[jackaaron]

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Hi Jack:

I've been reading the book. In fact, Anold, who I consider a friend, gave me a copy.

I agree that it is a very confused work. Much of the problem has to do with the idea that fast tournaments require a different strategy from slow tournaments. (Fast and slow here refers to how quickly the blinds and antes go up.) This is the same mistake that Tom McEvoy made in his original tournament book over twenty years ago. Tournament speed has virtually nothing to do with correct tournament strategy.

As Harrington and Robertie show in Harrington II: The Endgame it's not speed that counts, but your overall chip position relative to the cost of playing each round. This is what they call "M" and when your M gets low, you have to begin making very aggressive plays. But when your M is fairly large, you have the option to play fairly normally.

What's happening in the Poker Tournament Formula is that some of the recommended plays turn out to be right not because of tournament speed, but because you'll be playing with a small M. So very weak players who read this, should improve their tournament games, but they'll do so for the wrong reasons.

There are also many other questionable plays such as automatically calling a raise with any two cards if you're on the button so that you can steal later (and by making this play you lose what Harrington and Robertie refer to as "First in Vigorish"). With a large M this play is more likely correct, especially against a weak player, but with a small M, which again will frequently be the case in the type of tournament the book is aimed for, it can't be right.

For those who don't know, Snyder is one of the foremost authorities in blackjack/gambling, and I have told him on many occasions that we would be more than glad to publish any book that he writes. But this text at the very least certainly needs a lot of work. (Also, I've only read about one-third of it.)

Best wishes,
Mason

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Will there be a review of this book? It would seem this review would take a great deal of your time with the size of the book, and the need to address certain problems 2+2 would have with some of the concepts.

One thing I do like is that someone is trying to write a tournament book for low limit players (the lot that seems to comprise most of the online scene, and of course, includes me).