Review of Poker Essays Volume III
- Title:
- Poker Essays Volume III
- Author:
- Mason Malmuth
- Publisher:
- Two Plus Two Publishing
- Date:
- 2001
- ISBN:
- 1-880685-27-2
- Pages:
- 270
- Price:
- $24.95
July 30, 2001
Mason Malmuth has been one of the most prolific poker writers over the
last twenty years. Every few years, he collects the best articles
he has written, revises them, and publishes them as the next installment
in his Poker Essays series. Poker Essays Volume III
represents what Malmuth thinks were his best essays to have appeared
in the magazines Poker Digest and Card Player as
well as on the Two Plus Two
web site over the last five years.
The articles are divided into seven sections, more to break up the book
I think than because the categories are all that important. The sections
include General Concepts, Technical Ideas, Strategic Ideas, In the
Cardrooms, Hands to Talk About, The Ciaffone Quiz, and Two More Quizzes.
If these categories seem familiar, it's because five of them have appeared
in all three volumes of the author's Poker Essays series.
As one would expect from Malmuth, most of these essays are quite good,
although they tend to not be as fundamental as the authors work in
Gambling Theory and Other Topics or even the earlier
Poker Essays books. This shouldn't be too surprising,
as the author has laid the groundwork for his ideas on poker in his
previous works. The articles in Poker Essays Volume III are
predominantly focusing on refining ideas Malmuth (sometimes with
David Sklansky) has presented in earlier books, or they compare or
evaluate key concepts or situations.
Because of this, the reader would probably be best served by reading
a great deal of the Two Plus Two catalog before attacking this book.
I would suggest that reading and studying Hold'em Poker for
Advanced Players, Seven Card Stud for Advanced Players,
Sklansky's Theory of Poker, and Gambling Theory and
Other Topics before working on Malmuth's latest. However, this
isn't strictly necessary. Also, while it would make some sense to
read the first two volumes in the Poker Essays series
first, this isn't critical for understanding his latest book.
There are places in Malmuth's essays where I might mildly disagree with
the author on certain points and strategies, although in those cases
one probably be well advised to put more stock in what Malmuth has to
say than in my statements, and Malmuth points out several places where
his ideas have been especially controversial in the essays themselves.
However, even if several of these ideas turned out to be strictly
incorrect, I still don't believe it would detract significantly from
the book. When
one is attempting to master a complex field of study, whether it's
poker, medicine, physics, etc., key breakthroughs do not come when a
student passes some threshold of knowledge, but when they have acquired
the tools to think about problems in an expert way. Whether raising
with 87 suited in late position in a Holdem game is correct or not isn't
very important. What is important is that a player can evaluate these
situations in an expert manner. What Poker Essays Volume III
provides are examples of the sorts of thought processes that are important
in mastering the game. It's not at all important that a poker student
remember every specific situation that Malmuth writes about, but it is
important that they do the sorts of analyses that Malmuth does quickly at
the table and thoroughly away from it.
Over the years, Malmuth has also greatly improved his writing. In my
opinion, his statements are more precise than they were a decade ago.
Further, he goes to some lengths to diffuse tangental arguments and
cover alternative situations which makes the theses of his essays manifest.
Poker Essays Volume III is
a very readable book whose ideas are clearly communicated. I also think
it's a very good book, although almost certainly more useful to relatively
advanced poker students. While I strongly recommend reading the "core"
elements of the Two Plus Two catalog first, this is a worthy addition
to a serious poker player's library.
Capsule:
Poker Essays Volume III provides a collection of articles
which are excellent examples about how to think about poker at an expert
level. This book is geared toward advanced players and is a quality
extension of the Two Plus Two core poker catalog. I recommend it.
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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