REVIEW
At
the time I write this, Dan Kimberg is
probably my biggest competitor for the
title of "Most Influential Gambling Book
Reviewer on the Internet". Kimberg's web
site, at http://www.kimberg.com/poker/,
contains a large collection of poker book
reviews written by many people, including
the author of Serious Poker. One can assume
from this that Kimberg has spent some
time thinking about poker. But, as I'm
well aware, there is a difference between
critiquing someone else's work, and coming
up with enough original thoughts of one's
own to fill a book. The question is, are
the thoughts that he transcribes in these
pages worth reading?
The
beginning of Serious Poker is obviously
aimed at relative novices. Kimberg first
addresses the rules to commonly spread
poker games, and provides a general guide
to getting around a public card room.
In my opinion, navigating a poker room
for the first time can be a daunting experience,
and I'm glad to see any advice that beginners
might read which may help alleviate that.
He then moves on to basic strategy advice.
The information he presents here is usually
sound as far as it goes, but it's really
too limited to be useful as a general-purpose
strategy guide. I could raise some objections
with some of his phrases, but they would
be pretty trivial objections at this level
of detail. Of course, a complete novice
may find some of this information useful,
but even then a more thorough strategy
guide, such as Harroch and Krieger's Poker
for Dummies or Lee Jones' Winning Low
Limit Hold'em will serve the reader better.
Kimberg
then talks about "Taking Poker Seriously",
where he discusses issues like luck, variance,
game selection, self reflection, and how
to study the game. I believe this to be
his best section. Some of these ideas
are very important, and while most of
this information has been discussed elsewhere
in the poker literature, very little of
that has been aimed at beginning players.
There are places where Kimberg's irrelevant
footnotes get a bit distracting, a phenomenon
that's not totally unexpected in a self-published
book, but the writing is generally clear.
The author is quite adept at getting his
message across.
The
next section covers miscellaneous topics,
including tournaments, cheating and angle
shooting, tells, and more. Again, my biggest
criticism, with this section and with
the book in general, is that these topics
are all covered rather superficially.
For example, Kimberg laments that while
at least one good book and many articles
talk about detecting tells in others,
there's very little in print about how
someone could go about limiting tells
in one's own play. Kimberg provides five
suggestions on this topic, but I can easily
think of several more, plus there's little
discussion on techniques for actually
practicing the methods that do get mentioned.
I'm just not sure that the information
that is contained in these pages is likely
to really assist anyone.
Toward
the end of the book, the author provides
some more detailed mathematics, including
an explanation of poker simulations, a
brief introduction to combinatorics, and
bankroll calculations. For those who don't
understand the basic probability and statistics
terminology and methods used in many advanced
poker books, this is a pretty good introduction.
Also, several good formulae are presented
here, including risk of ruin, fluctuation
calculations, and suggestions on how to
determine what constitutes a sufficient
bankroll for various games. The book concludes
with a brief section with some recommended
reading, a list of the author's on-line
resources, and a print copy of the author's
on-line poker glossary. The glossary is
likely to be helpful to the inexperienced
poker player, even though I disagree with
the author's definitions of some of the
terms.
This
book contains some good suggestions, but
because a lot of the topics are covered
rather narrowly, there are few sections
that are likely to appeal to even the
intermediate poker player. Much of the
book reads like an expanded version of
Malmuth and Loomis' Fundamentals of Poker,
so if that sounds appealing, then this
book is probably worth reading. For those
intermediate players who want to ease
in to understanding poker math or want
to receive a pep talk on not relying on
luck, parts of this book can be helpful.
In this case, I'd suggest starting at
Chapter 8 and proceeding from there. Advanced
students of the game can safely pass up
Serious Poker.
Finally,
I'd like to say that I do admire Dan Kimberg
as a reviewer who has "put his money where
his mouth is" and written (and published!)
a book himself, which is no mean feat.
Perhaps some day, I'll take the plunge
myself, and Mr. Kimberg will have the
opportunity to be equally critical of
my thoughts.
Capsule:
Serious
Poker contains mostly good suggestions
about approaching the game, but many topics
are covered in a very superficial manner,
and almost every topic has been covered
in some depth in other works. Therefore,
while beginners are likely to obtain worthwhile
information from this work, and there
will probably be some parts that will
appeal to intermediate students, more
advanced poker players and those who are
fairly broadly read on the topic of poker
can almost certainly afford to pass this
one up. There are some good ideas here,
but overall I'd have to say I was only
moderately satisfied with Serious Poker.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
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