2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

My roommate made me a deal that starts next Saturday. If I read 2000 pages of poker books in 5 weeks he will bankroll me $1000 online. I need advice for books that are good and an easy read. So far I have read these books in my poker life...

Texas Holdem for Advanced Players
HOH vol. 1
Mike Carros book of tells
and NL Texas Holdem T&P

What books should i recomend for him to buy (NL, Limit, Ohmaha, general game theory, ect.)? Oh the deal is if Im a winning player (I am over 20K hands in very low limits now) I pay him back the $1000 and the amount for the books. If I dont finish the books or I am not a winning player he loses his investment.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

Nice deal, I recommend you to read these books:

Phil Gordon - Little Green Book
Poker Essays, Volume 1/2/3
Inside the Poker Mind
Your Worst Poker Enemy
The Psychology of Poker
The Poker Mindset

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

WTF ... and you intend to learn all games ... !!!!????


Yay !



GL with your project [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

No lie, pick one game and focus on that.

Hold'em is what's popular. I recommend ring games. So really your only decition is do you want to play NL or limit? I recommend full ring NL cash games.

The books I'd list would be:

Getting Started in Hold'em (150 pages, 150 so far)
Little Green Book (300 pages, 450 so far)
Professional No Limit (300 pages, 750 so far)
Harrington on Hold'em vol I (300 pages, 1050 so far)
Harrington on Hold'em vol II (300 pages, 1350 so far)
(Even though the HOH series is on tournament play, vol I & half of vol II cover the early portion of a tournament when the stacks are deep relative to the blinds, and that plays just like a cash game.)
Theory of Poker (250 pages, 1650 so far)
Professional No Limit AGAIN (300 pages, 1950 so far)

Make up the last 50 pages by posting question here and discussing the answers we give with your roommate.

Don't play over your roll. Don't play drunk, angry or tired. Straight-forward play could have you crushing 25NL and making a nice profit for yourself and your roommate.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

I'd throw in Super System II in there as well...could make up for those 50 pages (and more) from the previous list.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

Thank you for all of the replys and reconmendations.

I play a lot of NL holdem now (all be it .01/.02 and occassionally .05/.1). I have already read HOH vol. 1.

I would like to learn other games so that I can be a good poker player. I would enjoy being a winning player at multiple games with holdem as my main game.

I havent told him any books I just said I want at least one philosophy or psycology book based around poker and I want Theory of Poker. Im sure little green book and HOH vol. 2 will be in the ones that I get to read.

This should be a fun experiment with working and going to school full time. I guess I will just quit playing poker online and read instead. Maybe I can get him to buy a book about poker philosophy and I can talk my teacher into letting me use it to write one of my reports in my philosophy class.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

Sounds like a recipe for disaster. The way to learn poker is to study one book and master it before moving on to another. Read, play, reread selectively, play some more, repeat.

If challenged to read 2000 pages, I would pick the best book for my current level of play and read it about 10 times.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

[ QUOTE ]
Sounds like a recipe for disaster. The way to learn poker is to study one book and master it before moving on to another. Read, play, reread selectively, play some more, repeat.

If challenged to read 2000 pages, I would pick the best book for my current level of play and read it about 10 times.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are a wise man, sir. I hope OP takes your advice.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

Some really terrible plans here.

[ QUOTE ]

I would like to learn other games so that I can be a good poker player. I would enjoy being a winning player at multiple games with holdem as my main game.



[/ QUOTE ]

If you are going to learn a new game, you need to concentrate on it. Don't play anything else, don't read anything else. The 5 weeks would be about right to concentrate on one new game, and then go back to your regular game for a while. You would usually find that you have improved at your regular game after learning the new one.


[ QUOTE ]
I guess I will just quit playing poker online and read instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

This makes no more sense than saying that you are a recreational bicycle rider who wants to become competitive, so you are going to stop riding for a month and just read books about bicycle racing.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

It's about his friend's offer, which is positive EV for OP. He will get free books and a $1000 bankroll from his friend. His friend has nothing to gain from this deal. OP should gladly take the offer and quickly read 2000 of easy to read poker books. That's why I would recommend him to read poker psychology books or poker story books, like positively fifth streeth/ Ace on the River/ The Professor, the Banker and the suicide King.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

My friend does have something to gain if Im a winning player. I will pay him the money he spent back and Im sure I will buy groceries and stuff for the appartment a lot more than he will if I wind up being a winner at higher stakes.

I have played poker almost all of my life so I know the game very well already I just dont have much money to invest in it since Im in college. I will read different books and after the 5 week I will refer back to them like I do the books I have already read.

I know there is no downside for me and my roommate wouldnt have offered unless he thought it would be +EV for him. He knows how I play and whether Im a winning player or not. He deals cards for a living he gets to see who the winners are and how they play Im sure he wouldnt have offered this unless he saw that in me.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

You really need to work 2p2 into the plan. Some of the articles are very specifically geared to micro-stakes, where as some of the books aren't. uNL stickies should count as pages read.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

BTW: if you spend the next few weeks doing nothing but reading 2000 pages, you'll probably spend the next few on a downswing wondering how to integrate all the information. read a few pages at a time, work it in slowly.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

[ QUOTE ]
My friend does have something to gain if Im a winning player. I will pay him the money he spent back...

[/ QUOTE ]

Your friend has a lot of faith in you, but he can't do better than break-even with this deal.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

[ QUOTE ]
Your friend has a lot of faith in you, but he can't do better than break-even with this deal.

[/ QUOTE ]

I also said he will get perks. If I get enough points for a TV or computer, they will go to him. Im sure I will pay a lot of the bar tabs when we go out to watch football or baseball, and I doubt he will be paying for things like groceries for a long time. So yes he will get benefits (if I am as good as he seems to think.)

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

well nice deal and nice friend.....can i meet him:)maybe he ll do the same for me??:)

as for the books ,if reading 300 pages long from a book twice count at 600 then u should really focus on 2 ,3 book max!

if u cant then those 3 first book are pretty good:
little green book,

hoh all series(1-3),u didnt specify,when u play him? its heads up or in a ring game with others?if its heads up, then HOH2 is very impoortant for heads up concept there...very important!,i count HOH1-3 as 1 book since its only a continuity for the first 2 books and the 3rd is only a Q/A pratice book.If im wrong about this thinking,then just drop little green book and theory of pratice and focus on those 3 books,nothign better then good material(HOH1-2) and trying to find the answer and get experience as to why u must do that move (HOH3)

theory of poker(its in 3rd place for, if u can read a book twice and it counts for double the pages,then read it last,if u need read 2000 of new material from other books then i suggest reading it last on this list,lot of stuff u cant grasp as whole if u dont know the principales on the tip of your fingers),

then for 2000 pages of new materials...

Poker Essays, Volume 1/2/3,
Inside the Poker Mind(so u dont go too much on tilt,etc...),
NL Texas Holdem T&P,
theory of poker(see reason why its in last place)


with those u should be around 2000pages...if not:
PNH1,

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

Following these books in order should work well in terms of progression and variety.

Theory of Poker
Small Stakes Hold 'em
Bobby Baldwin's Winning Poker Secrets
Harrington II
Professor, Banker, Suicide King *
PNL
Barry G's book

That should put you at 2000 pages.

* Of course this isn't a strategy book, but I think it has a ton of value. Plus, it breaks up your reading. If this wouldn't be allowed I'd sub Harrington III I guess.

Now that I think of it, I do think you should take other posters' concerns with regard to retention into account. And as stated, your subsequent application of what you've digested may suffer if you're only tackling poker textbooks. I'd even consider increasing the number of total pages in your arrangement if you could include poker "literature" like Positively Fifth Street, Take Me To The River and Brandon Adams book.

If you're able to use such books within your initial framework, I urge you to do so. It'll also then be a breeze.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

no disrespect intended,not my style...

i had once a discussion about this and i still stick by my guns.

theory of poker should never be read as a first book!!
i m one of those who did it,and i will say this,the stuff there is just too advanced!
yes u learn a bit, but as a beginner or a person w/o much knowledge of the game(has i was and has i did), HOH series or even little green book,provide a much larger containt of information to grasp and is much easier to read as well(friendly book)...

very important to understand what im saying....i dont say HOH or LGB is better then theopry of poker!!
im saying for a beginner ,HOH or LGB will bring much more info and skills (immediately) as oppesed to theory of poker (need s lot of thinking in this book(TOP) and lack some example and situation in wich our reader can be put it in agame w/o any idea of how to react).
TOP is a really nice book,but lot of info in other "beginners book" that TOP lack off...reason im saying read TOP after the "known friendlier books" to better understand sklansky ideas and concept..

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

Thank you for your replies and concerns.

To talk about not being able to retain all the knowledge of the books...
I agree this may be a big problem. I do have a large poker knowledge at this point in my life, but by no means am I an expert. So some of the calculations in many of the books and many of the theories that are discussed in all of the books will be review.
I have also decided that I will have a REALLY conservative BR strategy for the first couple months with this money while I am rereading and going over notes on each book. I may start off 4 tabling with 2 $10NL and 2 $25NL tables.

I do have one more question because what my friend and I have been discussing recently but it doesnt pertain to books. I hope the mod will let me leave it here instead of starting a new thread elsewhere.

What website would yall (sorry southern boy) recommend? Right now I play on Stars and my friend hates that site. He wants to put the money on Absolute but I have been sending him the links to the threads about possible cheating at Absolute. We really havent discussed Full Tilt much but I was just seeing what everyone here would recommend. Oh we live in the United States.

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

im not sure we can say this so i wont....but the asnwer, i think i find it there if i remember...

go in this site(i met here 2+2,left column) to :internet gambling group to your left....

under it there s the discussion group of : internet bonus

its a forum where u can answer those question has how and where are the best bonus when u registered to a new site(more money at the start:))

there s a site u can asked there and they will tell u the adress....going there will tell u where are the best bonus but more important....all the site(almost) are there with a nice description of each site:
bonus awarded for registering to there site.
traffic ,is it high or low.
the game are thigh or looose in general.
nice service or bad when u need help with the site in question.
know problem or bugs with the site(lag,bad paiment,etc..)

hope this help,if its allowed i would tell u wich site to go(i find the info there),just not sure its allowed here(it should i think but i wont bet on it lol...)

good luck

Re: 2000 pages in 5 weeks
 

How do I meet your friend? How in the heck is he going to know if you read a book or not? Is he going to quiz you on it?