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Poker
Tips
Killer
Poker
"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.
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