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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 795
EAN num: 9781880685099
ISBN number: 1880685094
Label: Two Plus Two Pub.
Manufacturer: Two Plus Two Pub.
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 262
Printing Date: November 01, 1996
Publishing house: Two Plus Two Pub.
Sale Popularity Level: 256835
Studio: Two Plus Two Pub.
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Poker is an extremely complicated game. This is especially true if your form of poker is either Texas Hold'em or Seven Card Stud. In addition, the typical opponent that you will face has gotten tougher as the years have gone by. As a result, those of you who just play tight (also known as playing ABC) are unable to win more than just a small amount at the lower limits. As a result, to win at poker in today's modern game requires not only numerous skills, but also a lot of thinking about the game.
This text contains many of the author's current ideas on poker and related subjects. Topics covered include General Concepts, Technical Ideas, Structure, Strategic Ideas, Image, Tournament Notes, In the Cardrooms, and Poker Quizzes. In addition, advice is offered on jackpot games, handling pressure, why you lose, fluctuations, bankroll requirements, differences between stud and hold'em, too many bad players, limit versus no-limit, thinking fast, weak tight opponents, the best hold'em seat, playing short handed, playing loose or tight, appropriate image, being an alternate in tournaments, taking advantage of tight play in tournaments, behaving professionally, the future of poker, and much more.
The book is designed to make the reader do a great deal of thinking about the game. In fact, very few readers will agree with everything the text offers, but the information provided should help most people become better players.
Amazon.com Review:
There's more to poker than the obvious matters of odds and bluffing, as poker master Mason Malmuth--himself a professional mathematician--discovered long ago. Now Malmuth shares his insights and expertise in a collection of bite-sized essays on every aspect of the game in its various forms. This is no book for beginners. It assumes you already have a firm grounding in poker. However, good players who want to become great players will find this an invaluable source of profitable wisdom covering general concepts, technical matters, structure of play, strategy, psychology of image, tournament play, and card room matters.
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Rated by buyers 
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This is a book that reflects the power of self-promotion.
As the author will (and repeatedly does) tell you, he is considered an expert on poker. For all I know, he may be one. Unfortunately, that expertise is not presented in this book, which constitutes a somewhat disjointed collection of essays that rarely reveal anything that a reasonably thoughtful player would not already have figured out.
The author's apparently-favorite words: "obviously" and "clearly" [often as the lead-in to a statement with superficial validity but having some subtle theoretical weakness]. Favorite phrase: "It seems like..." (or "it doesn't seem...") Favorite sentence: some variation on "As I wrote in my book [fill in name of other book by same author]."
The self promotion quickly wears thin, as his 41 (I hope I didn't miss any) references in the text to other books include 36 to those he, or sometime coauthors David Sklansky and Ray Zee, wrote. The list of recommended books in the appendix constitutes nine books, of which seven are by himself or those coauthors; more can be found in the supplemental list.
But this weakness would be tolerable if the book offered insights that would improve a typical reader's game. Unfortunately, it doesn't. His strategic recommendations are unsupported and often at odds with good high-level strategy; his opinions on win rate and bankroll may be correct but are unsupported by data or mathematical proof; his opinions on good and bad games and on player types are probably correct but not novel to anyone who has thought beyond the shallowest level about the game. He devotes considerable space to an argument that limit hold-em is a more complicated game than no limit, but the argument is based on an extremely superficial look at the intricacies of the latter game -- for all I know his conclusion is correct (though I disagree), but as with most of his opinions it is essentially unsupported herein.
Don't fall for the hype; don't buy this book just because you've heard of the author.
Rated by buyers 
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This is the very first collection of Malmuth's essays, most of which were originally written for Card Player Magazine beginning in the eighties, and rewritten or at least touched up for this book which originally came out in 1996. For the professional poker player they are something close to a must read because of the range of Malmuth's interests and because of his thoroughly professional approach.
Malmuth does not pretend to be a world class player and most of his experience comes from middle level cash games prior to the rise of the tournament phenomenon. But make no mistake about it, Malmuth knows poker. Not only is he the author of perhaps a dozen books on the subject, but he is well known and respected among professionals. Typically he played $20-$40 Hold'em and Seven Card Stud games in Las Vegas for many years and perhaps still does. I must have played with him some time before that in the Gardena clubs, but I don't recall meeting him. I have talked to regulars who have played with him, and they allow that he is a good, if unspectacular player who will definitely be a drain on your win rate.
The essays here concern some topics that are no longer of anything but historical interest, such as lowball and draw poker, spread limits, the old jackpot games in the Los Angeles area, and in general the atmosphere and conditions that prevailed in California and Las Vegas ten to twenty years ago. However, most of the book is still surprisingly relevant and even topical. Malmuth spends some serious ink on delineating the differences between seven card stud and hold'em, which skills are better applied to which game, and which game is juicier and why. He also enters the debate about which game--limit hold'em or no limit hold'em-requires more skill to play well. He supports the minority opinion that it is limit hold'em and he makes some very good arguments for that somewhat surprising opinion. Personally I think it's clear the limit hold'em requires more technical skill and knowledge, but no limit requires more hand- and player-reading skills, and more "gut."
What sets Malmuth apart from almost all other poker writers is his willingness to write about the nuts and bolts of the poker world. He opines on cardroom management, on which games should be spread and why, on tipping the dealer, on cardroom behavior, and he loves to dispel and refute poker myths and misinformation. He likes to quote (anonymously of course) from would-be poker authorities and tell you why he thinks they're wrong. But, like David Sklansky, Malmuth especially likes to write about poker strategy.
Some of the best essays in the book include:
"Common Seven Card Stud Errors." He gives 23, and I have to say I agree with all of them, although a few are fairly trivial like "Checking blind on the end when you have an obvious flush draw"--few good players would do that except as a play.
"Differences between Stud and Hold'em." He gives eleven differences including #6, "It is often correct to chase in stud."
"The Effect of a Maniac," which gives some nice ideas on how having a wild player in your game might effect it, e.g., maniacs in the game make the game harder to play, although they should increase your expectation (and your variance!).
"What You Can Make Playing Poker." Of course this is dated and does not apply to either tournaments or the Internet, and is clearly approximate. Still it is good for comparisons, such as the fact that Malmuth thinks that the good $10/$20 stud player, for example, can expect to make about the same as the good $10/$20 hold'em player.
"Bankroll requirements." There are actually several essays on this subject. I think Malmuth effectively nails it and probably gives the average reader more information and rationale than desired, but for the professional, this is probably the definitive word.
Also good are the essays on short-handed play and whether to play tight or loose and when.
There are some curiosities. The essay, "Are Poker Tournaments Dying?" did not predict the tournament boom fueled by television "lipstick" cameras and the Internet; and of course Malmuth is hardly to be criticized for not predicting something so surprising.
As in his (and Sklanky's) other books there are quizzes pertaining to good and bad play. The four here are selected from hands Malmuth actually played. As usual with such quizzes, opinions can differ. In particular, concerning the very first hand, I think his opponent could have had, according to the way the hand developed, A7o or 85s or even pocket nines (to name three hands that would make Malmuth's conclusion that he should raise the river bet with his three sevens faulty). In fact, this hand is the sort that defies an entirely correct analysis. The fact that (apparently) his opponent did have A9 and was beaten, is only a sampling ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
Poker Essays is a great collection of articles on life and poker. If you're looking to play for any serious amount of money, part-time income, or full-time playing like myself, this is great reading.
Rated by buyers -
Also see my longer review of volume III in this series.
This book is a collection of essays from Malmuth's columns in poker magazines, including the excellent Card Player.
As the author or co-author of many of the definitive books on poker games and ideas, with advanced degrees in math and extensive study in psychology along with multiple decades of experience as a poker pro, Malmuth is eminently qualified, and almost all of his books deserve your attention if you are at all serious about improving your poker game.
I have read (and reread) just about all of his writing, and this book is no exception. Divided into several sections, this book covers important and relevant ideas in poker, in short (2-4 pages each) essays, that don't really fit well into a pigeonholed topic. The book doesn't repeat ideas from other sources, but rather expands on them, or discusses a new twist on a particular idea.
The nature of short, separate essays lends itself well to reading in small chunks or all at once - you can benefit from this book with just five minutes. And, the reading is entertaining and interesting - no small feat for a book with filled with complex ideas and accurate technical ideas.
This is one of a handful of poker books that I, and many other professionals, refer to and reread again and again. This book probably should be used to supplement the other great poker literature and not stand by itself.
Also see Volumes II and III in the series, each includes his best writings over about a five year period. Highly recommended.
Rated by buyers 
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I wasn't thrilled with this book. I know it's a compilation of articles published individually, but they didn't hold together well as a whole.
I've packed my books away for a move, so i can't tell you exacty what it is, but seem to remember the same phrase in nearly EVERY piece and almost the same exact paragraph over and over. I got sick of it after a while. Perhaps my focus on hold 'em biases me, though. Overall, Mr. Malmuth knows much more than i do about playing poker in a casino and i respect his ideas for that at the very least.
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