Gary Carson: The Complete Book Of Hold'Em Poker

[pena]

I play mainly fixed-limit hold'em and played so far 10 months on-line. I've read so far SSHE, Weighting the Odds, Hold'em on the come, How good is your limit hold'em? and Theory of Poker.

Is this book worth of buying? Does this give me some additional knowledge which these books does not offer?

Any other book suggestions would be appreciated also.

[steamboatin]

Save your money.

[binions]

[ QUOTE ]
I play mainly fixed-limit hold'em and played so far 10 months on-line. I've read so far SSHE, Weighting the Odds, Hold'em on the come, How good is your limit hold'em? and Theory of Poker.

Is this book worth of buying? Does this give me some additional knowledge which these books does not offer?

Any other book suggestions would be appreciated also.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Carson book adds nothing to what you should already know.

Other limit books to consider are:

Holdem Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky & Malmuth
Real Poker 2 - The Play of Hands by Cooke
Middle Limit Holdem by Ciaffone

At this point, Lee Jones' book and Internet Texas Holdem and Getting Started in Holdem would not add anything to your current library.

You might want to find Abdul Jalib's Preflop and Theory of Sucking Out articles on the web. You may need to look on the wayback machine under posev.com.

[JohnG]

[ QUOTE ]
I play mainly fixed-limit hold'em and played so far 10 months on-line. I've read so far SSHE, Weighting the Odds, Hold'em on the come, How good is your limit hold'em? and Theory of Poker.

Is this book worth of buying? Does this give me some additional knowledge which these books does not offer?

Any other book suggestions would be appreciated also.

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd be better off asking this question on RGP. As well as other opinions, Carson will probably also reply. He'll give you an honest answer.

[londomollari]

fwiw, alot of the loose game stuff in SSHE and weighing the odds has built on what Carson wrote.

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
fwiw, alot of the loose game stuff in SSHE and weighing the odds has built on what Carson wrote.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correction - a lot of the loose games concepts that Carson wrote about was first discussed by Abdul Jalib and Izmet Feckali. These concepts also inspired the 2+2 forums, and in turn writers such as Ed Miller and King Yao (weighing the Odds). Carson was the first to publish these concepts in book format, but Theory of Sucking Out According to Abdul defined pot equity as we think about it today, raising for value with a draw, etc. It was ground breaking work at the time.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
Correction - a lot of the loose games concepts that Carson wrote about was first discussed by Abdul Jalib and Izmet Feckali. These concepts also inspired the 2+2 forums, and in turn writers such as Ed Miller and King Yao (weighing the Odds).

[/ QUOTE ]

Some of those concepts were also brought up w/o inspiration from either of those works. Alot of SSHE came str8 from discussions from the small stakes forum on here. When I first read it, I remember reminiscing about the threads that inspired alot of the sections. In the archives you can actually see us working the stuff out. This was around the Major Kong era, before MK became Ed Miller on here. It was a pretty intense time on that forum as we really hashed our games out.

Abdul's stuff came about a little later. I think Clark and/or Dynasty were the first to really present his concepts to the small stakes forum. I remember Clark pushing it quite a bit for awhile. Alot of it was about preflop that Clark presented. That's not to say that other sources didn't influence SSHE,(Miller gives credit to Carsons' book) but it is known to many as the 'Best of the Old Small Stakes Forum'.

For instance, Dynasty and I had 2 very long threads covering:

[ QUOTE ]
but Theory of Sucking Out According to Abdul defined pot equity as we think about it today, raising for value with a draw, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

This exact topic. I remember the exact hand that I played(I had top set(10s) and 4 people hit their flush on the turn) when I brought that concept up for discussion. "Jamming nut draws on the turn" I think was the name of the initial thread. Abdul's name, iirc, never came up in either of those threads.

b

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
Is this book worth of buying?

[/ QUOTE ]

If you like giving money to a jerk. I have heard it's a good solid book from reliable people who's opinions I trust.



[ QUOTE ]
Does this give me some additional knowledge which these books does not offer?


[/ QUOTE ]

No. But it might present an idea/concept that might help you understand something better. But there are plenty of other resources to use.

b

[TKWest]

[ QUOTE ]

Is this book worth of buying?

[/ QUOTE ]

I bought it once at an airport when I had a long wait and nothing to read. Could not read much of it. Waste of my money.

I think he has something valuable to say but it does not come through in this book. Far from a "Complete Book of Holdem"

There are lots of better books on Limit available as allready mentioned in some of the replies.

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Correction - a lot of the loose games concepts that Carson wrote about was first discussed by Abdul Jalib and Izmet Feckali. These concepts also inspired the 2+2 forums, and in turn writers such as Ed Miller and King Yao (weighing the Odds).

[/ QUOTE ]

Some of those concepts were also brought up w/o inspiration from either of those works. Alot of SSHE came str8 from discussions from the small stakes forum on here. When I first read it, I remember reminiscing about the threads that inspired alot of the sections. In the archives you can actually see us working the stuff out. This was around the Major Kong era, before MK became Ed Miller on here. It was a pretty intense time on that forum as we really hashed our games out.

Abdul's stuff came about a little later. I think Clark and/or Dynasty were the first to really present his concepts to the small stakes forum. I remember Clark pushing it quite a bit for awhile. Alot of it was about preflop that Clark presented. That's not to say that other sources didn't influence SSHE,(Miller gives credit to Carsons' book) but it is known to many as the 'Best of the Old Small Stakes Forum'.

For instance, Dynasty and I had 2 very long threads covering:

[ QUOTE ]
but Theory of Sucking Out According to Abdul defined pot equity as we think about it today, raising for value with a draw, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

This exact topic. I remember the exact hand that I played(I had top set(10s) and 4 people hit their flush on the turn) when I brought that concept up for discussion. "Jamming nut draws on the turn" I think was the name of the initial thread. Abdul's name, iirc, never came up in either of those threads.

b

[/ QUOTE ]

What you may not have known at the time is that Abdul's concepts were first presented in 1999, and were the inspiration behind those conversations in Small Stakes. It didn't come out a little later as you stated. All in all there is no denying that SSHE was a book about concepts discussed in the Small Stakes forum, but there were other sources prior to that time who laid the foundation for Small Stakes to be such a great resource that it became thanks to the likes of Clark, Dynasty, MK, yourself, and others.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]