Customer Reviews

Poker Tournament Strategies

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

 

 

If you are looking for a book that promises to teach you how to play poker like a professional then this is not the book for you. This is a book not about poker per se, but about playing in poker tournaments.

The book describes various types of tournaments and explains why differences in payout and rebuy structures dictate how each type of tournament should be played. For example, it explains why it is wise to play a strong starting hand aggressively in some instances and why in other instances it is wise to play that very same hand conservatively. The book also includes a chapter on how to determine the value of your stack of chips at the last table and how to negotiate a favorable deal to "chop" the money remaining in the tournament.

In summary this is not a sophisticated "how to" book for scholarly poker theorists who thrive on charts, graphs, or complex mathematical formulas. This is a plainly worded primer for "us dummies" who just want to learn the basics about the rapidly growing world of tournament poker...

If you bought one book on tournament poker.. this would not be it. While I do believe the book contained useful information it left wanting more I do not remotely feel ready for a tournament there just is not enough insight.

This book is obviously not intended for the professional but is intended for the small stakes recreational player who plays in the daily tournaments that many large casinos sponsor as a promotional tool.

The book describes the different ways in which tournament chips are acquired and explains how this affects the play in the early stages of tournaments. For example, in a progressive stack rebuy tournament, the number of chips that a player receives increases as the tournament progresses. Because nobody wants to get less than the maximum number of chips for his rebuy, players tend to play conservatively during the opening stages of these tournaments.

However, in a constant stack rebuy tournament, the number of chips that a player gets remains constant throughout the rebuy period. In the early stage of play in one of these tournaments, because the opening limits seem small and unlimited rebuys are permitted, some of the players will be throwing money around like a bunch of drunken sailors. What these drunken sailors don't seem to realize is that what they are actually doing is adding chips to the stacks of rivals and then replenishing their own stacks by buying more chips. One of the keys to success in any poker game is having knowledge of how others are playing. This give you that information.

The book also describes how the tournament pool is distributed to the last few player and how this affects the manner in which a tournament should be played. For example, a Sudden Sayonara Tournament ends when the number of players remaining in the tournament declines to a specified level. In most Sudden Sayonara Tournaments, the last few players are paid a predetermined percentage of the tournament pool. Thus if the last four players are to be paid; first place is normally worth 40% of the tournament pool, second place is worth 30%, third place is worth 20%, and fourth place is worth 10%. In this scenario, a player who finishes fourth with only one chip will have a nice payday. On the other hand, if the last four players are paid on a chip count ratio based on the size of the ending stacks, finishing fourth with only one chip might be meaningless.

Notwithstanding what some earlier reviewers have written, for the targeted audience, the book has much useful information. In fact, because the book discusses some tournament formats that are not often seen today, this simple little book which was published by a widely respected Las Vegas firm that specializes in books on gaming, might someday become a collector's item.

This book talks about mostly re-buy tournys. I feel its not
up to date with todays type of poker. So far for tourny info,
Dan Harrington seems on the ball.

David Sklansky has a tournament poker book coming out in late April 2002. Though he's not the most organized writer, he knows poker very well. Also, he gives plenty of specific examples, which Suzuki fails to do.

BTW, others rag on Suzuki for not being a known tournament player. The book quite clearly states that Suzuki is a pseudonym. So maybe he is a known, successful player. But this book has about 20 pages worth of content repeat ad nauseum, and precious few examples. The most non-obvious section (on the mathematics of final table negotiations) originally appeared in Sklansky's book anyway.

While this is a little useful info in this book, it was really not what I was looking for. It also repeats the same information several times.

Suzuki is not a well known or successful tournament player and this book will probably not help you become one either. I got my copy as a freebie, and would have been unhappy if I had paid for it.

If you want to learn about or improve your tournament play, I suggest "Tournament Poker" by Tom McEvoy.

it is a very excelent book. it gives details beyond details. i especially like how the instructions are very easy to read and even if you haven't ever played poker before you can still understand it all. There are statistics, and ranks, "the whole nine yards!" it is all professional. i highly reccomend this book if you are just learning the great game of poker.