Review of Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves

Title:

Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves

Author:

Mitchell Cogert

Publisher:

self

Date:

2008

ISBN:

1434892225

Pages:

211

Price:

$19.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

December 29, 2008

Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves is the second self-published poker book from Mitchell Cogert, his first being on the game of Razz. As the title suggests, this time around he's writing about strategies for playing in multi-table no-limit hold'em tournaments. I would say the book is geared toward the intermediate poker player. It assumes some basic background, but the concepts and techniques are not difficult for anyone with modest tournament poker experience to understand.

When I receive self-published books to review, I immediately get a little nervous. Very few of them are up to the same standards of even the most casual publishing house. Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves is pretty well assembled, though. There are a number of typos, but no more than can be found in many books that come from reputable publishing houses. I would prefer if the book had more obvious demarkations in the text at section boundaries, but this doesn't make the book difficult to read. In this particular case the prospective reader should not be put off by the fact that this book is self-published.

The flow of the narrative follows the progression of a single poker hand. That is, Cogert covers pre-flop situations first before moving on to the flop, turn, and river successively. This can be a little awkward when talking about shifting tactics as the hand develops, but Cogert does a good job of handling these situations. The book emphasizes the early and middle parts of a tournament. Comparatively little attention is paid to specific strategy changes that occur on the bubble and in the money.

The book covers a wide range of poker tactics, all of which represent situations a poker player will encounter at one point or another if they play enough tournament poker. Just as a few examples, the book covers the semi-bluff turn raise, the pre-flop squeeze play, the naked ace river bluff, etc.. All of these are plays that I expect most players will want to have in their arsenal, and even if some of them are rarely appropriate, it's well worth understanding them because there will be times when another player will try to use these plays against you.

While the list of tactics is good, I think the book falls short because there is little attention paid to aggregating all of these moves into an over-arching strategy. The very title of the book indicates that this is largely a catalogue of plays rather than a comprehensive strategy, but if one elects to make certain plays, this can profoundly affect how one ought to approach other situations. In isolation, the plays are examined in some depth. Sometimes, although not often enough for my tastes, Cogert does consider counter-strategies for given plays. However, for example, Cogert recommends larger or smaller bet sizes as part of certain moves and not for others. If one does this, an aware opponent can gain valuable information and exploit such a play. There is little consideration in this book of how to guard against this.

As a consequence, the book feels more like a collection of magazine articles than a thorough examination of poker strategy. It seems clear that this was by design, and of course that doesn't mean that the book isn't valuable. On the contrary, such a catalogue of tactics, even if each is considered in isolation, can be quite useful, especially to those who have not been exposed to many of these plays. As such, this book works better when it's considered as a supplemental source book for poker plays rather than a foundation for tournament strategy.

I expect that most advanced players will be familiar with most of the moves that Cogert describes in Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves, but enough of these will be unfamiliar to many intermediate players that such a catalogue should be useful. This book doesn't rise to the level of some of the truly excellent tournament poker books that have been written over the last couple of years, but I believe there is an audience out there that would find it worthwhile.

Capsule:

Michael Cogert's Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves contains a catalogue of tactical plays one might encounter in a no-limit poker tournament. While there's no over-arching strategy here, and the plays will likely be familiar to advanced tournament players, intermediate players who have not encountered many of these plays will likely find the book to be worthwhile. It's not a great book, but it is decent enough to be useful to the right audience.

Note: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher. I have no other interest, financial or otherwise, in the success of this book.

Click here to return to the index of reviews.