Poker Night: Winning at Home, at the Casino, and Beyond [Paperback]

John Vorhaus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2004

"You can do things in a poker game that you'd never get away with in polite society."

Thus proclaims poker strategist, columnist, and author John Vorhaus in this smart, funny, and practical guide to mastering the fine art of the home poker game (in other words, entertaining your friends while deftly picking them clean).

Covering everything from the absolute basics to advanced points of strategy and smarts, Poker Night is an essential and entertaining manual for everyone who wants to excel at the most popular poker game in the world-- the home game, where the pots aren't cut and the winning gets personal. Topics include:

*Setting up and running rules that create a great game

*Understanding your opponents, including their "tells"

*Avoiding common and not-so-common mistakes

*Understanding faive-card draw, seven-card stud, split-pot games, Texas hold'em, as well as homegrown variations and entertaining twists

*Advice for no-limit hold'em tournaments, the latest trend in home play

*A glossary of poker terms to have you slingin' the slang like a champ

Filled with hilarious observations and hard-nosed strategies for beating the rules, this smart, sassy, and readable handbook holds the key to your poker success-- whether you're just learning or you already know the difference between a fishhook and a dead man's hand. Share it with friends at your own risk.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Vorhaus, a noted poker writer, presents a straightforward poker-playing how-to aimed at beginning- to middle-level players. He offers newbies an insight into the poker mindset designed to help them master strategies that go beyond the luck of the draw. Small sidebars, each labeled "Rule Book," offer handy one-liners to help novice players play like the big guys (e.g., "When you get the goods, bet the goods"). Basic lingo is explained, as are the rules of the most common poker games found in casinos, online, or at a neighbor's house. The easy-to-follow text will find legs as the poker boon continues. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"One of the greatest poker writers . . . [and] an important poker analyst."
- Mike Caro, author of Caro's Book of Poker Tells

"Vorhaus has been one of poker's best teachers . . . When it comes to getting inside . . . the psychology side of the game, no one does it better."
- Card Player magazine

"You can feel John's love of poker in every word he writes."
- Annie Duke, world-class poker pro

"Everything I've ever read by John Vorhaus has been A-number-one."
- T.J. Cloutier, winner of four World Series of Poker bracelets

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (August 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312334923
• ISBN-13: 978-0312334925
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,133,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Vorhaus is now known to one and all as the man who brought Radar Hoverlander - con artist extraordinaire - to life in the "sunshine noir" mystery novel, THE CALIFORNIA ROLL, and its acclaimed sequel, THE ALBUQUERQUE TURKEY. His other novels include UNDER THE GUN and WORLD SERIES OF MURDER, the latter available exclusively through Kindle.

John is also well known as the author of THE COMIC TOOLBOX: HOW TO BE FUNNY EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT. This seminal book on writing comedy for television and film is now in its fifth printing, and continues to be a definitive source of information and inspiration for writers from Santa Monica to Scandinavia. Its companion volume, CREATIVITY RULES, is similarly a crucial book for writers at any stage of development.

Not content to rest on those laurels, Vorhaus is also the author of ten books on poker, including the KILLER POKER series and, with Annie Duke, the revolutionary DECIDE TO PLAY GREAT POKER. "As a poker player," confesses Vorhaus, "I'm a pretty good writer."

An international consultant in television and film script development, Vorhaus has worked for television networks, film schools, production companies and film funding bodies in 26 countries on four continents. He recently worked in Moscow, running the writing staff of the Russian version of Married... with Children, and in Tel Aviv, consulting on the Israeli version of The Golden Girls. He also travels regularly to Nicaragua, where he builds social-action comedy/dramas to provide positive role modeling for the poor, young and disenfranchised of that embattled country.

Vorhaus is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Writers Guild of America. He has consulted to Walt Disney Feature Animation and taught at such institutions as Northwestern University, the American Film Institute and the Writers Program of the UCLA Extension. He tweet @TrueFactBarFact and secretly controls the world from johnvorhaus.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good for the home game player, March 19, 2005

By 

Brian D. Tomcik - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poker Night: Winning at Home, at the Casino, and Beyond (Paperback)

The book is geared for the home poker game and the goal is to teach you how to cream all your beer-drinking buddies and take their money. The first part of the book is a brief rundown of hand rankings, how to host a game, house rules and then a brief synopsis of the four major games - Draw, Hold 'Em, Omaha and Stud. Then the book goes into strategies for these games with a short section at the end on playing in casinos and going pro.

Overall I thought the book was ok and worth the money. I picked up a good dozen or so tips on strategies for playing. I coupled these tips with what I learned in Peter Arnold's "How To Play Poker" and I guess the tips are working because when I play online I win a lot (with play money of course). I liked the section on odds - no complex mathematical equations on calculating odds or memorizing tables of probabilities. Just a simple explanation on how to calculate card odds and then pot odds.

I would recommend the book to anyone who buys it. For $14 you can't go wrong. Plus it's funny too - I caught myself laughing out loud a few times at the humor Vorhaus put in the text.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise and succint hold 'em strategies., December 7, 2004

By 

Gary Worden "reader, musician, fun guy" (Interlochen, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poker Night: Winning at Home, at the Casino, and Beyond (Paperback)

I've hosted and participated in home games for 15 years, including a hold 'em game the last two. Our games are a lot of fun with a lot of bravado. Now we're sending a player from our table to a WSOP satellite and, since, I want to be the one, I'm looking for a quick study to improve my hold 'em game.

This book meets that need well. I've thought about giving it to my poker buddies as a gift . . . but that would be pretty stupid, wouldn't it? I'm on the cusp of knowledge, and do plan to read Brunson, Slansky, Cloutier, Caro, etc. For a quick study, though, those books are a little intimidating. Vorhaus does a good job of explaining odds, pot odds and strategic considerations in hold 'em, including playable hands, how to vary your play in various stages of a tournament and how to play against various types of opponents. It's pretty distilled, which is what makes it a good starting point. There are a handfull of succintly stated useful tips that will improve my play. Now if only I can remember them . .

The rest of the book is OK. I suppose if you're just starting out with a home game, there's useful information. The author has some pretty strong biases against crazy games and wild cards; though those are staples of many home games, he chooses to ignore them. And he sums up play in various games nicely with a major piece of advice: FOLD. That's his advice for 7/27 if you don't happen to start quickly with the nut 7. Of course, if you start "playing to win" at some of these home games, it might mark you as an unfun person. He talks about that, too.

If you're looking for a compendium of poker variations, especially the whacky varieties, there are other books that offer much more.

This book serves as a quick start guide for the casual player just ready to step it up to a more serious level.