Customer Reviews

Dealer's Choice: The Complete Handbook of Saturday Night Poker

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you want to get together with friends for a good relaxing game of poker, you must have this book at the table. It's not for serious hardcore people but for regular humans, who want to unwind with a fun game.

The best feature of the book is the list of hundreds and hundreds of different poker games, ranging from the old stand-bys everyone knows (like Baseball), to some truly crazy and entertaining games. My regular table can't survive a night without a few games of Diablo, Frankenstein, and Jane Austen.

And it's a hilarious book. Even if you don't play many of the games in it, it's simply a good read.

I liked the games in this book a lot! This is the book for those evenings when you're playing with your friends for quarters, and everyone calls a crazy game. Some are old favorites that everyone's heard of, and some I have never seen before in my life. The illustrations are funny! Many, many poker nights' worth of fun.

I have read and used this book at poker parties, and I love it. If you play poker with your friends, you really ought to have it at the table. It is an excellent source of unique poker variants that are both fun and well designed.

I was looking for something that would give me some solid basics (House Rules Examples, Low Hand, basic variants) and a "How To". That part of book is solid and useful. Oh yeah, there are are also a boat load of variants that I have only even begun to take in. I will be breaking those out next poker night (about once a month).

If your looking for strategy, this isn't really for you, but if you want a book that will make you feel comfortable with basic poker and give you plenty of games to dabble at It's a good purchase.

This is not a book for ultra-serious, competitive poker players or wanna-bes. This is a book- indeed THE book- for people who want to play poker as a social game, with friends and family sitting down together, where the fun is worth more than any money that might change hands. (Part of this is due to the book setting the default unit of betting at a nickel- keeping the cash risk very low, and with it the tensions that might otherwise ruin a social night.)

In addition to useful rules and hints on how to host a game, how to set "house rules" and what house rules need to be set, and what needs to be done with certain kinds of "trouble players", the book provides over 200 variations of poker (plus a few games which, although popular at social poker tables, are NOT poker). These games range from old stand-bys (Anaconda, Baseball) to the homebrewed (Brian Snoddy's Midget Porn) to the outright bizarre and evil (Hamlet Meets the Three Stooges, and most especially Frankenstein).

The book is interspersed with (far, far too few) illustrations and comics by co-author Phil Foglio, renowned as a comic creator and science-fiction illustrator for decades. This volume is worth the purchase for those illustrations alone, in my opinion... but even without them, it's a worthy book for those who don't read Girl Genius or Myth Adventures, but who do appreciate a fun night gaming with their buddies... and, just perhaps, lightening their pockets in the process.

If your poker nights aren't exactly serious poker games, this book is perfect. 200+ poker variations. Some involve skill(various Hold Em variations.) Some are blind luck. Some are ridiculous(Diablo)and some aren't poker at all. If you enjoy an entertaining night of 'Dealer Calls' card games, you'll get a lot of uses out of this book. I try and pluck 1 or 2 games out of there at every game. Some don't fare well, but others have become poker night staples. Do Ya, Good Cop Bad Cop, Black Jacque Shellaque and many others have become poker night faves.

Who plays with a 10 cent ante these days? Lots of poker info but somewhat outdated and uninteresting. I'm sure there are better poker books out there somewhere.

I was very hopeful regarding this book as I have not been able to find a good 'neighborhood poker' book. However this is not the answer. I did not even realize Phil Foglio's involvement with it until I started to read it and while a big fan of his art/comics I can't reccomend this book.