[betgo]

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Hi Everyone:

Here are two comments I have.

First off, I would argue that HPFAP is the most under-rated book as opposed to over-rated. No book in the history of poker impacted games like this book did. Remember, the original version came out in 1988 when the typical regular was extremely weak-tight, and we have sold over 250,000 copies. So it's influence was certainly felt.

Second, there is no question in my mind that Super/System is the most over-rated book of all time. Before the poker boom began it was basically a forgotten book. Our books, like Theory of Poker, Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players, and Seven-Card Stud for Advanced Players, as far as I could tell, far outsold it, and no serious player took the advice it contains seriously since there were better sources for all the games it discussed except for no-limit hold 'em which virtually no one played as a cash game for close to twenty years. Then when the boom started, the publicity machine began and you would hear over and over how it was the "bible of poker." If that would have been the case, there would have been no Super/System II.

By the way, don't misconstrue my remarks to say that Super/System I is a bad work. That was certainly not the case. But with the exception of the stud section, by 2003 (when the poker boom started), the rest of the book was completely obsolete. Draw poker, both jacks-or-better and ace-to-five lowball was dead, limit hold 'em had the old blind structure which makes the given strategy flawed for the double blind structure that has been the standard since the early 1980s, razz was basically a dead game, deuce-to-seven no-limit draw was only played by a very small number of people for high-stakes, stud high-low-split was now played as eight-or-better on those rare occasions (usually around a tournament) that it was spread, and no-limit hold 'em as a cash game essentially didn't exist. Yet I saw interview after interview, as well as constant write-ups, that this was the bible of poker.

Best wishes,
Mason

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Televised poker was almost exclusively NLHE tournaments. At the time, Doyle's chapter was the best material on NLHE. It is true that SS assumes deep money, probably 100-400xBB, not 1000xBB and major tournaments are played with shallow money except at the beginning. Also, it had a lot of influence on the young aggressive Internet players.

When people referred to SS as the Bible, they were obviously were referring only to the NLHE section. I agree that the rest is kind of obsolete, except for the stud high section, which is good but nothing special.

When I learned to play NLHE tournaments, the NLHE section in SS, some NLHE material in TPFAP, and some decent beginners advice in "Play Poker Like the Pros" was about the only useful information out there.

I think the section in SS on NLHE is still one of the best out there. I think the key is to realize that it is somewhat obsolete and a personal approach, and not treat it as the Bible.

While NLHE had died out prior to the poker boom in Las Vegas, I think it was still played in the south. PLHE was also played in the British Isles and elsewhere in Europe, which is one reason there were so many entries from Ireland at the WSOP ME.