Customer Reviews

Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker

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Scarne is arguably the greatest mind this century on poker. If you are looking to learn how to play the most popular poker games, this book is for you. He also shows the reader how to apply proper strategy to each game. This book is not for poker experts, but the topics in the book must be mastered before you sit at a Vegas poker table. After reading this book, I was easily better than the players at local card games.

Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker, though over 20 years old, holds more useful info on poker than I've seen in any other poker book. Scarne covers topics such as rules for Draw and Stud Poker, with many variants, some major poker probability principles, money management in poker games, which poker games to avoid, and popular poker cheats (something most poker books ignore). This book deals exclusively with real poker games, played in a group of people, where the only possible house take is a fixed percentage or amount per pot (and he shows you how to figure out if a commercial poker house is giving you a bum deal). If you want to learn how to deal with video poker or casino poker games like Caribbean Stud, let me tell you right now -- you can't possibly make money in the long-term playing those games. Scarne himself will tell you this in one of his other gambling books.

There's basic sound advice to be found in this book, advice you will find elsewhere: obvious things such as don't borrow money to play poker, don't play against people highly superior to you at poker, and don't play when drunk or emotional (unless you really want to lose money). However, there's advice I haven't seen elsewhere (except when they're copying Scarne): ways to prevent common card cheats, ways to calculate whether one should stay in a pot based on pot size versus your odds, and ways to mix up your play, so as to make people uncertain of your style -- so that people will stay in the pot when you've got a sure winner, and so that people will drop out when you're bluffing. I've used this last bit of advice in playing poker with friends; they know I play close to the vest (I'm very conservative on risk), so when they see me calling & raising bets, they think I know I have a sure thing. I've gotten away with some pretty horrendous bluffs with this technique. The name of the game is: don't do it too often.

There are complaints about the number of stories Scarne tells about himself (and sometimes he refers to himself by name, and I go back to check who wrote the book.) Actually, in most of the stories, Scarne's not the central character; rather, some prime poker player is the center of the story. Some of the stories of the tricks he's performed is rather neat. But more to the point, I think these stories are good examples of the kinds of tips and strategies he talks about -- he mentions stories of cheats, of bold betting, and of people who have gone from great poker players simply to good, because they lost betting courage and needed to find games more their monetary limit. More to the point, I feel Scarne is completely justified in "puffing himself up" in these stories of high-roller games and visits to the Merv Griffin show - he can back up his self-promotion with actual knowledge and skill. Scarne also knew how to write a book that would serve poker players at any level, giving specifics as well as general principles to follow. For those wishing to improve their games, this should be the first book you get.

There are many books out there that no poker enthusiast should be without. This is not one of them. Although mildly entertaining in the beginning due to the author's bombastic nature, the book becomes a truly tedious read. The biggest problem is that the book is dated (1984 copyright) and compiles poker strategy into general rules for five card draw and stud (forget about hold em or omaha). The author then expects the reader to extrapolate the given strategies into seven card games. As an added bonus, most of the strategy (if not obvious even to the most oblivious newbies) is either unsound or irrelevant. The only redeeming value of this book is for those who are seeking an encyclopedia of dealer's choice games. Please save your money or buy another book (Peter Steiner's Thursday Night Poker is superb for amatures, Slansky and Brunson are essential for aspiring pros).

This book has quite a few good points and strategies along with probability theory. I believe it will greatly improve a beginner and average poker players style if he/she reads and applies some of the basic principles herein. However quite a few of the strategies are common sense (never play with money needed for groceries -- duh).

Mr. Scarne himself is an egotist (anyone familiar with John Scarne should know this), so one must take him with a grain of salt while reading. Mr. Scarne believes his poker should be the definitive one. I don't think Scarne's rules will ever be "the rules" for poker, and his "according to Scarne" (takeoff of "according to Hoyle") stance on poker rules is a little outlandish. One must remember for all the card tricks and stunts he can pull (and they are REALLY good!), this man has never won a major poker tournament. You can build a cold deck, but that still is cheating in honest poker.

Anyway, get past the man for it is a decent treatise on poker strategy.

The content of this book is very informative and helpful. It focuses on specific rules of many poker variations and some statistics to go with them. There is no shortage of calculated odds tables in this book for you to try to memorize. However, John Scarne needs to get his money at the poker tables because his writing struggles. You will not be fond of this man after your first 15 minutes of reading. To get through this book, you must have alot of determination; you will not be reading it for fun. Perhaps the toughest, most boring read of my life. In my opinion, any improvement on your poker game is not worth the pain of reading this book. There are other great books that will teach you far more efficiently.

This was a fantastic book and I only have one negative to voice - I realize that Scarne is a poker genius, however a little too much time and space was allocated to him patting himself on the back. I realize this may sound harsh, and for that I apologize, but every time Scarne brings up a point, he feels the need to preface it with a paragragh about how he was guest speaker at this or that convention, blah blah blah, and how many war vets saved millions of dollars on his advice, and he even says several times that he himself is a genius... I must of read that 100 times in this book. A genius should never be self-proclaimed... Enough of my rambling... GREAT BOOK!!! Just needs a more humble approach.

I have to begin by admitting that I did not read this book in its entirety. I was startled, however, to learn that John Scarne invented the game of poker! I was going to read works by several authors and compare them, but since Mr. Scarne invented the game of poker along with many other popular pastimes including craps, keno, bacarrat and breathing air, I think I'll take another run at his book.

WARNING: This is the most annoying book you will ever read. Scarne spends 95% of the book telling you how he's the greatest card player on the planet and 5% on stuff you actually care about. He spends most of the book promoting so-called great innovations he named after himself, such as the "Scarne riffle," the "Scarne Poker shuffle," "Scarne's Generalized Rules for Commercialized Poker," "Scarne's Poker-Betting System," "Scarne's Poker Playing System," and even a game he named after himself: "Scarney High-Low Draw Poker." Let's not forget the "World-Famous Scarne Cut," which is an illegal cut of the cards by removing cards from the center of the deck instead of cutting the cards like you're supposed to---supposedly to prevent cheats. Yeah, right. Oh, then he goes on this long diatribe about how "According to Hoyle," a general term used for all card games, should be changed to "According to Scarne" because Hoyle died before poker was invented, "so Poker cannot be played 'according to Hoyle.'" Guess what, Scarne, the word "computer" didn't exist when Webster published his first dictionary, but we still consult "Webster" for the definition.

If you can get over Scarne's incredibly annoying and distracting hubris, there is useful information in the book. Unfortunately, you have to get around Scarne bragging about his connections with the mob or how he once was on the Merv Griffith show to get to it. The book is also poorly structured, so good luck finding it. I cannot emphasize, however, just how much Scarne's arrogance permeates every page of this book. It was just too distracting---I recommend trying something else.

Humility is not one of John Scarne's traits but he has room to talk. The man is a genius in the realm of statistics, gambling, and gaming. He is self taught which makes his intellect even more astounding.

That aside, this book is all you need to play poker and play it successfully. By following the guidelines set forth by this genius it is only a matter of time before your experience catches up with your knowledge and you will be unstoppable.

Ok, maybe it takes alitte more work then that but you get the point. Scarne's books are the best, hands down. If you can find some of his older book (Scarne on Cards is my recommendation) pick them up. They are invaluable.

I found Scarne's reference guide to very thorough and a great resource for expanding your scope on the game of poker. There are all sorts of versions of new games of poker in here that the average card player will not easily get bored. It is very easy to follow and can make the Friday night poker games that much more interesting. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and still keep it around to learn new games whenever I get a notion to put together a poker game with some friends. I have always found the game of Poker is a great source of entertainment, and this book creates a variety for you where you will not ever get bored.

If you think you have seen all there is in Poker, think again. I have had many veteran Poker players look at this book and find new games they never knew existed. This book is well worth the investment for any card playing enthusiast. Additionally it is a great resource for anyone wishing to learn the game of Poker for the first time, as all the popular games are here too. This could be called the 'Poker Player's' bible. All in all, very enjoyable.