Review of Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker
- Title:
- Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker
- Author:
- Stewart Reuben and Bob Ciaffone
- Publisher:
- (self)
- Date:
- 1997
- ISBN:
- -
- Pages:
- 218
- Price:
- $20.00
August 25, 1998
Recently, I reviewed Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold'em
by T.J. Cloutier (with Tom McEvoy) and pronounced it the best book I've
read on the topic of "big" bet poker. After reading Reuben and Ciaffone's
book, I feel compelled to revise my opinion. I now believe that their
Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker is the single best work I've
read on big bet poker, although Cloutier's book is also top notch and
well worth reading.
Reuben and Ciaffone are well known in big poker circles. Both are
tenacious winning players who are well respected by their peers.
Ciaffone is well known for his seminal work on Omaha, Omaha
Holdem Poker, and Reuben has been writing poker columns off
and on since the '60s. Both have a great deal to teach us about
high stakes poker.
This becomes apparent immediately in the first section, titled "Big-Bet
Poker Concepts" which provides the best introduction to the basic
concepts of pot-limit and no-limit play, and how this differs from
limit games. Before entering a big bet tournament or a ring game for
the first time, anyone would be well served to read through this
section carefully.
The second section is on specific poker forms, including no-limit
Hold'em, pot-limit Omaha (high), Stud Hi-Lo, etc.. Almost every game
section is followed by a quiz on the material covered. Most of the
quiz questions are quite good, but I don't think that the scoring
system used should be given that much credence. Not that the answers
given are incorrect by any means, just that I would expect that one's
point total, and therefore "rank" by the author's estimation, may not
always correlate well with one's true abilities.
Some of the games discussed in this section, like London Lowball and
five and six card Omaha aren't familiar to me, and I doubt I'd play
them. Similarly, I don't think it's likely that I'd play Strip Deck
Poker or big bet Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo. I also don't think all of
these games are especially illustrative of important poker concepts,
but these sections don't take up a whole lot of space, so there's
certainly no harm done in including them here, even if the reader's
main interests are in Hold'em and Omaha. Further, if I ever
expect to play London Lowball, I'll now know what I need to read
in order to have a chance.
The third section is titled "Special Situations" and has two short
chapters on tournament and shorthanded play. I found these sections
to be a little bit lacking. Fortunately, Cloutier covers tournament
situations fairly well in his book, but there is a lot more that
could be said about shorthanded poker.
The fourth section is titled "General Information" and covers a brief
history of the game of poker, pot-limit rules, ethical considerations,
and cheating. This information is good and most of it should be
understood before sitting in on a big bet game.
Finally, we end with some information on calculating odds and tables
of probabilities of certain events occurring. This information is
similar to information found in other books, but these are things the
skilled poker player needs to know.
In any case, the authors do a great job of teaching big bet poker,
and this book belongs on the shelves of every serious student of
the game.
Capsule:
Revising an earlier opinion, I believe that Pot-Limit and No-Limit
Poker is currently the single best book on big bet poker
and should be read by all serious players. However, Coutier's book
should also be considered a must-read, and it's coverage of tournament
strategy is superior.
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