players is the seminal work poker work since super system. This book follows allow the same lines. Lots of great concepts for moving up through the ladder in a tourney. It was a little light though on advice regarding closing out a tourney, which is really where the $$ is made. Also, many examples come from games other than NLHE. so if that is all you are looking for, this is not the best game for you. additionally, it assume you are already a very good player and this book talks about how your tourney fundamentals should be different than in side games. if you are an inexpereinced player, this book is NOT for you
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: after reading customer reviews i bought the book and find it lacking in clarity with the exception of the gap concept
perhaps the title is misleading but maybe i am not advanced enough to appreciate the garbage in it
Rating:
Summary: Tournament Poker for Advanced Players
Review: As a tournament player for just over three years now (both in card rooms and online) I found this book to be lacking in very little useful strategy information. Although the title of the book carries the "for Advanced Players" tag, I feel that this book is better geared towards someone just starting out playing poker tournaments. The strategy and guidelines are very basic. If you play just a few tournaments (small or big), you'll understand the basics of tournament play much better than this book can explain in words. Much of the basic tournament strategy covered here can also be found by looking at online websites. Another problem with this book is that it is a general "tournament" poker book. It's not specifically geared towards Texas Hold Em, Omaha, or Stud. So the advice given is very general and at times "skips", jumping from Hold Em advice in one paragraph then Stud to the next. The problem is that I would have preferred more in-depth information devoted to just Hold Em (or stud or Omaha) since the games are very different from one another. So except for the generalities that can apply across the board to the 3 different games, there's no real "meat". Other than a few pages devoted to the "gap" concept, I didn't find anything that new or interesting presented by this book. A series of books I did like were the "Tournament" books by Cloutier and McEvoy. There's one book devoted to tournament limit hold em, one for no-limit and pot-limit, and one for Omaha. The Sklansky book would have been much better if it were devoted solely to playing Texas Hold Em Tournaments (or Omaha or Stud) rather than trying to cover all 3 at once. If you're looking for a basic introduction to tournaments, this is recommended. But for anyone past the beginning stage, this book may not have much to offer. Overall, this was a very disappointing book as Sklansky's "Hold Em for Advanced Players" book was very good.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that useful.. save your money
Review: Bought this book and the tournament poker book by McEvoy/Cloutier at the same time.. and the other book is much, much, much better... If you have basic knowledge of poker, and any common sense at all, the information in this book is stuff you already know. I highly reccomend the other book, though..
Rating: 
Summary: Skip pages 122-133
Review: Guys and Gals, After a break in period online playing poker, my play started to improve to the point where I was slowly earning money. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and started reading poker books. I was particularly interested in playing better tournament poker, since the site I go to had $6 buy-in single table tournaments, and I could get a good half hour of poker in for ONLY $6. I was winning about 1/3rd of the single table tournaments I played, but I wanted to make final tables of multitable tournaments. Just making the final table of a fairly low buy in multi would win my back all I lost when I first started playing online in the ring games. I had placed well in multi, but never in the money. I bought Sklansky's book. I read about his "System" and the "success" stories he had with his system. His "improved system" is a move all-in or fold system based on the size of the blinds, the amount of chips at risk, the # of people yet to act including the blinds, and the # of people that limped in. With a raise in front of you the only hands you don't fold are AA, KK, or AK. Like a moron I decided to put my own money on the line and try to use his "improved" system. Time and time again I'd do the quick calculation, and then look at my holdings. Before very long (4-5 levels) my calculation would dictate - according to his system - that I go all-in with a hand I honestly would never call a blind with, much less put all my chips in. I mean look, Sklansky is obviously an accomplished player, and his statistics and odds calculations are right on the mark. But his "system", which is admittedly experimental, could never work unless you caught an extremely lucky run of cards. Let's face it - if you catch that 1/10000 run of cards - you don't need to know what beats what - much less need to use a "system". Skip pages 122-133 of his book and you'll save yourself a lot of money.
Rating:
Summary: Skip pages 122-133
Review: Guys and Gals, After a break in period online playing poker, my play started to improve to the point where I was slowly earning money. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and started reading poker books. I was particularly interested in playing better tournament poker, since the site I go to had $6 buy-in single table tournaments, and I could get a good half hour of poker in for ONLY $6. I was winning about 1/3rd of the single table tournaments I played, but I wanted to make final tables of multitable tournaments. Just making the final table of a fairly low buy in multi would win my back all I lost when I first started playing online in the ring games. I had placed well in multi, but never in the money. I bought Sklansky's book. I read about his "System" and the "success" stories he had with his system. His "improved system" is a move all-in or fold system based on the size of the blinds, the amount of chips at risk, the # of people yet to act including the blinds, and the # of people that limped in. With a raise in front of you the only hands you don't fold are AA, KK, or AK. Like a moron I decided to put my own money on the line and try to use his "improved" system. Time and time again I'd do the quick calculation, and then look at my holdings. Before very long (4-5 levels) my calculation would dictate - according to his system - that I go all-in with a hand I honestly would never call a blind with, much less put all my chips in. I mean look, Sklansky is obviously an accomplished player, and his statistics and odds calculations are right on the mark. But his "system", which is admittedly experimental, could never work unless you caught an extremely lucky run of cards. Let's face it - if you catch that 1/10000 run of cards - you don't need to know what beats what - much less need to use a "system". Skip pages 122-133 of his book and you'll save yourself a lot of money.
Rating:
Summary: Too Advanced
Review: I disagree with some of the reviewers. I have been playing in poker tournaments for 6 months and have made one final table, finishing 5th. Before I started reading poker books, I just played by gut instinct, and I think I was better off. This book is heavy on theory. Sklansky talks extensively on determining the Exptected Value of a hand and gives lots of mathematical equations to figure out EV, pot odds, and hand winning percentages. Frankly, I don't do math, so all of that went right over my head. The main concept that this book puts forth is the Gap Concept, which is useful. Basically, that means you need a better hand to call a raise (or reraise) with than you do to initiate a bet or a raise. In other words, if you are going to limp in with a hand, you'd better like it enough to call a raise with it.
I'll give this book a second read, but the math really turned me off. I found Ken Warren's book "Winner's Guide to Texas Hold 'Em" more useful, even though it isn't geared towared tournament play. One thing I did like about this book is the hand scenarios. It's interesting to see how you would play a hand measures up to what a pro says you should do. If you are a beginning poker player, you might want to look elsewhere for tournament advice.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: I enjoyed reading this book and it was my first book on tournaments. I have to say, I thought it was useful and it did have some good concepts that I was able to use in my game.
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