Championship Tournament Practice Hands [Paperback]

Tom McEvoy (Author), T.J. Cloutier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

Championship Tournament Practice Hands give readers two types of instruction designed to help them become winning tournament players. First, the authors allow you to get inside their heads as they think their way through the correct strategy for playing 57 no-limit and limit hold'em practice hands. These practice show how world-class players use skill and intuition to play strategic hands for maximum profit in tournament scenarios. Second, the authors explain how world-class players played 45 Key Hands at the World Series of Poker. By sharing their analysis and opinion about the way the winners and losers played these key hands, the author believe that you will gain useful insights into how tournament poker is played at the highest levels. With tournament poker players putting up record amounts of money everyday in online and on-land tournaments, this timely book should help you win your share of poker's newest bonanza.

Editorial Reviews

Review

By reading this book you'll learn how the champions play and think to win tournaments. I recommend it highly. -- Brad Daugherty, 1991 World Champion of Poker

The one player that all of us fear the most at the final table is T.J. Cloutier. -- Berry Johnston, 1986 World Champion of Poker

About the Author

T.J. Cloutier won Card Player magazine's Tournament Player of the Year award in 1998 and again in 2003. He is the winningest player on the tournament circuit.

Tom McEvoy, the 1983 World Champion of Poker and the author of 8 poker books, is widely recognized as a master teacher.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Cardsmith Publishing (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884466443
• ISBN-13: 978-1884466441
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Same material as Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'Em, March 11, 2005

By 

Mike Schneider "schneid" (Illinois) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Trademark Championship Holdem Tournament Hands-Mcevoy /Cloutier Instructional (Multi) (Sports)

I really enjoyed Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'Em and was looking forward to reading this book. The book is about 1/2 limit hold'em hands and 1/2 no-limit hold'em hands. The no-limit hold'em hands are the same as the material presented in Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'Em. So if you are looking for different material on no-limit, this book is not it. It also contains actual hands played from many different WSOP championships, which are interesting. It's a good book, just not much different from Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'Em.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good advice but could be more tournament oriented, April 9, 2006

By 

obediah (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trademark Championship Holdem Tournament Hands-Mcevoy /Cloutier Instructional (Multi) (Sports)

Firstly, I have to say that the credentials of the authors are absolutely unquestionable. Each author has had a very illustrious career playing tournament poker. However, the effort to translate their experience and knowledge to the written page has met with limited success. There are several key issues which prevent me from giving this book a higher rating:

(a) They combine limit and no limit hold 'em into a single volume - limit and no limit are completely different games and to cram them both into a single book demonstrates lack of foresight. It is possible much of the audience will only ever read half the book
(b) Very little of the book is devoted to outlining the different strategic considerations between cash games and tournaments. In tournament poker, it is critical to consider your stack size relative to other stacks as well as your stack size relative to the blinds. Playing Ace-King in a deep stack situation is very different to playing Ace-King in a shallow stack situation.
(c) Cloutier and McEvoy advocate a very conservative style. Whilst the book is meant to be a guide to how they play poker, I still think it is important to consider alternative styles of playing. For example, they advocate always checking Ace-King when the player has missed the flop. However suppose you play an aggressive brand of poker and you are acting behing a single, conservative opponent who has checked the flop. In this case a bet may be warranted. Subtle nuances like this are not discussed in sufficient detail.
(d) Some of the hand discussion is outright poor. For example, the treatment of middle pairs is very shallow. The book basically says "if there is any heat, get out". It doesn't discuss important issues such as position, texture of the flop and so forth.

At the end of the book there is a discussion of key hands from the World Series of Poker which I did enjoy. Overall, the book does provide some very solid advice but its primary drawback is that it takes a "cookie cutter" approach and doesn't discuss many of the subtleties of the game.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for tournament players., April 8, 2004

By 

Jeff (WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Championship Tournament Practice Hands (Paperback)

I bought this book a couple of months ago and found it to be an excellent book. Read this book first before reading a book like "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" by Sklansky. This book will teach you how to play all the different hands in different postitions. It also has some great analysis of key hands played at the World Series of Poker.