Misinformation campaign/consipiracy by respected authors

[svelte]

I apologize in advance if this theory has already been presented, but every time I see a new instructional poker book I wonder if it isn't part of some massive misinformation campaign instigated in some dark room back in the 70's. I picture world-class players sitting around going...

"So, what should we write about this year?"

"I dunno, what types of plays should we tell the fish to concentrate on?"

"Hmm, well, we've already told them to bet big on the button - that's the steal position - we drilled that into them. They've already go that one."

"Well, we could go into long dissertations on calculating pot-odds. That'll keep em busy for a while. What about next year?"

The total misinformation campaign by top poker authors. It would be a great long con. If you think this has ever happened, what books would you nominate as being part of a conspiracy?

[RedGladiator]

hellmuth and chan???

[finegrinder]

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Hanlon's razor

[krazyace5]

Thought I read somewhere that Amarillo Slim wrote a book like this?

[silvershade]

If you can read a text critically you would be able to uncover such a conspiracy, I'm quite a critical reader and I havent noticed a conspiracy, though in some cases a degree of stupidity does seem to be present ( not 2+2 works ).

[Matt Flynn]

Shhh. You'll reduce my hush money payments.

[BigBuffet]

Doubt it. Book writing is an exercise in ego gratification and money, in different order for different authors. It's time consuming to put out a quality product originally, and also if you update it.

Some people like Slim may put out a crock just for fun and not care about his reputation, but most authors want to prove their expertise in general and in relation to other player/authors, not waste their time and effort in putting out schlock.

My brother is co-author of Preventing Malpractice (Smith). In the early days he seemed to enjoy doing the book, but with each new volume the time and effort in relation to the money has become -ev. The only reason he does it is for ego. It's the book on malpractice.

I also doubt a group of poker players could plan a conspiracy in the pre-boom days. And they don't need to in the post-boom days. and unless poker authors can self-publish and get satisfactory distribution, they will have to deal with publishers who usually care about the quality of the books they publish.