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The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition
The professionals of Full Tilt Poker include the best and most famous poker players in the world. Their accomplishments are unparalleled, with countless World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour championships to their names and well in excess of $100 million in winnings in private games. Now, this group of poker legends has banded together to create The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide , which will stand as an instant classic of the genre and is sure to become the industry standard.
- GenresNonfictionGames
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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121 people want to read
About the author
Michael Craig
75 books8 followers[Librarian's Note: There is more than one author with this name on GoodReads.]
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 10, 2008
Michael Craig (ed.), The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition (Grand Central, 2007)
“Comprehensive” is not the way to describe this book, but I'm not entirely sure what is. Why is it that so many poker books are so... imposing? This isn't quite the doorstop the two Super/System offerings are, but it certainly aspires-- well over four hundred pages. As with those two books, this one contains a number of chapters contributed by a number of different high-profile poker stars, among them Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, and Huck Seed. Unlike most of the poker books I've seen recently (and like the Super/System books), The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide doesn't limit itself to Hold'em, taking on such esoteric subjects as Omaha/8. There's even a Razz chapter. (Thus the presence of Huck Seed, most of whose WSOP bracelets have come in Razz events.)
A lot of it's stuff you've read before, but it never hurts to hear it again, and-- especially if you've spent most of your time reading about Hold'em-- there's much to be learned here as well. Personally, I think it's worth the price of admission just for the Omaha/8 chapter. ****
“Comprehensive” is not the way to describe this book, but I'm not entirely sure what is. Why is it that so many poker books are so... imposing? This isn't quite the doorstop the two Super/System offerings are, but it certainly aspires-- well over four hundred pages. As with those two books, this one contains a number of chapters contributed by a number of different high-profile poker stars, among them Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, and Huck Seed. Unlike most of the poker books I've seen recently (and like the Super/System books), The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide doesn't limit itself to Hold'em, taking on such esoteric subjects as Omaha/8. There's even a Razz chapter. (Thus the presence of Huck Seed, most of whose WSOP bracelets have come in Razz events.)
A lot of it's stuff you've read before, but it never hurts to hear it again, and-- especially if you've spent most of your time reading about Hold'em-- there's much to be learned here as well. Personally, I think it's worth the price of admission just for the Omaha/8 chapter. ****
November 2, 2014
I only read the no-limit hold-em stuff. But anyway, I found a lot of interesting ideas (and I think my favorite part of the whole proceedings was when the guys would contradict each other). :)
March 12, 2019
If you want a massive and detailed guide on poker strategy, I can scarcely think of a larger or more appropriate volume than this one, although my own knowledge of various poker tournament games is somewhat limited. I played some stud and draw poker varieties as a child (because for some reason I grew up around a lot of gamblers, I suppose, among my neighbors) and during my young adulthood and since then I have been familiar and at least somewhat competent at no-limit Texas Hold 'em. That said, the people writing this book--and there are a lot of them--are professionals who value the cross-training opportunities one gains through mastering a wide variety of poker styles that have their own different rules and different insights that can make one a frighteningly able all-around player capable of being in the money in a variety of ways. It is worthwhile to note that this book of more than 400 pages benefits from a wide variety of entertaining and knowledgeable writers that includes Andy Bloch, Richard Brodie, Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Rafe Furst, Phil Gordon (author of some poker volumes of his own), David Grey, Howard Lederer, Mike Matusow, Huckleberry Seed, Keith Sexton, and Gavin Smith, most of whom are quite entertaining in their various essays.
This particular volume begins with a couple of introductions, one of them by Phil Gordon on the passion to be the best, and the other by the editor on the role of books in poker, all of which seek to encourage the reader in developing one's skills in various forms of poker. The next part focuses on tournament hold 'em, the most popular variety of poker in the contemporary United States. Various essays here discuss how to bet (3), the theory of leverage (4), how (not) to play like Ted Forrest (5), play before the flop (6), play after the flop (7), big-stack (8) and short-stack (9) play, online tournament strategy (10), pot-limit hold 'em (11), and limit hold 'em (12). A couple of essays help the reader in playing Tournament Omaha, in eight-or-better (13) or pot-limit (14) varieties. A few essays encourage the reader to develop skills in Tournament stud poker as well, including seven card hands (15) and strategy (16), stud eight-or-better (17), and the much maligned razz (18), followed by concluding words on the relationship between roshambo and the mental game of poker (19) and a few words about the various writers in the book as well as a short acknowledgments section by the editor.
What insights does one gain from a book like this? For one, the authors and editor have in mind that the reader is going to at least be playing for the money in a wide variety of poker tournaments and be able to have some sensible strategies for how to deal with the many distinctive varieties of poker that exist. Some varieties of poker, like Omaha, involve high-low play where the pot is divided based on who has either the highest or lowest cards, which requires a different level of thinking of what hands are the best. In other situations, pot limits prevent one from swooping in and buying hands and involve a fair amount of stand-up play given much lower pot-commitment on the part of players. And so it goes, as these writers demonstrate a strong interest in the mathematics, the nuances of rules and how they affect strategy, as well as the psychological elements of playing and the awareness of other players that allows someone to gain intuitive advantages in how to play successfully. All of this makes for a compelling guide, if a very long one.
This particular volume begins with a couple of introductions, one of them by Phil Gordon on the passion to be the best, and the other by the editor on the role of books in poker, all of which seek to encourage the reader in developing one's skills in various forms of poker. The next part focuses on tournament hold 'em, the most popular variety of poker in the contemporary United States. Various essays here discuss how to bet (3), the theory of leverage (4), how (not) to play like Ted Forrest (5), play before the flop (6), play after the flop (7), big-stack (8) and short-stack (9) play, online tournament strategy (10), pot-limit hold 'em (11), and limit hold 'em (12). A couple of essays help the reader in playing Tournament Omaha, in eight-or-better (13) or pot-limit (14) varieties. A few essays encourage the reader to develop skills in Tournament stud poker as well, including seven card hands (15) and strategy (16), stud eight-or-better (17), and the much maligned razz (18), followed by concluding words on the relationship between roshambo and the mental game of poker (19) and a few words about the various writers in the book as well as a short acknowledgments section by the editor.
What insights does one gain from a book like this? For one, the authors and editor have in mind that the reader is going to at least be playing for the money in a wide variety of poker tournaments and be able to have some sensible strategies for how to deal with the many distinctive varieties of poker that exist. Some varieties of poker, like Omaha, involve high-low play where the pot is divided based on who has either the highest or lowest cards, which requires a different level of thinking of what hands are the best. In other situations, pot limits prevent one from swooping in and buying hands and involve a fair amount of stand-up play given much lower pot-commitment on the part of players. And so it goes, as these writers demonstrate a strong interest in the mathematics, the nuances of rules and how they affect strategy, as well as the psychological elements of playing and the awareness of other players that allows someone to gain intuitive advantages in how to play successfully. All of this makes for a compelling guide, if a very long one.
August 11, 2011
Good and bad for the same reasons ... good because it offers a variety of opinions from numerous players. I found it particularly interesting to compare the strategies that they offer for slightly different games, such as no-limit tournament and no-limit cash ... this multiplicity of voices also makes it bad ... there so much variance in the tones, styles, and argumentative depth of the different players that it's disconcerting and annoying. One player (Lederer) offers very careful, thoughtful, deep, and equivocating analysis of a situation. Another (Matusow) just makes blanket declarations with little beyond poker-truism for reasoning.
July 9, 2012
In any collection written by many authors such as this there will be stronger and weaker entries. As a player primarily interested in Texas hold em some of the chapters on Omaha and Razz were of less interest to me. Overall though it's good to get different perspectives on play styles from a number of different voices.
March 17, 2015
Niiiiiice.
December 11, 2020
Malmuth rates this one about an 10
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews