Winning Poker for the Serious Player

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book.
Review: I have been playing poker for a long time, or so I thought until I read this book. In his very clear writing style, Edwin Silberstang has opened my eyes to the way I SHOULD be playing. I recently returned from a trip to Las Vegas, and I put the practices Silberstang explains in this book into practice, and I took third place in a Hold-em tourney at the Orleans, and won around 300 bucks at the Flamingo (in a 1-5 stud game). This book is wonderful, and I recommend it to anyone who is ready to get serious about poker.

Rating:
Summary: This book was free after my first poker game.......
Review: I used to play "nickel, dime, quarter" poker with buy in set at five dollars. (Normal game where I'm from.) Most of the time I would walk home minus 5 dollars. Once every blue moon I might walk home with 10 dollars, but not most of the time.

After reading this book, I went to play my usual weekly poker game. I paid 10 dollars for the book, and at the end of the night I walked home with 40 dollars in my pocket. I then started to have parties at my house. But all the guys that came over were cheap, so we played penny poker. (minium bet: one shiny penny) I usually average around 30 dollars a night on penny poker.

This book took me from a "just to have fun and hang out" poker player, to a "just give me your money at the door, and save us both the time" poker player.

Knowing what cards to stay in on, and which ones to fold. Knowing how to read people's hands, and disabling them from reading your's. Knowing when to stay at the table, or just walk away. It's all here.

I'm not saying I could go to Vegas and come home a millionaire, but for home games, it's pretty much a guaranteed win.

Rating:
Summary: Great for the Beginner.
Review: One of the first poker books I've read. Full of concepts to help the beginner or leisurely player become a competitor. Covering 7-Stud, Hold 'em and others, along with several unique "home" games, Silberstang presents some simple guidelines for the player to gain from his exploits at any poker table.

The only criticism of the book is that it's too basic, and never gets beyond the basic winning strategies. Although the book is informative, the various sections on each game seem to go by too quickly without covering more advanced concepts. It also fails to answer common FAQ's like off betting and tells.

Overall, great for beginners, but the advanced player should look to Sklansky & Malmuth for the juicy stuff.

Rating:
Summary: It helped me.
Review: Silberstang gears this book toward the casino game. Many of his comments start with a differentiation between the home game play and the casino game play and expounds on the casino play. I'm a home game player with a group that seems stuck on 7 card high-low split. This book taught me to stop playing weak pairs and how to punish those who do and made me some money. Unfortunately for me, the book doesn't focus exclusively on the high-low game. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it the most of the 5 or so poker strategy books I've read. This is the only one I've re-read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Entry Into Serious Poker
Review: Silberstang is a great writer. He's written novels and other gambling books. All are cogent, well crafted texts that smoothly transport the reader through interesting subjects. Winning Poker for the Serious Player is no exception, as the author presents the four standard casino games of Texas Hold Em, 7-Card Stud, Omaha8 and Stud8.

Silberstang's strength is in taking the home game player into the world of casino poker with a careful, clear and powerful writing style. The ideas he presents are surely presented in other texts -- often with more detail -- but never with the simplicity and clarity of this text. His is a common sense approach to winning, that couples powerful winning concepts with an accessible text.

On a personal note, this was my first poker manual. It, more than any of the many other poker books I've read since, helped turn me from a losing casino player into a winning casino player. In that regard it tranformed me from bad to good. That jump was surely more significant than the subsequent jump from good to great. For that journey, other texts may be more useful

Rating:
Summary: How about "Basic Poker for the Complete Novice"
Review: This book has very limited utility. Much of the 220 pages of information could probably be summarized in about 5 pages. I could only recommend this book to a complete novice who is too cheap to spring for one of the $2X books.

Much of the book describes what to do when a particular set of cards are on the board in a heads up situation. While Silberstang's advice in these situations may be correct the book is terrible at explaining why a particular situation is good, bad, or middle of the road. It would seem that stictly following the advice would make you prone to be dupped by more sophisticated players. Without any indepth discussion of position, pot odds, varing your play, etc. you will only be someone performing the 'correct' moves, not knowing if the situation really calls for that play. Therefore, this book should be called 'Basic Poker for the Complete Novice". It is hardly for 'serious' poker players, and most likely not 'The ultimate money-making guide' as espoused on it's cover.

If you buy this book, be ready to quickly move up to one of the more indepth books, such as Sklansky or Brunson. Good luck, unless I'm at your table ;).

Rating:
Summary: not very good
Review: This book takes a lot of pages to say very little. Also, he assumes that you are familiar with a lot of poker lingo that he doesn't define (some of them I still don't know). There is a small glossary in the back, but most of the terms he uses are not in there. The book also lacks an index.

Probably the biggest drawback is that mostly he gives specific examples than general guidelines. For instance, if you have Ace-Ace-ten, here's what you do. These examples will rarely occur, and he needs to give general principles instead.

Rating:
Summary: not very good
Review: This book takes a lot of pages to say very little. Also, he assumes that you are familiar with a lot of poker lingo that he doesn't define (some of them I still don't know). There is a small glossary in the back, but most of the terms he uses are not in there. The book also lacks an index.

Probably the biggest drawback is that mostly he gives specific examples than general guidelines. For instance, if you have Ace-Ace-ten, here's what you do. These examples will rarely occur, and he needs to give general principles instead.

Rating:
Summary: Worst poker book I've ever read.
Review: Title says most of this. I learned VERY little from Silberstang. I'm on my third read.

Silberstang has a habit of showing examples without showing IDEAS. He says "If I had this hand, and that fell, I'd do this." Well, that settles that. But I'd like to learn a few concepts, to go with my facts.

I mostly play low-limit games, where the tables are loose. YMMV, but I found Silberstang useless and poorly written.

Rating:
Summary: Worst poker book I've ever read.
Review: Title says most of this. I learned VERY little from Silberstang. I'm on my third read.

Silberstang has a habit of showing examples without showing IDEAS. He says "If I had this hand, and that fell, I'd do this." Well, that settles that. But I'd like to learn a few concepts, to go with my facts.

I mostly play low-limit games, where the tables are loose. YMMV, but I found Silberstang useless and poorly written.