Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Poker

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

 

 

I have purchased three of these books by Malmuth/Loomis: "Fundamentals of Video Poker," "Fundamentals of Blackjack," and "Fundamentals of Poker." These books are remarkable because they are such slender, unassuming volumes. If you play poker at anything less than the professional level, you should add this book to your library. It covers Hold 'em, Seven Stud, and Omaha as well as variations of these games. The discussion of how to play the games are brief and concise. The strategy sections are fundamental, yet powerful. There's not a lot of fat here, just clear writing and practical tips. This book will not make you a world class player, but will give you a solid foundation on which to build a serious and sucessful study of the game. Buy this book.

Cover to cover, this book will take you about an hour to read. It has good *basic* poker information. If you understand the basics of 7 card stud and hold'em, then there's not a lot of info in here. It breezes over some odds and gives some basic strategy pointers that are VERY conservative (which is good for keeping beginners from being slaughtered when they first take part in a game), but it is mostly "high level" info about the games. It covers other variations of poker as well, but in even less depth.

All that being said, I bought it because it qualified me for free shipping. Shipping would have been about $5, the book was $6, so I essentially spent $1 on the book - it was worth the $1. It's worth the $6 if you want a basic primer to get you started - simple to read, easy to understand. But, if you plan on trying to develop your game, there are other books that will give you the primer as well as give a little more depth (not for $6, of course...).

If you're interested in learning poker and don't know much if anything about the games, this is the book for you. It is a nice foundation to build more advanced skills on. Also, it is great to aid in figuring out what form of poker that you'd enjoy most. Now to poker? Get this book!

Well, the time has long passed since I needed a book like this, but I think Malmuth and Loomis have put together a concise, efficient summary of what poker is with novices in mind. They cover all of the basics and that's about it which is why they dub it the "fundamentals." It won't have any value for advanced players though. Specifically, I liked the General Advice and Poker Etiquette questions best. They were thoughtful and unique in my opinion. Also, a lot of players nowadays are like me and really only play Hold'em. With that being the case, they may profit from the 15 page summary of stud offered here should they ever decide to play it. A shorter overview is put forth for Omaha as well.

This book will help you start your home game. It has the rules and basic strategies for the major games. It won't make you a pro but its very effective for such a small book and a small price. You could not expect much more from a 75 pages booklet.

The "Fundamentals of Poker" is a great book for begginers. It gives the basic rules of different games (hold'em, omaha, omaha h/l, stud, stud 8) and the basic strategy for you to beggin at micro limit games. I'm a Hold'em player and this book helped me to start playing omaha, razz and others

DISCLOSURE: I am a novice in poker learning (theory) and experience (practice), with a strong background in mathematics.

I THINK THE BOOK DOES EXACTLY WHAT ITS TITLE SAYS: provides the reader with fundamentals of poker. It starts with a very short history of poker (2 pages), goes though some tips (general advice) and rules (poker etiquette) for playing, and basic concepts of, poker, continues with description of two specific poker games (Seven-card stud and Texas hold'em), and then briefly touches on 6 other forms of poker. It ends with the glossary (of basic terms) and recommended readings.

DESPITE the issues raised below and the fact that most of the information can be found online for free, and even in other books that you will need anyway, I FIND IT A VERY NICE BOOKLET to have in the library, WORTH THE (little) MONEY it sells for.

ISSUES
I've got with the few probabilities (odds) that are included in the book (hence one star off):

1) There is a MISTAKE in the very BASIC probability (odds) on page 46 (Texas hold'em). The probability the first two cards you get are two unsuited cards 10 or higher is 0.1131*, thus the odds against are 7.84-to-1, or after rounding 8-to-1 (and not 10-to-1);

* the denominator is clear (Combin(52;2) = 1 326), the numerator can be calculated as Combin(20;2) - 4*Combin(5;2) = 150 or 5*15 + 5*10 + 5*5 = 150 (I'll leave the verbal interpretation to you ;-))

2) The odds are NOT shown in a CONSISTENT way: once they are rounded to a whole integer, another time to one decimal place (this may not be a big deal for you);

3) There is a probability (odds) for an event that is defined VAGUELY: if you have a pair on the first two cards (Texas hold'em), what is the probability of flopping three of a kind?

a) does it have to be PRECISELY three of a kind (and no better, meaning four of a kind and full house are excluded)?

b) or flopping four of a kind and full house are included in the event (in which case the event should be called "flopping three of a kind OR BETTER" rather than "flopping three of a kind")?

It turnes out the odds given in the book are for b)

(Note: It is ASSUMED that the "three of a kind" is formed from the kind/rank you start with (first two cards). Similarly, the "full house" consists of 3 cards of the kind/rank you start with and two cards of another kind/rank. As for the "four of a kind," you have no choice but form it from the kind/rank you start with)

This is an okay primer, but there's not enough to it.