PokerPlayer have joined with poker big hitters Grosvenor and the GUKPT to offer players an exciting series of £100 buy-in poker festivals, and it will provide two-day tournaments at some of the best casino’s in the UK. Having collaborated with Grosvenor, the original UK poker tour, it offers a chance in a £1k GUKPT main event at a fraction of the cost.

Each main event of the tour will run over two days with a 10k starting stack and a slow structure. The money players will return on Day 2, while the winner will receive a free seat at a GUKPT main event. At each stop of the tour, cash games and side events will also be available.

The best way to qualify is to register with GrosvenorPoker.com is by using the exclusive password found in copies of PokerPlayer. Before each event, there will be a host of freeroll satellites and last minute qualifiers, all with benefit.

For those who do not want to use the password-protected qualifiers they will find extra satellites on GrosvenorPoker.com as well as live satellites running at each of the five casinos.

The tour will be stopping at some of the best venues up and down the country. Below is a list of the venues, which will culminate with a £150 Grand Final in November at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London: 

The Grand Final will take place at London’s Grosvenor Victoria on November 17/18.

During my discussions with other online poker players then it is difficult to talk to any pro or semi-pro that doesn’t use PokerStove to calculate hand equity and to assess ranges. PokerStove is one of the most remarkable pieces of poker software on the market for one important reason; it is totally free to use. Never in the history of online poker has one piece of software had so much impact that was totally free to the public.

Why pro’s need and use PokerStove?

As an advanced player then one of the first things that you should consider when you play a poker hand is equity. This is such an important factor that it basically overshadows all others. If we start with the very basic concept of hand selection then using the data that PokerStove provides helps us to see how equity underpins everything that we do in that area as well. For example let us say that you want to open raise from the cut-off and you have two hands to do it with and those two hands are 7-6s and 8-2o.

The extra percentage equity that 7-6s has gives it a huge edge against 8-2o. It can make straights and flushes and can win both big pots, medium sized pots and small pots. However if you play a hand like 8-2o then you are essentially playing almost 100% of your range. PokerStove will tell you this simply by clicking “Player 1” and then “pre-flop” followed by dragging the curser all the way across to the right until the hand 8-2o is highlighted.

In fact doing that reveals that you are probably raising 96.4% of your hands which essentially means that your range is incredibly unbalanced. This affects your ability to steal blinds and make successful post flop semi-bluffs because your aggression levels are too blatant.

PokerStove features

All successful poker players understand two key concepts and these are how important it is to know the equity contained within your own hand against your opponents range and also the equity in your range versus your opponents range. Also your “all in” equity can allow you to see if your decision making processes are flawed. If you are losing money then an easy look at the equity in the situation can allow you to see if your wins or losses are down to luck or not.

If you think that your opponent has a 20% range from middle position when they raise then you can simply click on “Player 1” and then drag the cursor to 20% and this will allow you to see what sorts of hands your opponent is likely playing with. When coupled with tracking software and a decent sample size then you will have a good idea of your opponents range. If after say 3500 hands then your opponent has open raised with 20% of their hands then you can use PokerStove to see what that represents.

Let us say that your hand is Q-J and your opponent raises with 20% of their range, what should you do? Using the equity feature of PokerStove allows you to match up Q-J against a range of 20%. We run the simulation and the results are almost instant and we can see that our equity in this example is 41%. While this is relatively low against their range it does mean that the hand is playable and a call can be contemplated based on your equity against their range and you having positional advantage.

Where to get the software?

You can get PokerStove by just going to the normal PokerStove website or you can actually get the software from other poker sites equally as well but the most important thing is that you actually avail yourself of the software. PokerStove is actually one of the oldest pieces of poker software in existence and has been around since 2002.

Final conclusion:

As long as you don’t play too many tables then PokerStove can even be used in actual game play as well if you are very quick on the trigger and can skilfully use your time bank. I know players who are fast enough to compute equity versus their opponent’s likely range in actual game play and that means that PokerStove can be used in real time as well. However it is only when you comprehend the software and what it can do can you then even contemplate moving up to the middle limits.

Even players at the lower stakes games these days use PokerStove and you need to use it often enough so that the equity calculations against certain ranges becomes almost automatic. With enough practice and enough simulations behind you then you will start to get an almost instinctive feel for the results that you will get from inputting hand data. Quite simply PokerStove is one of the most effective pieces of poker software on the market at this time.

Written By: Carl “The Dean” Sampson – Poker author, writer and online poker pro

Some years ago in around 2007 I switched briefly to playing single table SNG’s full time. This was a deliberate switch because the limit hold’em games were becoming very tough at that time. So the switch was designed to find poker games with value in them. I did well for a while but soon started to struggle as SNG’s were also becoming tougher. Had I availed myself of SNG Wizard then I am confident that I not only would have been far more profitable at the levels that I played but that I also could have remained an SNG regular for a lot longer.

SNG Wizard is a hugely effective piece of software and probably does far more for the game of a SNG player than PokerTracker and Holdem Manager does for a cash game player. The ICM Calculator in SNG Wizard is perhaps one of the most important money making tools in existence and a thorough grasp of ICM (Independent Chip Model) can lead to near perfect play towards the end of SNG’s.

The Features

What is so special about SNG Wizard is that it imports your hand histories and stores them on your hard drive just like other poker programs and then analyses your decisions automatically. The next process is to see the hand history replayed back to you with any mistakes highlighted. A quick trial in the test feature can improve your shoving and calling a shove technique within a very short space of time.

Another fantastic feature of SNG Wizard is that the software is now integrated with HEM (Holdem Manager) and so you can convert your hand histories that are in your HEM database and let SNG Wizard analyse them for you. One of the key dynamics of successful SNG play is that you must learn how to play a short stack and how to play that short stack very well. In big live events then your objective isn’t to get a short stack at all but in the rapid fire online SNG’s then you don’t have that luxury because you can never acquire chips fast enough to prevent the blinds from escalating and reducing the number of big blinds in your stack.

In fact there are even faster structures in online SNG’s these days and Turbo’s are becoming increasingly popular. So playing a very good endgame is key to doing well in SNG’s and this is where SNG Wizard comes into its own. Poker is a long term game and to make money at it involves making correct long term decisions that show long term profits. This poker software also has an excellent quiz feature where you can answer as many quiz questions as you like and doing this really allows you to become proficient with your shoving and calling a shove ranges based on stack sizes and tournament position.

In fact the first time that I used SNG Wizard which strangely enough was after I stopped playing SNG’s then I became very proficient at my ICM decisions within a very short space of time and in no more than around a hundred quiz questions. These days most players have got the early stages of SNG’s figured out and any player can play the early stages of SNG’s very well simply by using a tight strategy.

But what really separates the men from the boys so to speak is in how you play the last 25-30 hands. This is where the value and the equity is and a proper use of SNG Wizard can help a player to play almost flawlessly in the crucial endgame period at this form of poker. Poker in any form is all about maximising value in the form of equity and SNG Wizard really is the best in the business. You can avail yourself of this software on various poker sites but it imperative that you get it. There are also ways to get this piece of poker software for free and they need to be explored also.

Conclusions

There is no doubt that if you desire to play SNG’s seriously or even semi-seriously then you absolutely need to get this piece of software. There are very good cash game players who make a good living in online poker without using poker software like PokerTracker and Holdem Manager and I have been one of them in the past. However SNG’s are a completely different animal and they lend themselves far more to rigid mathematical formula than no limit hold’em played in a ring game capacity. Without poker software like SNG Wizard then you simply have no chance of beating even moderate stakes in online SNG’s. You need to get this wonderful piece of kit and within a short space of time then you will be one of the best players at your level.

]]> http://www.playpoker.com/poker-school/sng-wizard-review.html/feed 0 http://www.playpoker.com/poker-school/pokertracker-review.html http://www.playpoker.com/poker-school/pokertracker-review.html#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:33:25 +0000 admin http://www.playpoker.com/?p=2865

There have been many changes to online poker since its inception in 1999 or so but clearly one of the biggest changes to the industry came when PokerTracker was allowed to interact with the software of poker sites and provide poker players with downloaded real time data on all of a players opponents as well as on their own game. This amazing piece of software was launched in 2002 and is now used by many leading online poker players and serious amateurs.

Basic Features

Online poker has evolved dramatically and one of the biggest changes came when the sites changed their software and made it possible for players to be able to play more than one table at a time. This then increased the amount of earning potential but in order to see that potential then players had to be able to take notes on more and more players than ever before. So great demands were placed on players and taking manual notes on say 100 opponents at the same time is simply asking too much.

So the need for an “electronic helper” was obvious and along came PokerTracker. It simply downloads real time data from hand histories and then stores that onto your hard drive. The software can then sort through millions of pieces of information into an easily readable sequence of charts, graphs and other such data to allow the player to see information that would have previously been “invisible”.

PokerTracker is now into its fourth generation and each version has more features and greater use for the serious player than the previous one. The real time data can be superimposed onto a HUD (Head’s up display) for ease of use and you can see at a glance how often your opponents are seeing the flop, how often they are raising, re-raising, seeing the river, winning money at showdown, how much they are winning overall and the list goes on and on.

How To Use It

Using PokerTracker is simplicity itself, you simply go onto their website and you can even get a free 60 day trial to see for yourself how good the software is and if you are happy using it. If you have been using PokerTracker for 60 days then you will almost certainly not want to be without it after the trial period is over so certain are the owners that you will like it.

There is a short getting to know the software process that quickly wears off and once you become comfortable with the basic data and numerous different screens then that is basically all you need you know. There are forums available where you can ask questions on issues that you do not understand and the site has a great back up department that will help any player who is having problems with the software or any other issues.

The Drawbacks

It is often assumed that there are no drawbacks to using software like PokerTracker but unfortunately there are. Firstly the ethics of using such software are frequently being debated in the online poker world and on poker forums. Using PokerTracker does help good players to defeat fish far faster both in actual game play and also in locating them. The online poker environment needs a constant supply of fish and so driving fish to extinction is not in the long term interests of the game.

Also the software drags real time data and creates averages of what a player has done over their lifetime that you have been watching them. However it can be difficult to pick up subtle changes that have happened with regards to certain players over the short term. This cannot make up for a strong player using manual methods as it isn’t possible for any piece of software in my opinion to watch a small number of opponents as closely or better than a skilled human player at this time.

Summary

Knowledge as they say is power and PokerTracker in my mind is software that all online poker players need to be at least aware of even if many choose not to use it. You need to at least do a summary of what PokerTracker can do so that you are aware of just what is being lined up by your opponents and being used against you.

Ignorance in online poker is not conducive to making money and the serious players are using tracking software and so should you. While it does have its drawbacks as previously mentioned I believe that the “pros” outweigh the “cons” depending on how many tables you want to play and how high you want to play. The simple answer though is to try it for yourself with a 60 day trial and then see if it fits in with your game plan and method of operation.

Written by: Carl “The Dean” Sampson – Poker author, writer and professional online player

As an online poker pro then I am extremely interested to read and hear about any process that can allow me to make faster decisions. My normal style of play is to play at NL50 and NL100 full ring and I have a fairly automatic style that allows me to do well at these levels. But I seem to max out at 12 tables and any more than that and I really struggle. It was only recently that I discovered Table Ninja software and how effective these were at speeding up your decisions. If you can effectively speed up your decision making process then you will certainly add dollars to your pocket.

So I decided to do a review of this software and was staggered by what I saw and discovered. Multi-tabling is far easier when you can use hotkeys on your computer to make your decisions for you without having to use your mouse pointer. To be able to press buttons on your key board saves valuable seconds and it is these seconds that add up to you being able to handle 20 tables when you could only previously handle 10 and 30 tables when you could only previously handle 16.

If you thought that no limit hold’em was a much tougher game to play with automatic decision making processes then think again. There is a function on Table Ninja software to allow you to automate the bet function and so you can bet set amounts. If you want to c-bet two thirds of the pot then all you do is press a button rather than the time consuming process of dragging the bet cursor along and fumbling with the amounts if you cannot get the right amount as I often do.

Poker In the 21^st Century 

There are many valuable poker software tools on the market like PokerTracker, Holdem Manager and SNG Wizard but none have a better ability for making a player a lot of money than Table Ninja software in my opinion having read what they can do. I almost feel as if I have been playing online poker in the 20^th century while the rest of the leading earners have been playing it in the 21^st century.

The great news about Table Ninja online poker software is that it is compatible with any modern version of Windows and there are literally loads of amazing features with the software itself and many can be customised by the user. But to be able to adjust the betting amounts based on what stage of the hand you are playing is a great feature that speeds up thinking time. When you multi-table then at least 95% of the playing decisions for a good player should be automatic.

What Table Ninja allows you to do is to speed up this process of making automatic decisions and to also speed up decisions that should be automatic but you are taking too long over them.

How To Get Started and Further Features

Once you download the software which is very easy to do then it simply takes a few minutes to set everything up and then all you do is double click on the Table Ninja link. You can assign certain keys on your computer to make certain actions at the poker table and even the wheel on your mouse can be set to alternate bet sizing. Another great feature of Table Ninja is the ability to be able to assign a certain key to sit you in and out of all your tables. If you are playing 16 tables and you want to take a bathroom break then one simple click will automate the process of clicking “sit out” on every single table and “sit in” on every single table when you come back.

Conclusion

As a rule then the standard practice for players who multi-table is to use Auto Hot Key scripts for all of the different tasks. However Table Ninja software combines all of those into one simple and easy to use piece of poker software and suddenly your productivity levels go through the roof. Remember that as a multiple table player or a mass tabling player then your objective is to make your straight forward decisions as fast as possible.

But also being able to do this increases the overall speed of the game as well and a table that may have been seeing 75 hands per hour now may be seeing 80 hands per hour simply as a result of you playing faster and using Table Ninja software. There is no doubt after speaking to several online professionals within the past few days that Table Ninja software may just turn out to be perhaps the most important innovation in the history of online poker.

 Written by: Carl “The Dean” Sampson – Poker author, writer and online poker pro

For those who are unable to sit at a desktop or a laptop, the company has recently announced the provision of more mobile betting options to those who own iPhones and tablets.

The Scandinavian poker company, which is part of Ongame’s Network operation, was initially made available to three countries in December 2011, France, Austria and the United Kingdom. Those countries were the first to be offered a mobile poker app by the company, but Bet24 have now made it accessible to 14 other countries throughout Europe. Mobile online poker players in Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Estonia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Belgium now have the opportunity to download the mobile poker app.

“Mobile has been a true success story for us, with thousands of downloads since launch,” commented Lars Kollind, Bet24’s Poker Manager. He continued “I have studied the development carefully and am proud to say that mobile poker generates growth without cannibalizing current poker revenues from PC and Mac.”

He went on to say how happy he was that mobile online poker players seemed to like the app so much that they use it on a daily basis. He further explained it was estimated that around 55 per cent of the population in Europe now have the opportunity to play mobile poker games, and that it is all down to the new European wide extension of the mobile poker app provided by Bet24.

A few years ago then it was PokerTracker who had the outright monopoly when it came to tracking software and the market for these items. However there was clearly enough room for a serious competitor to PokerTracker and along came contenders like Holdem Manager and Poker Office. Holdem Manager is now PokerTracker’s biggest rival in the industry by far when it comes to tracking software and many professionals prefer it for several reasons.

The Features

Holdem Manager like PokerTracker and Poker Office is a hand history program that provides real time data that is downloaded by way of hand histories onto the hard drive of your computer. The professional version of Holdem Manager costs $89.99 while there is a holdem/Omaha combination package for $149.99. However there are also ways to get the software for free as well and that is an avenue that you should certainly explore.

There are several key features of Holdem Manager that make it an absolutely cracking piece of kit for any player who has serious aspirations about improving their game. Firstly it has added on features like “table selector” and “leak buster” which do exactly as the name implies. These days any serious online player will tell you that one of the keys to making money in online poker is in finding profitable games.

If you cannot find profitable games then your chances of making money are seriously undermined. So to be able to tag and then find fish is one of the best features of Holdem Manager or HEM as it is commonly referred to in online forums and articles. The leak buster helps you in the area of finding leaks and faults within your game and this by itself is leading to the online poker games getting tougher and tougher.

The software is fully compatible with all of the leading online card rooms and it has a HUD (Heads up display) just like its PokerTracker and Poker Office counterparts. Because of the layout then many serious online players actually prefer HEM to PT and many are saying that the back-up service is better.

Where and how to get Holdem Manager:

Using HEM is pretty easy and you simply install PostgreSQL which takes a few minutes and that is probably the hardest part of the process of installing HEM. There are help screens to guide you and once you basically tell HEM where to grab the files from then it will do the rest. Then the next time that you play poker you will see a completely different screen in front of you with a HUD superimposed over each of your opponents.

You can get HEM from numerous different places but it also possible to explore certain avenues regarding getting the software for free as well and you can take a look at pokersites that specialise in tracking software and how to avail yourself of them. You will be able to read other reviews and see for yourself what you have been missing out on.

Summary:

So just which piece of tracking software is superior, PT, HEM or Poker Office? Well seeing which one the serious players are talking about on online poker forums is usually a pretty good barometer of how good each one actually is. Poker Office is rarely discussed and although it would be unfair at this time to call it inferior to HEM and PT, it simply is bringing up the rear in terms of popularity and that could possibly tell its own story.

All of the serious players seem to be discussing and using either HEM or PT and it is difficult to predict which is the number one at this time. I think you probably will get equal amounts of use from both pieces of software. I have used all three down the years and I prefer PT but that probably has more to do with me being used to the software than it being superior in any way shape or form.

The hand replay feature is another great feature of HEM and this is great for plugging any leaks. But once again the question of ethics rears its ugly head because whatever your views are regarding the usefulness of tracking software then one thing is absolutely clear. This is that these items are designed with one objective and that is to take more money from fish at a faster rate.

 Written By: Carl “The Dean” Sampson  – Poker author, writer and online poker pro

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that federal legislation to allow and regulate online poker in the US could be delayed until 2013.

The problem arises because an online gaming bill has not been added by lawmakers to the payroll tax cut extension.

Wall Street gaming analyst Chad Beynon, of Macquarie Securities, said not all is lost, as policy makers see federal legislation as preferable to individual states bringing in their own gaming regulations. Nevada is close to introducing its own online poker legislation and therefore stands to gain the most, he said.

His is not the only opinion as other experts say that it is possible for online poker regulations to be added at any time by Congress to another piece of legislation, while several Congressional hearings have been held to look at the possibility of a stand-alone online poker bill being introduced.

As online poker legislation has not been attached to the payroll extension bill that President Obama is expected to sign at any moment, supporters of online poker are seeking other avenues to explore and possibly push the legislation ahead. One idea is to add the legislation to elements of the Obama Administration’s jobs package, while another area being explored is vital cyber security legislation that was introduced by the Senate last week. Another opportunity is the ‘lame duck’ period, the session that follows the elections in November, where online poker legislation could be pushed through, which was attempted by Senator Reid in 2010.

This is just another setback for the hopes of US online poker players, the upside being that at least the issues involved are still at the forefront of national attention.

Every Hand Revealed was one of those books that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on when it was first published in 2008. It is literally a blow by blow account of Gus Hansen’s journey all the way from the very first hand onto the final table and eventually beating Jimmy Fricke to land the 2007 Aussie Millions Championship in Melbourne. The book is a fascinating look into the tournament game and mind of one of the most enigmatic and famous high stakes poker players in the world today. Any player who is looking to play in any large poker tournament with a slow structure would have much to learn from reading this book.

Gus Hansen……the man!

Gus Hansen shot to fame very rapidly when he won two tournaments of the World Poker Tour that were featured heavily on television and this along with his almost fearless and at times reckless game made him a favourite with millions of people worldwide. Hansen went on to win a third WPT title and a WSOP gold bracelet in 2010. But just like others before him, Hansen was excellent in other areas and was a junior Tennis champion. But it was backgammon where Hansen originally made his mark and rapidly became not only one of the best players in the world but also one of the most fearer cash game players on the planet.

The ability to size up positions, his opponent and the odds were well suited to poker and it wasn’t any surprise to find that Hansen quickly made his mark in poker as well both in live games and online where he has played the best players in the world and both won and lost millions of dollars. Gus Hansen almost seems to have no fear when it comes to risking money and has reportedly lost millions in the “Big Game” in Bobby’s Room in Las Vegas.

Every Hand Revealed: Overview

The book is an inside view of the journey that Gus Hansen took all the way from the first hand to the 2007 Aussie Millions title. This book covered an area that no other book had covered at that time and is one of the most fascinating books that I have ever read. While the book is not steeped in poker theory in the same way as say Tournament Poker by David Sklansky, it still has much to teach all players who look to play large field poker tournaments.

The analysis of the hands is done by Hansen himself and is very easy to follow and understand. All of the key hands are taken from the tournament and to round it all off his final hand is even pocket aces which couldn’t have been more fitting. To win any big event is an achievement in itself but to win a poker tournament and out lasting 746 other players over five days while taking notes for a poker book is something a little bit special. To add to the aura of the book, the foreword is written by poker legend David “Chip” Reese shortly before his untimely death.

Hansen discusses his thoughts for the day ahead and what he plans to do and his analysis of bubble play and what to do at each stage of the tournament is very educational for nearly all who read this book. Primarily I am a cash game player but there are few really great poker books out there at this time on tournament poker. Most of what you need to know about large field tournament poker is contained inside this one book.

Final comments

Just like with all books then Every Hand Revealed does have its weaknesses. For example it will have little to teach the student by way of how to play in online poker tournaments with very fast structures. The playing structure of the Aussie Millions along with the stack sizes allowed for a lot of creative play and this really is Hansen’s forte. What is insightful for me though is how this poker book reveals the inner workings of the mind of a professional gambler and how that level of analysis can be transferred from a game like backgammon across to poker.

It is very difficult to reach a world class level in two totally different games but Gus Hansen has not only achieved that but he has done it with aplomb. I really think that given enough time that this book will reach the “classic” status along with other great works such as Supersystem and The Theory of Poker. It normally takes time for a book to become a “classic” but there is little doubt in my mind that this book stands every chance of being up there with the very best.

Written by Carl “The Dean” Sampson – Poker author, writer and online poker pro

In all of the poker books that have ever been written then few quotes and strategies have been quoted as often as the “fundamental theorem of poker” which is inside The Theory of Poker written by David Sklansky. For me then this book was the next great theory book to arrive on the scene after Supersystem by Doyle Brunson and it rightly takes its place within the all-time great works on poker. This is one of the very few books that I take the time to read frequently that is 25 years old or more and I cannot give it much greater praise than that.

Introducing David Sklansky

Today then David Sklansky has become one of the biggest names in the world of poker books and his publishing company at Two Plus Two have sold more books than any other. David Sklansky was already a name on the poker circuit well before The Theory of Poker hit the shelves for the first time in 1987. He had already written poker books before that date but he was also regarded as a top player as well and probably his greatest accolade was when the great Doyle Brunson asked him to provide one of the chapters for his seminal Supersystem that came out in 1978.

David Sklansky has written books with other authors as well and the most well-known is Mason Malmuth with who he wrote several books on general gambling and other forms of poker. But Sklansky is also an expert on gambling theory and game theory as well and his insights twenty five years ago are still largely valid today. However if anyone were to think that David Sklansky is dated then you couldn’t be more wrong. Like any expert who is well grounded in his subject then he has also moved with the times as well and this has led to him writing more recent books like No Limit Hold’em Theory and Practice with Ed Miller.

Book overview

If you have ever wondered how to really get underneath the skin of poker and what makes it the game that it is and the game that we love so much then The Theory of Poker is simply a book that you must read. Forget that the book was first printed twenty five years ago because there isn’t a single player alive that cannot learn from this book. But what makes the book so great for me is that no matter how often you read the book, you will always learn something new. When your understanding expands with experience then you can go back to the book and you will see and understand concepts that you didn’t understand before even when you thought that you had the game all figured out.

Many no limit hold’em players will see the hand examples taken from games like Seven Card Stud, Draw and Razz and mistakenly think that the material doesn’t apply to them. If you think that then your understanding is flawed because all poker forms are linked and are all variations of each other. Whatever parts of poker you can think of then The Theory of Poker not only discusses it but discusses it in great detail.

Like most of the books from Two Plus Two then The Theory of Poker does not fall short when it comes to volume either and weighs in at almost three hundred pages. Whether you want to learn about expectations and hourly rates to ante structures, bluffing, check-raising, psychology or anything else, this book more so than any other poker book does that for you.

Final comments

What else can I say about The Theory of Poker? Well firstly writing this review about a book that I have read more times than I can care to remember has actually reminded me that I need to read the book again since it has been more than a year since my last read and that is far too long. If you want to be critical of the book then you can say that the book does not discuss online poker and the nuances of that game like with tracking software and rakeback for example.

Well this does not highlight flaws in the book in my opinion but merely underlines the fact that you need to get your information from numerous sources and that it simply isn’t possible to find out everything that you need from one source however great it is. Reading this book repeatedly is a must for any poker player that is serious about playing the game to a high level. Even if you are already a very highly proficient player then you will still have much to learn and pick up as a result of reading one of the best poker strategy books ever written.

Written by: Carl “The Dean” Sampson -  Poker author, writer and professional online player