Review of Fundamentals of Poker
- Title:
- Fundamentals of Poker
- Author:
- Mason Malmuth and Lynne Loomis
- Publisher:
- Two Plus Two Publishing
- Date:
- 1992
- ISBN:
- 1-880685-24-8
- Pages:
- 72
- Price:
- $5.95
May 7, 2000
There are a lot of people in this world that like to play poker, but don't
really know the ropes. A lot of fun games go on at kitchen tables
that don't look much like what is played in card rooms, and these public
games can be extremely intimidating to people thinking about playing in
a casino for the first time.
Clearly, there is the need for a simple book that bridges the gap, that
introduces the basic concepts of poker to a wide audience.
Fundamentals of Poker is a short book that can be easily read
by the average reader in less than an hour. It starts with an introduction
and a brief history of the game, that for being only two pages long, is
fairly thorough. Next, the authors discuss some general guidelines for
poker play, including hand rankings, general advice, and common poker
etiquette.
The next two sections describe the basics of play of Seven Card Stud and
Texas Hold'em, respectively. As these two games are the most commonly
played in casinos, they obviously deserve the most attention. While the
strategies presented here are extremely simple, they're about as good as
you're going to get in a maximum of 15 pages in this format.
The book then presents a section on other popular games, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo,
Stud 8, Razz, and Lowball. Needless to say, the strategies listed for each
game is even more basic. The book also contains a glossary and a recommended
reading list extremely heavy on books published by Two Plus Two Publishing.
I have some quibbles about some of the phrasings of explanations and
strategies, but these are minor at best. However, I do think the book
comes up short on explaining casino decorum. I don't think ten more pages
would have harmed the book any, and extra information on how the house makes
its money, how to get on the lists for games, and some more information on how
casino games are likely to be different from home games (pace, quality of
opposition, etc.) would have been well worth the effort. True, given the
variation of procedures in today's card rooms this isn't an easy task. Yet,
there are enough similarities that such a section could be extremely useful
for the novice.
Nonetheless, the book does a very good job of encapsulating the very basics
of poker in its small form factor, and I would recommend that just about
anyone read it before
playing poker in a casino for the first time. However, it's not quite
as much information as I wanted before I made my rookie debut in
a card room. There is no real reason for a person who has played poker in a
casino before to read this book.
Capsule:
A good book on the basics of the most popular games of poker played
in public card rooms today. This book is aimed at the novice poker player,
one who has never played in a casino before. However, I found the information
on casino procedures to be lacking a little. If you've played casino poker
already, don't bother with this book unless you think you're missing
something truly fundamental and you have nobody you feel you can ask.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book from Two Plus Two
Publishing. I have no other interest, financial or otherwise, in
the success of this book.
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