Review of The Complete Book of Hold'em Poker

Title:

The Complete Book of Hold'em Poker

Author:

Gary Carson

Publisher:

Lyle Stuart

Date:

2001

ISBN:

0-8184-0605-4

Pages:

313

Price:

$14.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

December 10, 2001

In his book, Gary Carson states that his focus is on Hold'em as a "game of money and odds." While I don't believe his perspective is as novel as he seems to claim, Carson does have some interesting things to say about the game, and although most of the strategies and advice given in his book have been documented elsewhere, he does present some ideas that I believe are certainly worth considering.

The book begins with the obligatory introductory section which describes the basics and mechanics of the game. In my opinion, the best part of this chapter is the information on "Overrated Concepts", where Carson briefly discusses some misconceptions about winning poker that beginning players are likely to have, and also discusses several classes of mistakes that poor players generally tend to make. There's nothing here that hasn't been discussed in the literature before, but the points he makes are good ones.

The bulk of the book lies in the second section, titled "Advanced Concepts". Here is where Carson details the strategies he uses to win at Texas Hold'em poker. While much of this information has appeared in other books, there are new ideas here, and some familiar notions are communicated from a fresh viewpoint, which may be of benefit to even the most well-read player. The author writes in a very vigorous style. Carson doesn't qualify his strategic ideas with, "in my opinion", and he is often a little relaxed about communicating under what situations his ideas would be more or less applicable. Many of these ideas will be considered controversial by other experienced poker players, and in my opinion, they do not quite deserve the strength of conviction they are given in this book. This does not mean that these ideas are bad ones by any means, but I fear that evaluating their appropriateness in different games and situations probably requires skills that a less experienced player does not yet possess, making some of these ideas dangerous.

The remaining brief sections cover topics such as cheating, playing for a living, poker information on the Internet, etc.. I think Carson might alarm readers about cheating more than he probably intends, but most of the information in this section is well considered, although I would have appreciated even more information on several of these topics.

While I think the book would have benefited from another editing pass to smooth it out, provide some additional balance between sections, and present some of the overriding themes more consistently throughout, The Complete Book of Hold'em Poker effectively communicates the author's ideas about how to play a winning game, and at a refreshingly reasonable price for a poker book of this length. There are enough good concepts in these pages that experienced players should expect to encounter some interesting ideas which under right circumstances are likely to improve their game. I fear that less experienced players who haven't developed the tools to think critically about poker strategies might not always be able to easily adapt Carson's ideas to their game.

Capsule:

While Gary Carson's The Complete Book of Hold'em Poker doesn't quite live up to its title, there are enough good ideas and well communicated strategic concepts in this reasonably priced book to make it worth the money and time it takes to read it. Carson's writing style doesn't leave a lot of room for disagreement, so there is some danger that less experienced players may try to adapt some of his ideas and strategies to situations where they aren't applicable, but critical readers will probably find much of it interesting. I give The Complete Book of Hold'em Poker a qualified recommendation, although I wouldn't place it near the top of my recommended reading list.