Customer Reviews

Play Poker Like Johnny Chan, Book One: Casino Poker

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been playing poker for a while and I think that this is an excellent book. One thing I liked in particular is that it was very enjoyable to read and I learned a lot at the same time. A lot of books that teach aren't all that fun to read, but this one is an exception. Another thing I was impressed with was the quality of the book. As mentioned by some other reviewers, it is produced on very high quality paper in full color and has great graphics. Maybe it will raise the bar for poker books in the future. It also seemed to have something for everyone in it. The first part should be very helpful for players that have little or no experience because it explains all about what to expect in the casino. If you have a friend or spouse that hasn't played a lot and is interested in poker, the first few chapters alone would make this an excellent gift for them.

The other chapters start out simply but continue into some pretty involved stuff. I've read the No-Limit section a few times and picked up something new each time. Johnny really explains his philosophy about No-Limit, which is that you need to play the players instead of the cards. He talks a lot about his style and explains why it works for him. I especially liked his explanation of how he decides how much to bet against various hands he determines his opponents have. He talks about what percentage of his opponents chips he would bet in various situations and also how he might make the same bets if he were bluffing and thought his opponent had either a weak hand or an unmade draw. He also mentions why his bets put the other player in a difficult situation.

The limit Hold-em section covers similar stuff to what is in some of the better poker books and perhaps could have included a bit more material. It does discuss things like what hands to play in what positions, how to alter that strategy when someone has raised the pot in front of you, and how to play unmade hands that are actually the favorite to win the pot. It talks about free cards and how dangerous they are to give and when to try to get them. There are a bunch of examples of good and bad flops to various hands and it explains why they are good or bad. The book also mentions in a few different places how important it is to get maximum value on your hands. It tells you to be aggressive in getting value because in limit play that is one of the most important things. There are a few spots where I was missing bets and what I read should help me in that area.

The Seven Stud section is excellent and to the point. It explains how to select your starting hands well and stay out of trouble. It does a good job of distinguishing how the selection of what hands to play changes according to cards shown in other players hands. It then goes on to talk about how to play each of the streets and how to get the most value out of your hands.

The Seven Stud Eight or Better and the Omaha Eight or Better chapters have a ton of information. I have the least experience in those games and the book pointed out a lot of mistakes I've been making so I'm going to re-read it a few times to make sure I understand all the information. One part I liked in particular that I was never quite clear on was how to play the high hands and this book covered that material very well. It also explained starting hand selection very well. It pointed out a lot of situations where it doesn't pay to continue with draws that look good, but may end up costing you money in the long run. I usually play the nut low draw very fast, but the book explained a lot of situations where that is not necessarily a good idea. It also explained the difference between how to play in multi-way pots as opposed to how to play short-handed pots. Another interesting thing it pointed out was how vulnerable a set is in Omaha Eight or Better. It gives an example of flopping a set of Kings to a deuce-five-King flop with a couple of reasonable low draws out against you. In that example any of sixteen turn cards will scoop you unless the board pairs. The graphics really made things a lot easier to understand.

I also liked the chapter about all the high limit players and the center section with the photos. This book is very easy to understand because it's so well written, but when you really stop to consider what is being said a lot of it is pretty deep stuff. It gets right to the point and explains how to avoid a lot of mistakes you see people making all the time. All in all, I would say this is a great book.

Saw this book on amazon.com and figured, what the hell, I'll buy it and see what happens. Got it a week later, read the section on limit hold em first, since that's about the only game I play well, and was surprised my gameplay was very different to what was mentioned. After reading it and trying out the different techniques, I was pleasantly surprised to see my profits increasing. Well worth the price and the time to read. Have since read through the other sections and am finding myself getting some good earnings in Omaha and 5 card stud as well, although 5 card stud is a bit tricky.
I definitely believe this book is good for beginners and advanced players alike. Well written, easy to read, clear illustrations and excellent presentation overall.

This a beautifully produced, pricey paperback covering the poker games that Chan plays. Of course, he doesn't just play, he wins big. By my count, he's won ten WSOP events.

The book is something of a scrapbook of poker photos, with strategies on many poker games: basically stud, omaha, both high and high low, as well as limit and no-limit Texas hold'em. He describes his thinking as a hold'em hand progresses -- very useful.

By the way, there is little math in book, so if you're looking for the clearest expression of pot odds, implied odds, look elswhere. (For a book that leads you safely through the odds jungle, see Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker by King Yao.)

Remember the list price is $30. The qualiy paper and color photos cost more. In fact, even the hands are shown in color photographs.

This is a worthwhile book with insights from a successful player, covering too many kinds of poker to be the ultimate in-depth guide to any one of them. Yet it scores in readability way above the serious classics by Sklansky, Malmuth and others.

It's not the best first book on poker as it's too advanced for a beginner, but it may well be the best second one.

A solid "how-to" guide co-written by the highly-regarded poker player Johnny Chan, whose titles include 2002 WSOP Match Play NLH Champion and 2003 WSOP No Limit Hold-em Champion among many others, Play Poker Like Johnny Chan: Book One Casino Poker is a simple guide to poker basics for players who are out to win. Chapters discuss general poker concepts for the uninitiated, and the rules and favorable versus unfavorable situations for many poker variants including Limit Hold-em, Seven Card Stud, Eight Or Better Stud, Omaha High, Omaha Hi-Low, and No-Limit Hold-em. Some background information on tournaments and internet poker is included, as is general (and very sound) strategy advice for the would-be career poker player, as well as a mentions of famous and skilled individuals Chan has played with. Notably absent from Play Poker Like Johnny Chan is any in-depth discussion of card-counting or related mathematical methodology; it is primarily an introductory guide to give the reader a hands-on understanding of game mechanics as well as the importance of the professional mindset. Chan's key rules - keep playing when you are winning, stop when you are losing, stay to an environment where you feel comfortable, take a vacation from poker when you need it (never try to win the money needed for a vacation from poker when you need one, that's a certain way to burnout), and discipline yourself to move back down to smaller tables when you're losing at big tables - are vital and should be taken to heart by all prospective professional poker players. Full-color photographs illustrate this handy primer, which is printed on glossy paper.

This is the best beginner/intermediate book that I have seen. It covers all the popular poker games of the day plus general tips on all the games and how to play at a Casino. John also discusses some of the great players he has played against. I must mention the paper is excellent (no cheap stuff here) and the illustrations (photos?) of the cards make it very easy to use. Highly recommended

When I first started playing poker, I had difficulty whenever someone called my pre-flop raise. An interesting piece of advice from Chan himself was to do a continuation bet; in short, to always bet on the flop if you raised preflop, with the exception being when you flop quads or a straight flush. I had not been doing this, so I employed it and I can safely say that it was a highly effective strategy.

Now, I'm not claiming that this advice is exclusive to Chan, or that he made it up or that it's some big secret, but to a new player just learning and having difficulty, employing this advice and at times against my better judgment revealed that it's very effective, and because I got this advice from Chan, I got this book (years later) because in my eyes, Chan was 1 for 1 on good advice given to me.

At first I was a bit disappointed in that many of the tips and advice I had already learned for myself. However, Chan goes on to give strategies, once again, that I had overlooked. Advice on "second best" hands where you trap yourself is rock solid, as is the advice on mid-range suited connectors. I deliberately and intentionally applied the advice on suited connectors which had been previously contrary to my play style and ended up winning 2 tournaments and numerous additional hands by following his advice. The book paid for itself in one session. I can absolutely guarantee that I would not have won these hands in question without Chan's advice.

Having said that, the book tries to be all things to all games and suffers from not having the depth that Chan is more than capable of exploring. All sections are a minority and are largely unrelated. I have no use for advice on Omaha or 7stud so there goes 44 pages I don't need. I don't play 8 or better stud so there's another 18 pages. People that Johnny has played with and giving shout-outs to doesn't help my game... that's another 28 pages. What to expect at a casino (I already know) that's 9 pages. You get the picture.


In spite of this, the advice on NLHE is short, but sweet. There are a couple of good tips, and they alone have potential to substantially increase your revenue. In the end it hardly matters if 20 pages of solid game improving advice is shorter than 900 pages of solid advice; if your play is improved and it makes you money, then it's worth it.

But rather than to add filler outside of specific playing advice, Chan makes good points about playing when you're winning vs. when you're losing. I'm not talking about tilting, but rather Chan's consideration of factors to your play that you're not aware of, and how to exploit these unknowns even if you don't understand them. I appreciate how Chan is sensitive to the notion of factors that one may not be aware of but can recognize as having impact on play by their results, and how to counter or capitalize on this depending upon how you're affected.

This is a 5 star book, but I give it four stars simply from my own perspective in that I learned everything the book could teach me in my experience, all in one sitting. I know Chan knows a lot more, and could have included a lot more, but for an intermediate player (especially HORSE players), this book has a lot to offer even if too diverse to be elaborate on a single subject.

The quality of this work is evident, from the high quality paper used in the book itself and the excellent photos, to the most important part of the book, the poker information contained within. This book seems to be geared towards those new to poker, however, even advanced players will be able to pick up useful concepts from this book. I personally found Chan's thoughts on recognizing and minimizing tilt to be extremely well layed out.
Another area this book excels in is laying out how to examine the texture of the flop. This is similar to the "flops you want" section of Sklansky's work, but I believe this book does a better job of it.
This book attempts to be many things, and suprisingly pulls it off, being both informative and entertaining. This book is well worth rereading and I am looking forward to the next volume in the series.

Dont use this book as your BREAD AND BUTTER book. It doesnt show you the intricute parts to playing poker. It goes over specific chunks of playing and theory, this book leaves a lof of gaps in terms of poker instruction. If you have read all of Sklansky's books, then this one might just be an interesting read. But it wont help improve your game much.

This book cover the basic rules and strategies of different poker games. Personally, I did not find this book very useful partially due to my participation in many tournaments and cash games weekly.

All in all this book is nice to read, great for beginners, and printed on nice material, but I would not recommend for intermediate poker players. However, if you are often beat in cash games or tournaments then this book may be useful.

I'd just like to give you a little background so that you can decide if this is the right book for you. This is the first book in a series. It starts out with the information a beginning player needs in order to move from little or no experience to playing in a casino, and then explains the concepts necessary to become a winning player. If you look at the customer images section for this book you can see for yourself what topics are covered. The first chapter is called "Hand Rankings" and addresses the needs of people who have never played before. The next couple of chapters describe the casino environment and include most of the important rules and regulations regarding playing in a casino. One is called "General Poker Concepts" and the other is called "What to Expect in a Casino". If you are an experienced player, you may want to skip this introductory material.

The following chapters are devoted to each of the games that are commonly played in the casinos and at tournaments. Those chapters begin with a brief description of the game and then cover what you need to know to become a winning player.

Those chapters are:

Limit Hold-em
Seven Card Stud
Seven Card Stud Eight or Better
Omaha High
Omaha Hi-low
No-Limit Hold-em

There are a few other short chapters dealing with such things as bluffing, money management, and tournaments.

Because Johnny started out playing in the smallest games available in a casino, has moved up through all the limits, and now plays in the highest games in the world on a regular basis, he understands what you need to know to begin to develop your game. That material is included in this book.

Although the information is not meant to be exhaustive, it will give you the pertinent information you'll need to beat most home games and do well in low to mid limit casino poker. The object of this book is to take a novice or moderately experienced player from the beginning stages of play to an intermediate level of play. And although this is not an advanced book, there are many intermediate and some advanced concepts in it. Subsequent books in the series will be more directly geared toward advanced players.

We wrote this book as if we were sitting down with you and guiding you along the road toward playing a winning game. We've also tried to include some entertaining stories and give mention to some of the great personalities in the game today.

We both believe it is an excellent book and sincerely hope you enjoy it!