Review of Official Rules of Poker

Title:

Official Rules of Poker

Author:

Kelli Mix

Publisher:

Flying Pen Press

Date:

2008

ISBN:

978-0-9795889-2-1

Pages:

239

Price:

$19.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

May 11, 2008

It is said that at its core, poker is a simple game. While this may be a true statement, those who haven't thought about it much would be shocked at how many rules there are, especially for live play. Handling buy-ins, accidentally exposed cards, players going all-in, seat changes, and a myriad of other situations are all part of the poker rule books that experienced players take for granted. In The Game Day Almanac Official Rules of Poker Kelli Mix has combined some of the most respected sources of poker rules in a single volume, in an attempt to make many of these rules more accessible to poker players.

The book begins with a chapter titled, "Elements of Poker" which explains the basics such as hand rankings, the equipment used, the concepts of blinds and antes. In a book on rules that is expected to appeal to beginning players, it makes a great deal of sense to make sure everything is well-defined up front. There are some places where I think material in this chapter could have been better worded, but overall it's a reasonable introduction.

Chapter two contains a printing of "Robert's Rules of Poker", first for live casino games, then for home games. "Robert" is Bob Ciaffone, a well respected poker player and author. His poker rule book has been adopted by a great many poker clubs around the world, and rightly so. When asked, his rule book is the one I recommend. There are relatively few places where the "live games" and "home games" don't overlap, so one could fairly ask whether this book needed to reprint both sets of rules, but both are worthwhile in their own domains.

Also in chapter two are a listing of the Tournament Directors' Association rules and the tournament rules used at the World Series of Poker. The TDA rules represent a subset of rules for tournament poker. These are ones that the TDA has codified as "best practice" for poker tournaments. The World Series of Poker is, of course, the industry's first and premier poker tournament series. As such, its rules have been extremely influential in tournament poker.

Chapter three covers poker etiquette. There are may things that can happen at a poker table that while they are not strictly against the rules, are a breach of etiquette, and I always appreciate attempts to educate poker players about "the right way" to play. The observations Mix makes are quite reasonable, and those who do not know these conventions would do well to learn them.

Chapter four covers the play of variant poker games. Many of those included are home game favorites such as Cincinnati or Anaconda, but less common casino games such as Deuce-to-Seven Lowball and Razz are also included. Frankly, this seems more to fill up space than anything else, but it's not entirely unwelcome.

Both editions of "Robert's Rules of Poker", the TDA rules and the WSOP rules are all available online for free, so one can fairly ask, "Why should I spend money for a book filled with free information?" Well, not all poker rooms have convenient Internet access, and it can certainly be handy to have a hard copy of a good poker rule book. So, is this book completely necessary? No, but there are still a lot of people out there who I expect will find it useful and worthwhile.

While Official Rules of Poker doesn't add a whole lot to the poker canon, it is a convenient aggregation of a lot of respectable poker knowledge. It certainly fits the bill for those seeking a good, portable set of poker rules, and those looking for such a thing could certainly do a lot worse.

Capsule:

Official Rules of Poker is a collection of popular sets of poker rules, some introductory material, and an explanation of the specific rules to various types of poker games, both those played in casinos and those favored in home games. The rule books are copied from sources that are available online. Since most of the material here is available in other sources, this book probably won't be a "must have" for most poker readers, but it is an aggregation of good rule sets that many poker players will find to be convenient.