Customer Reviews

The Poker Tournament Formula

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book has been discussed at length at the 2+2 forums. Sklansky and Malmuth have pointed out a couple of flaws in the book (about which Snyder debates), but S&M generally concede that the methods advocated in the book work well.

This book examines the "speed" of various tournament structures, and advocates a method for playing for "fast" tournaments.

I found the analysis of tournament structures to be insightful. While I knew that slower blind levels and more starting chips favored skill (while less time/chips favored luck), I had never seen an attempt to quantify the differences between structures. Snyder does a good job with it.

For fast tournament structures, Snyder proposes a method of play based on the interrelationship between your card strength (or lack thereof), your positional strength (or lack thereof), and your chip strength (or lack thereof). His rock-paper-scissors metaphor is quite original.

Recently, I decided to play an online tournament using Snyder's principles. To my delight, I finished 3rd out of 1000 players. To me, poker books either cost you money or make you money. This is one of the few that will make you money.

I happened to bring the book on a cruise recently.
While relaxing by the pool I would read a few pages every day.
Later in the week I decided to join---for the first time ever---a small [$60 buy-in], fast [blinds went up every fifteen minutes] tourney.

The night before the tournament I heard from a friend [who had also joined the tournament] about the 're-buy' and 'add-on'.
Without this book I would have had no idea how those would factor into the tournament and my play.

I found out there would be three tables.
Thanks to this book I was able to review how the number of players would influence my play.

Thanks to this book I was able to use the above information to determine the 'patience factor' and tried to play accordingly.

Thanks to this book I was able to profile some players. There were at least two 'cagey-codgers', two 'canasta ladies', a few 'ball-cap players', and even two 'wimps who were gone within a half-hour after blowing their initial $60 and another $60 on the re-buy.

Thanks to the position play described in this book I used some strong bets at the right time to win some hands. I was also able to pull off a few bluffs that I would not otherwise have tried. A cagey codger even complimented me on my ability to steal the blinds.

Don't pay attention to the reviewers who whine how this book has Math in it. If I can do some division, you certainly can. I'm not a Math genius.

Unlike a previous reviewer who won his tourney, I only came in 7th, but I was happy---this was my first tournament!

In short, this book is worth purchasing. The author has an easy to understand writing style, explains his ideas clearly, and above all---has a plan.

Remember, it's as simple as rock, paper, scissors.

For the life of me, I don't know why this poker book hasn't gotten much more attention than it has. In my opinion, the inaptly-named "Poker Tournament Formula" is as original and insightful as anything ever written by Sklansky, Harrington, or Brunson, and superior to 90% of what's on the market today. I know that it's not authored by one of the world-famous names in poker. I doubt we'll be seeing this fellow at a WPT final table any time soon. But pound for pound, this book packs a full heavyweight punch; there are at least a half-dozen brilliant original ideas here, and even when Snyder says what's already been said elsewhere, he says it better.

Honestly, for less than $15, I can't imagine what else you could want from a book. This is much more than some robotic "Poker Tournament Formula" (along the lines of the horrible "Kill Phil" system). The detailed discussion of tournament structure alone (complete with a reference website) is more than worth the price of admission. Snyder outlines in detail how to play intelligent, aggressive poker in the world of small buy-in events; quite frankly, if you don't play along the lines he recommends in these tournaments, then you simply are *not* going to win consistently.

Some have ridiculed the book for its comparison of poker to the game of "rock, paper, scissors", where chips are the rock, cards are the paper, and position is akin to the scissors. But in my opinion, this is the single greatest idea you could get out of this book: you don't necessarily need the cards to win a poker hand; you can win based on sheer chip arsenal or by outmaneuvering your opponents after the flop. It's true that these moves won't hardly work at all in a ring game against decent players (since there you *should* be playing cards and not chips or position nearly as much), but in fast tournaments this strategy is essential. This book will literally change the way you think about poker tournaments. In fact, I suspect it will actually change the way most of us view the game of poker itself.

I'd also recommend Poker Tips that Pay: Expert Strategy Guide for Winning No Limit Texas Hold em as a good compliment for "Poker Tournament Formula", with a lot more specific hand examples to study.

What Snyder points out is that ourneys vary in speed. Not only that but the different stages of tournaments vary in speed. There is a very large range of tournaments between the ones where normal cash-game skill will prevail and the extremely fast tournaments where luck really can't be overcome. Snyder recognizes this and gives methods to use the hidden factor, tournament strategy, which dominates the tournaments too fast for pure poker skill to dominate but slow enough not to be entirely determined by luck.

In fact, he gives methods to determine the speed of a particular tournament, the chance that the type of tournament will be profitable for you and the bankroll requirements to be playing in that tournament. In other words, he helps with one of the most important decisions, whether or not to play in a particular tournament.

His recognition that the "all-in moment" should be avoided and that the majority of ones chips should _and can_ be added without putting your cards face up and seeing who wins is an important virtue of the book. His understanding of position is excellent and his explation of how to use it is inspiring.

He isn't afraid of taking on the poker gurus. He points out that the gap concept, so beloved of Sklansky et al, is valid but it does not govern situations where you have position and the bet or raise is not pot-committing or all-in.

Even in the slowest tournaments I play (the weekend tournaments at Foxwoods where you start with 10K in chips) Snyder's ideas help throughout the tournament, but especially when the blinds and antes have started to make the tournament play faster.

In the Tuesday night rebuy tournament at the bar down the street, which I basically play because I can walk there and walk home, I find his thinking completely valid. Last month, I played one of these almost completely by his pure position strategy, from the time the rebuy period ended until the final table. That is, I raised from the last three seats, without referencing my cards, if it was folded to me. Called after limpers or one normal raise on the button, again without looking, although I never let the other players know that. The only exception I made was to look at my cards in the "always fold" positions or if there had been a big raise previously, so that I wouldn't miss any good hands in those situation.

I got to the final table with a chip lead and won it. This isn't the first time I have won that tournament but it might have been the most fun.

His emphasis on winning chips without showing your hand is important. Farmers have chips so that the bandits can steal them. His point that players almost always lose the most chips on hands where they really like their cards and can't let go of them is true.

We have not seen him on television and that is going to make many readers doubt his advice but he isn't talking about winning a 10K main event. He is talking about making money in poker tournaments and he knews what he is talking about.

As a novice live hold 'em poker player, this was one of the first books I read on the subject, and I was blown away at the principles it taught me with respect to position and how the pace of the blind levels affects your strategy. I see a lot of detractive, close minded talk in online poker forums about how these methods don't make sense to these folks, and yet I find the same methods give me an edge over the uniform, predictable elite-tournament strategies these same players all put to use in unison. They don't understand that the principles outlined are simply that, principles, and not a paint-by-numbers rulebook. Even Snyder admits that his specific suggestions should be adapted to the situation, yet detractors see what they want to see (or refuse to entertain that which they can't understand).

Before reading this book, I was a timid, tight player who often got blinded off because I held out for good pocket hands. This book taught me that cards are only one element of many, and that often your play isn't dictated by your cards so much as by other factors, your position, others' betting strategies and so on.

I bet into more hands than most 'skilled' players these days, developing a rep as a loose player, and yet win more pots than them because I'm calculated about when I do and don't play aggressively. My calculated aggressiveness leads to better situations and more made hands. There is no such thing to me as a cold deck, because this approach often helps create hands. People who tilt and try to match this calculated aggression for pride's sake often get beat badly or bust themselves out. Like Arnold wrote himself, I find myself winning a lot of hands.

His analysis of tournament speeds and deciphering which tournaments are worth playing and not worth playing is groundbreaking. Readers will quickly learn how to analyze the playability and playing style required for a tournament before ever playing it, using his Patience Factor formula. All you need to know are the blind levels, a rough estimate of the field size, rebuy/add-on policies and starting chips.

As a grade-zero novice with minimal strategic skill, right after reading his book, I entered a 40 person lightning fast tourney, a tourney Snyder himself says is too fast... and using his principles, built a decent stack before busting and finished 12th, just missing the final table. I shouldn't have had a prayer of reaching the final table. With Snyder's principles, I more than had a prayer... I had a legitimate shot.

I have read many poker books. In each one, I hope to find 1 or 2 'new ideas', among the rest of the rehashed stuff (most books are just rehashing the same things)...

In this regards, PTF is a great book... Not only does it have many new ideas, but it's not just rehashing everything else. It's a very different approach to the game, and definitely worth reading.

If I am recommending poker books to people, this is definitely in the top 3.

4 stars instead of 5 because I would appreciated a little more mathematical rigor in some cases... I know the author is capable of it.
The problem is, he would expose some concept, like number of hands played per hour, estimate how many hands get played in a live tournament, almost double that figure to decide how many hands get played in an online tournament, and arrive at a figure like, "So, you have 140 minutes of life if you don't play a single hand"...

I would have much preferred to keep track of these things as "number of hands before you're blinded out", rather than "amount of time before you're blinded out".

Now this is a book you cannot miss!!!

1) I wonder why people say its so good and give it only 4 stars... This book is so focused, so well constructed and it has such valuable info that it deserves nothing more than 5 genuine stars.

2) It's a very honest book. If you want the best out there for fast tournaments, both live and online, this is the book for you. Forget about Harrington (great for Big, slow tournaments like WSOP), forget about all others talking great about cash games. This one is for all of us playing in the internet in fast tournaments, and the ones that try out their chances in their local Casino fast tournaments.

3) Having played lots of online tournaments, I found myself making most of the mistakes mentioned in this book. And somehow I felt that i had to make some changes like the ones proposed in this book, but I never really knew what changes exactly and most of all WHY!!! Here you will find all the details on what to do and why it works.

4) Though that rock/paper/scissors metaphor does not work for me, it describes some great info about the way your chips/cards/position interact during a tournament. And it tells you why you can't rely on your cards only, and you have to learn how to play your position and your chip stack.

5) How about some hints? Here you will learn how to determine if a tournament is fast and how fast it actually is... And then you will learn how to adjust your game according to the tournament speed. You will learn how the initial stacks, rebuy or addon options affect your play etc. Damn, there is stuff here you can't imagine how important they are, and they are here for you to grab.

I can't say enough about how much I have learned about tournament play from this book. And since I don't participate in big slow tournaments, Harrington actually had not worked for me so far, I always seemed to be left short stacked, because of the tight and cautious way I had to play. This book liberated me and made me much more effective in my play.

thanks mr. Snyder

Well done

I have played online tournaments for several years now and usually bust out in the third hour just short of the money, despite frequently being in the top 10 players at the one- and two-hour take-a-5-minute-break points. The few times I have won big prizes, I could never figure out why - the last hour always seemed like such a whirlwind as the blinds escalated.

Duh. That's because they ARE a whirlwind. Snyder's book shows you how to keep your bearings at this fastest part of the bobsled run known as an online poker tournament. The insights I have gained from this book are invaluable, detailed strategies I've seen in no other poker book.

I just got done playing my first weekend tourney since reading this book and I placed 1st, winning $4000. Luck? Well, sure, but let me tell you - I would not have won this tourney today without reading Snyder's book last week. I can hardly wait to play my next one now.

Thanks, Arnold. Great, great book - right up there with Harrington's.

March 5, 2008

I first discovered this book in my local library . After I had taken it out twice I bought a copy of my own . I took it with me when I went to Las Vegas in December, 2007. I entered 13 tournaments and cashed in three of them . In almost every case I built up my chip stack rapidly and early and, true to Snyder's own observations, I only got in trouble when I preceived I had a good hand and was chasing it . I made enough money on the trip to pay for 5 night's stay and travel from my home in Saskatoon, Canada . This book sets out principles and strategies in a clear manner . I was not able to form a clear strategy by reading any of the other leading poker books I have collected . The concept of entering the pot with a raise if you are the first in is excellent advice and I can now see why it works . The position play strategy has been a revelation . I knew before that postion was important but I did not previously have a plan for my local tournament; now I do . I recently won a 39 person $ 60.00 buy-in tournament in my city . One of the other players observed during play that I was playing by the book entering the pot with 3 times the big blind (many of the others wanted to limp in) . Little did he know which book I was playing by ! My hands were well disguised as I raised with strong and weak hands (based on position) alike and I did not have to show a bluff . AS I did not play most of the hands I would say I was perceived as a tight, perhaps lucky player . I have had other players fold pocket kings and pocket queens to my bluffs !

There are always going to be detractors to the concepts in the book but I am not one of them .

I am eagerly waiting for Arnold Snyder's follow up book which is supposed to be available in May, 2008 .

I call this book an 'underground' poker classic because it is deeply underappreciated in the poker world. I write a monthly column for one of the largest poker magazine, and in my opinion, it is the single best book for explaining winning tournament strategy...AGGRESSION. The reason aggression is the winning strategy is that a hold'em players greatest weapon at any time is Folding Equity. Meaning your ability to control your raises, and the probability your opponent will lay down their hand. The main problem I see is that the aggressive style does not fit everyone's personality, but if you want a crash course on tournament aggression, this is the book for you.