Customer Reviews

Killer Poker By the Numbers: Mathematical Edge for Winning Play

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

 

 

This is an excellent book on no-limit cash play.

Chapter 1: Analytic Tools, for example, begins with the following question: suppose you have A K, raise pre-flop, and have N opponents. (e.g., N = 1, 2, 3, etc.) Supposing these opponents hold two random cards, what is the probability at least one will hit an unpaired flop? Table 1.1 is the first of many great tables in this book, and it tells us that N = 1 means it's 65% likely nobody hits, up through N = 9 => 1% likely nobody hits.

Then Tony asks: Suppose you make a 2/3 pot continuation bet: how many opponents can you have before this bet is no longer profitable, assuming your bet is called/raised if and only if an opponent pairs? Answer: N = 2 is slightly profitable, and N > 2 no longer profitable. This example ends with the author critiquing his own assumptions (e.g., that players will call your pre-flop A K raise with two random cards, play back iff they hit one pair or better, etc.) and cautiouns that all such models should have their assumptions questioned.

As an objective conclusion to this review:

If you play any form of no limit hold `em, then even if you happened to disagree with every single piece of strategy advice Tony gives (making you a tough critic indeed :) ), the probability reference material alone will still make buying this book for $11 a profitable decision.

- Collin
Author of Sit 'n Go Strategy

Tony Guerrera is one of the brightest minds on the current poker scene. This book takes the dry subject of poker math and turns it into useful, practical and readable material. More than that he gives you the tools that you need to understand the math and to analyze your play and your opponents' play, mathematically.

He explains why at certain times tight play makes mathematical sense and at other times looser and more aggressive play is the way to go. He explains the math behind these decisions in a clear and concise manner.

When reading this book you never get the sense that the math is beyond you, because the author breaks the process of analysis down step by step. This book also goes way beyond the "what are my odds for this draw" type of material common in other books. His examination of No Limit Hold 'em and various playing lines of some key situations shows why math and not just psychology are at the center of successful play.

When you study this book it will give you (as it did me) new insights into poker and a jump on the competition.

This is my new favorite poker book. It took my poker thinking to a new level.

Most books give you general rules of thumb. For example, they recommend continuation betting 1/2 to 2/3 of the pot. To follow up they might give an qualitative explanation saying "it give you 2 ways to win..."

However, Tony Guerrera explains poker problems qualitatively and quantitatively. By going thru the problem mathematically, you really go deeper and start to understand what's going on under the hood. He also teaches you a framework to solve poker problems/situations yourself. In fact, at the end of chapters he gives you homework to solve yourself. Highly recommended to players who want to improve and are willing to spend the time to do homework and study (reading the book more than once).

Odd that this book hasn't had many reviewers. I guess it won't win any popularity contests, but the book gave me more poker tools than any TwoPlusTwo book has.

Just finished the book and feel it is an excellent analytical tool. The author has given the reader an excellent framework for decision making. Other books I've read have not covered the subject as thoroughly as this book did. The emphasis is on reading your opponent's past play and then using that information to assign probability to current holding. I think the book is a useful addition to your poker library.

I gained a new perspective on my approach to Holdem poker after reading this book. I thought it did a good job in giving me the tools to analyze my game and situations. The more advanced players probably know this already, but for me, I now consider pot odds, probabilities & expected value in my decision making process as well as my own hand and reads. The analytical tools I learned enabled me to devise a personal strategy for the games I play by analyzing the game situations I'm typically in.

A lot of the analysis can't be performed while sitting at a table, so you have to pre-analyze and bring your own strategyies and rules so you can readily assess your course of action.

The sections on shorthanded play and tournament play weren't that useful to me. I draw on other texts for that part of my game.

All and all, a good read and a solid choice for learning analytical skills.

This book shows you the mathematics behind poker in great detail. This is an advantage, but a disadvantage as well.
You really should have a strong interest for mathematics and some background on calculation probabilities. If not, the book, even though written in an easy-to-read manner, will be hard to understand for you.
What you also should know is that to redo the calculations yourself, you will need, besides a calculator, additional software. So for some sections, you should be sitting in front of your computer when reading the book.

I have never seen a poker book describing the mathematics of poker in such a detail. Whereas many of us just use the simple 2/4 rule for calculating pot odds, the author shows us the mathematically correct way to do it.
Whereas this is theoretically interesting, I often missed the practical use or generalisation of the results.

The reason why I gave this book 3 instead of 4 stars is from a sentence in the foreword: The author says that his mother, who neither understands much of poker nor of mathematics, was able to read and understand this book. And this I definitifely cannot comprehend.

This book is must for your poker collection if you are serious about improving the math part of your game. Portions of it are a little more complicated then some have suggested but nothing overwhelming.
There are also many great tables dealing with probabilities of specific scenarios occurring.

Tony Guerrera takes the science of poker to a new level. Recommend for all players!

This book is a very hard read. If you are a statician enjoy, otherwise forget it. I wound up throwing this book away.