I started playing poker very young. I remember seeking out books that would help me improve, but back then I was pretty much limited to people like Oswald Jacoby and Herbert O. Yardley. I got to Vegas in 1980 and started playing seriously. In discussions with some of the old timers, one of their criterion for judging a player was how many hours he’d put in at the poker table. For those coming up, there were no other options to learn. I was determined to put in the hours and soak up all I could.
Then, I discovered the Gambler’s Book Club, and found that there were ways to learn beyond putting in tons of hours. I went on a buying and reading spree. The notables were Doyle’s original Super/System, Mike Caro’s stuff, and anything by David Sklansky, who wrote what I still believe is the best poker book ever, Sklansky on Poker Theory, my copy of which I wore out, reading it over and over until it all clicked and I became a real poker player. (BTW, the failure of the poker Hall of Fame to even nominate Sklansky for induction relegates that electing body to the back alley of inconsequence, at least for me.)
As I progressed in my career, I continued to read every quality book I could get my hands on. Without those resources that helped me learn and advance, there’s a good chance I would have found another vocation, which leads to the point I want to make.
A great example is the game of blackjack. Before 1962, the most popular casino game by far was craps. When Edward O. Thorp published Beat the Dealer, in 1962, casino owners were convinced that hordes of highly skilled players would descend on their blackjack games and destroy them. What really happened was that the popularity of the game exploded, soon becoming the most popular casino game, driven by players who thought they could win, but most of whom weren’t actually skilled and disciplined enough to beat it in the long run.
The same dynamic applies to poker. If there were no materials for players to learn from, poker would still be a small universe game of back rooms and kitchen tables. Doyle Brunson said many times that he wished he hadn’t written his book, but I think he failed to understand how important it was to the growth of the game, and that a lot of the players he was beating might not have been involved in the game to challenge him if it wasn’t for his book and others. Other old timers complained about the educational materials because they were happy with the way things used to be, and didn’t want to have to put in the effort to improve. (As an aside, Dewey Tomko, one of Doyle’s best friends, once told me that Doyle didn’t play anything like he described, and many players went broke thinking he did!)
With the poker explosion of 2003, millions of players were drawn into the online game, and also drifted into live games and tournaments. Along with the popularity surge came a wave of poker books, chat rooms and training sites. Some writers and entrepreneurs found that there was a huge market for their goods, and that they could smooth out their bankroll swings with an income stream. For others, it was an ego exercise. Even Doyle wrote another book! Soon there was so much information out there that anyone with the talent and drive to study the game could become a winner. The overall skill level of players rose dramatically. A lot of bad players became competent, and the competent players who dedicated themselves became great.
The poker mania was killed by the government, first with the UIGEA in 2006, then the knockout blow of Black Friday, 2011, when internet poker was shut down once and for all. The poker world has contracted since, and many of the bad players have given it up or cut way back. Only the strongest are surviving the tougher competition and ever increasing rakes, and the cries of “it’s all those damn books” is being heard again.
I’m willing to bet that he vast majority of regular poker players today benefited to some degree form poker educational materials, TV broadcasts with commentary, or strategy discussions with friends. To complain now about the mass of educational materials is disingenuous at best, similar to seeing a great place, moving there and then wanting to put up a wall to keep everybody else out.
Sklansky wrote Theory of Poker and Sklansky on Poker had the section in it on razz. He definitely raised the bar for poker books. There were a few groundbreaking books written before Super System. One by Frank Wallace titled Poker a Guaranteed Income for Life and a couple draw poker books who’s titles and authors I don’t recall.
Though the days of making money set mining are over, the games are still profitable if your a serious thinking player.
What is your take on Nolan Dalla claiming that poker has possibly become unbeatable? If this is true, does that give credence to fact that professional poker players orchestrated their own demise? And, does the fact that pros tend to do so poorly at the WSOP nowadays prove that Doyle Brunson is right to have regrets?
Your build-a-wall analogy at the end is not fitting because someone might be looking for a beautiful place with the intention of keeping it to him or herself. What would be disingenuous is for said person to find a new place, move there, write a book on how beautiful it is, include a map to help others find it, and then build a wall to keep them out. Brunson and others, as far as I know, are not advocating “building a wall” but showing regret for letting secrets out of the bag.
If you can exploit your opponents mistakes for $45/hour and pay $15 in rake, the question of profitable is whether $30/hr poker is worth it to you. I believe in poker knowledge and doubt Doyle Brunson possessed any poker secrets.
I bought Doyle’s book Super System 2 many years ago. I really enjoyed Lyle Bermans section on Pot Limit Omaha. That book is where I learned the game of Omaha.
I just played Omaha in the casino for the very first time the other day. It was fun and I had a great time. 🙂 Although I have no experience playing PLO in a cash game, I decided to play in a PLO tournament instead. The only experience I had playing PLO before playing in the tournament was thru online free chip play, which no longer exists. I hadn’t played any PLO in 6 months or more online so I decided to roll the dice on the PLO tournament.
After I paid my buy-in I approached a dealer sitting at a table with 2 cards face down on the table. He first pointed to a card and then told me to pick one. Like he was trying to steer me to a particular seat on purpose. It seemed strange to me so I asked him, “Which one do you want me to pick?” He responded by saying, pick one. I chose the card/seat that he first pointed to and I was off to my seat.
When I got to my seat it became apparent that tonight I would be playing on the table against a former World Champion of Poker, a player who had won the Main Event in Vegas years ago. He was the most famous gambler in the venue. I realize the poker world is small but I never expected to be sitting at the same table with a former world champion of poker.
It sure was an experience playing with the former world champ and a memorable one at that. The first hand I wanted to play I limped in to see what he would do, only to have the former world champ push me out by raising pre-flop. He was very aggressive, I would like to characterize his betting as hyper aggressive!
As aggressive as he was there was one thing that I noticed about the former world champ, he had his head up his ass on the PLO table! I couldn’t believe it! By having his head up his ass what I mean to say is the former world champ brought his electronic tablet to the PLO table. He was paying more attention to his damn electronic tablet than he was the game! The former world champ needed to be taught some manners! The champ was stuck on stupid playing what seemed to be Boom Beach I believe, while he was going Boom Bust on the PLO table! I could not believe that the very first time I played on the same table with a former world champion of poker that he would have his head up his ass! Stuck in his electronic tablet playing another game! He should have been ashamed of himself in my opinion.
I also have to say that for my very first time playing PLO in the casino, the very first person that I would double up thru and CRIPPLE would be a former world champion of poker and it felt great. I’ll never forget that memory 🙂 Two hands later he was gone and busted out by another player, only to come back via re-buy. That’s what the former world champ gets for taking the game lightly. The former world champ busted out twice on the table I was playing on, 3 times overall that I counted in that particular event, maybe he did 4 re-buys. I thought it was funny, embarrassing, and humiliating all at the same time. I was glad the former world champ was getting in some exercise by running back and forth between the buy-in desk and the PLO tables. Seeing that was priceless. 🙂
Next time he should leave his game tablet up in the room so he can give me and the players the game we came for. I don’t want to see the former world champ distracted at the table with his head stuck in his tablet.
My copy, which was the 1st revised edition printed in 1980 was Sklansky on Poker Theory. His razz book was later added and the name was changed. Frank’s book was a trip, as was John Fox’s Play Poker, Quit Work, and Sleep to Noon, which I recommend if you can find it.
I don’t think it’s unbeatable, but it’s much harder than it was when I came up in the early ’80s. The primary cause is the rake. When I started, the rake was $2-3 per hand. Now it’s $5 or more depending on what area you play. Rakes in small tournaments are often 30-35% or more. This is a tremendous obstacle to overcome. That being said, I know people who grind out a living, but they’re working and studying very hard, and are certainly not getting rich.
I don’t think pros do poorly at the WSOP, it’s just that a lot of them aren’t household names. The players who do well at the WSOP have likely spent a lot of time reading and using the other materials available to turn themselves into good players capable of getting deep in big events.
What I think is disingenuous is for players who have used the materials available to learn to then complain that there’s too many books out there. If you can find a successful player who has never read a poker book or magazine, never been in chat rooms, watched videos or TV events with commentary, or any other learning aid, then he or she has a right to complain. Except that if those opportunities for learning weren’t there, they would probably have few people to play against.
When Doyle wrote his first book, there was little material out there, especially about no-limit. His book was rather ground breaking. I don’t know if there were secrets specific to him, but I know it helped me a lot.
Elements of Seven Card Stud by Othmer is seldom mentioned. Fox’s book and one by an author named Nedah are the draw books I was referring to.