REVIEW
"I'm
a bully. I'm a bastard. I push people
around," declares author John Vorhaus.
The goal of his book, Killer Poker, is
to evoke these instincts in readers in
order to improve their poker game. Clearly,
poker is a game where properly harnessed
aggression is rewarded, but "properly
harnessed" is key. There's a fine
line between bold and foolish play, and
it's important not to stray across it.
Vorhaus
divides the book into six sections. "What
is Killer Poker" provides some background
and sets the tone for the book. "Fixing
the Holes" talks about the mistakes
that poker players make. "Cards in
Context" discusses several important
poker themes. "The Poker Self"
takes a look at what causes people to
not play their best. "Being and Becoming"
describes some of the ways we can overcome
the aspects of humanity that cause us
to lose at poker. And "Odds and Ends"
aggregates the author's remaining ideas.
There
are places where Vorhaus treads over the
aforementioned line himself. One of his
dictums, "Loose call bad, loose raise
good," caused this reviewer to raise
his eyebrows more than a little. On the
other hand, there is a seed of truth to
this statement, and if the readers stop
to actually consider the specific situations
and examples mentioned in the book, I
expect they'll find that the author does
not advocate the sort of wild play that
it might at first seem. There are a large
number of smart, studious, well-meaning
players out there whose main fault is
that they aren't aggressive enough. Vorhaus'
strong shove toward aggression might be
just what they need to take their game
to the next level. At the same time, I
don't expect that the few incidents where
the author gets out of line will turn
these players into maniacs.
While
increasing aggression is half of Vorhaus'
message, the other half would be to come
to terms with one's own faults and limitations.
Then, once these limitations are understood,
we can liberate ourselves from them. The
author suggests many ways in which the
reader can go about identifying their
own weak points, and I expect that many
players will find performing these exercises
personally difficult but ultimately rewarding.
There's some good advice here, and on
top of this, I very much enjoyed the author's
writing style.
While
this book would certainly improve the
poker games of many players, there's relatively
little specific poker strategy in its
pages. Vorhaus doesn't spend nearly as
much time examining specific poker situations
as he does examining poker players' motivations.
Killer Poker doesn't contain any new strategic
insights, nor does it provide detailed
mathematical analysis. To some it might
seem like a 260 page harangue along the
lines of, "Why did you just call?
You should either raise or fold,"
and this sort of thing might get old after
a while. I believe, however, that this
is just the sort of kick-in-the-pants
that some players need, and for them,
this book will be valuable.
Capsule:
As
I read it, Killer Poker considers two
major themes: (1) Aggression in poker
is rewarded. (2) Players have tendencies
that cost them money, and understanding
these tendencies is the beginning of overcoming
them. There's no deep poker strategy here,
which might disappoint some readers. At
the same time, the issues that author
John Vorhaus addresses are exactly those
which are holding back an alarming number
of poker players. It's my opinion that
Vorhaus occasionally overstates his case,
but players who would classify themselves
as "weak-tight" or who feel
they understand the strategies well but
just can't seem to find an edge over weak
opposition would probably find a great
deal of value in this book. On top of
the content, Vorhaus is a skilled writer
who is just plain fun to read. I enjoyed
Killer Poker.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
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