Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide (Paperback)

~ (Author), Doyle Brunson (Foreword) "When I was four years old, I asked my father about the purpose of the plastic chips that were in a cylindrical holder on a..." (more)
Key Phrases: poker society, betting lead, flush draw, Las Vegas, World Series of Poker, Chip Reese (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I seem to win whenever I read it." -- Ted Forrest, winning high-stakes player

"It's the necessary complement to instructional poker books." -- John Hennigan, winning high-stakes player

"Other players don't think about poker like Barry does." -- Phil Ivey, winning high-stakes player

"This book contains a lot of stuff I knew but had never seen written." -- Doyle Brunson, poker legend

Product Description

Ace on the River is designed to improve the play of everyone from beginners to seasoned professionals. The unique play-by-play section will challenge readers to think beyond simple starting hands and make better decisions on other streets.
Ace on the River addresses elements of the game that are unfamiliar to many players. Included are chapters on the poker society, money management, family matters and even sex. This complilation of philosophies and real-table scenarios provides a rare chance to see the poker world through the eyes of someone who lives it.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Last Knight Publishing Company (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972044221
• ISBN-13: 978-0972044226
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,467 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

171 of 180 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unlike any other poker book, July 10, 2005

By	M. Grapenthien (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The long anticipated 'Ace on the River' is one of the most interesting and unique poker books ever written.

Barry Greenstein has been playing professional poker for about thirty years, and has been a regular in the biggest games in the world for more than a decade, with legends such as Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese. This text was originally intended to be a chapter in the sequel to Brunson's 'Super System,' but when the first draft ran over 100 pages, the project turned into its own book.

The book is primarily targetted toward high-limit professional poker players, which is a very limited audience. Lower and middle limit players will find a lot of the material useful and interesting, but significant portions won't apply to them. Casual home game and beginning players will find a fascinating look into the mind and world of high-stakes poker players, but should definitely look elsewhere for instruction and strategy tips.

Part I, "The Poker World," is fascinating but not especially useful material. The first thirty pages is a memoir of Greenstein's life in poker. Next are chapters on the different kinds of people in "The Poker Society," "How to Behave in the Poker Society," and a chapter on the superstitions many have.

Part II, "Philosophy," contains miscellaneous ideas, advice, and discussion mostly relevant to professional poker players. There is little technical or strategic material, focusing more on psychology and avoiding common pitfalls. One chapter discusses the dangers of getting too involved in sports betting (a ubiquitous part of the poker world), one on integrity, others on attitude, the psychology of gambling, family, and even sexuality.

Part III, "Advanced Play," is the meat of the book, with chapters on math and game theory (how valuable they are and how they are used), internet poker, tournaments, specific strategic advice, and some no-limit tournament hands. These last two are the best in the book and extremely valuable, although not as long or detailed as I had hoped. Both go through several different hands, discussing the options at each point and what types of things the player should be considering, as well as how to analyze and think about hands after the fact.

Throughout the book, he addresses interesting philosophical questions like, "Who is the best player in the world (and how could that be determined)?" and "What really separates the very best players from everyone else?"

I had seen several glowing reviews from other top players who had advanced copies before I read it myself, and thus had very high expectations when I finally got a copy. From that perspective, I was slightly disappointed. My main complaint is with the brevity of the actual hand discussions, but what is there is excellent. Other parts seem a bit preachy without enough specific advice; see the chapters on avoiding being distracted by sports betting and remembering to spend time with your family. To most readers this might seem strange, but these are problems that have derailed the careers or broken up families of many otherwise successful pros. He does speak from personal experience on these issues and others, which makes the slightly preachy tone much more palatable.

Throughout, the text is well-written, articulate, and an enjoyable read. The book is filled with color photos on almost every page, and another reader I talked with described it as a coffee table book. It's rare in the poker world for someone with Greenstein's stature, intelligence, and experience to write about any of these topics, which makes the advice invaluable for successful or aspiring pros. At the same time, very little is so technical or advanced that it would go over the heads of others who are interested, some parts just won't be relevant.

80 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars World, Meet Barry Greenstein, July 11, 2005

By	Damien Del Russo (Greenbelt, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I received Ace in the Hole on a Thursday, and finished it on Friday. The book is an easy read, mostly discussion and history with very little thought required of the reader. The material is fascinating if you are a poker head, and should be mildly interesting to someone looking to understand the Poker World without delving into it (the wife or girlfriend, perhaps).

The hand analysis is easily worth the $25 price of the book. In fact, I would pay $10 per analysis if Barry would write them a la carte, maybe a book of 50 or 100. Although there are just a handful of hand discussions, they are really that good.

I consider myself an intermediate poker player, someone who has had some success and understands the material in Sklansky and Harrington and other poker books. For me, Ace on the River served to gather the disparate concepts and lessons from other works, and unify them into a cohesive poker philosophy. In short, it "got my head right". In fact, after finishing the book I entered a large online tournament and had by biggest win to date.

This is not an instructional text, aside from the hand analyses. This is a coffee table book, this is one man's history and treatise, this is Barry's gift to the poker world. Enjoy. World, meet Barry Greenstein.

Damien Del Russo

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Left me unsatisfied, but still good for hungry poker minds, July 17, 2005

By	Geoff Rhine (Sudbury, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

I have had a week to digest Barry Greenstein's pet project, his new book "Ace On The River." In short, I would recommend this book to middle/high limit, intellectual players who have a hungry appetite for poker books on broad ranges of topics, and have read all the other poker literature out there. Barry pens a lot of poker wisdom that has not been put into print before, but while some of it is definitely useful, much will be wasted on the average player and some sections are not as thorough as they could have been.

While beginners could certainly glean a lot of useful information from the book, strategy-based choices like Lee Jones' "Winning Low-Limit Hold 'Em" or Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold 'Em" tournament books (the best poker books out there) are better starting points.

Why is that? Well, for starters, there is very little in the way of actual hand analysis or traditional strategy discussion in the book. A chapter at the end studies 4 or 5 of Barry's notable tournament hands from the past few years, and a chapter entitled "Poker Lessons" goes over 7 or 8 problems in various games. But the purpose of these sample hands is to get the reader to start looking at poker situations in a different way, and that is ultimately the goal of the book.

In that sense, the book succeeds. But the problem is that a great deal of time is spent on topics like "Poker and Your Family," "Poker and Productive Society," "How To Behave In Poker Society,"...you get the idea. While these topics are certainly well-written and interesting, there's not a lot of solid, useable information for the average poker player to apply to his poker playing sessions from these chapters.

There are several great sections of the book, however, don't get me wrong. Topics on game theory, tournaments, math, and especially money management are full of excellent tidbits, and easy to read. But they are succinct, and like I mentioned earlier, leave you wanting more.

Buy this book to accompany your Harrington, Sklansky, Ciaffone, Cloutier & McEvoy, and Brunson and Co. poker books, where its glossy pages full of color photos and "nuggets" of poker wisdom will complement those more accessible, strategy based texts. Otherwise, steer clear, and come back only after reading those essential works.