Customer Reviews

Complete Guide to Winning Poker

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Moorehead's book is a good first book with sound but somewhat conservative advice. It does not address any of the newer games like Hold'em or Omaha, but is one of the few books with a section of Draw.

Outside of the occasional computer game, I only play poker once every ten years or so. When I play, I usually come out ahead, something I attribute more to luck and the roughly equal skills of my opponents than any innate ability. Nonetheless, the few games I do play and the various competitions I've seen on television made me think that the right poker book might help me rise to a slightly better level of averageness. Albert Morehead's The Complete Guide to Winning Poker is not that book.

In certain ways, Morehead does the right things in his book. He describes the fundamentals of poker and makes the distinction between the two basic forms of the game: open poker and closed poker. The former is the stud family in which at least some cards are revealed to the opposition; the increasingly popular Texas Hold'em also fits in this family. Draw poker is typical of the closed game in which no cards are revealed until the showdown. There are also some nice strategies that Morehead discusses for each type of game, as well as the importance of bluffing, money management and position.

The big problem with this book - which is not really Morehead's fault - is that it is too old, having been first published in 1967. The lingo of poker has evolved over the years as well as the types of games played. The back of the book, more likely the writing of the publisher rather than Morehead, claims that there is discussion of Texas Hold'em, but the game is actually never mentioned in the text. I would guess most readers would probably be interested in Hold'em, so this would be a letdown.

Some things are Morehead's responsibility, however. I have read a number of books on bridge over the year, so I am familiar with the genre of card game books. While Morehead obviously knows his stuff, he lacks the clarity that is important in such books. He often uses poker slang that he hasn't explained and his writing style is, to put it bluntly, a little boring. I am sure there are good poker books out there; this book, while not awful, is still not one of them.

This book lacks any specifics about pokwer situations... It is a very general book and will not help any advanced player...it will only help beginner players slightly...find a better book