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#1
07-07-2005, 01:24 PM
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Review of Ace on the River
Below is my objective view of this book. I purchased it from amazon.com and paid overnight shipping. Therefore my total cost was $41.xx. I am not affiliated with any publisher, 2+2 or anyone else that would cause me to be biased.
There are 82 full pages where there are nothing but high glossy pictures. That is almost 1/3 of the book. Chapter review: chapter 1-- "my poker career" There is nothing of use in this chapter to an aspiring poker player. Nothing more than stories about Barry. Chapter 2-- "The Poker Society" A very brief synopsis of the types of people you will run into in a B&M casino. This did not give me any new information. Chapter 3-- "How to Behave in Poker Society" Nothing of value here. Basically says do not be a whiner when you get outdrawn and etc. Chapter 4-- "Superstition" I do not understand why this chapter was even included. Chapter 5-- "Attitude of a Poker Player" This chapter attempts to ask you 10 questions about your attitude and then tries to explain what your answers may mean. Very short chapter. Chapter 6-- "Traits of Winning Poker Players" 25 cliches and a brief summary which attempt to explain what traits winning poker players have. Chapter 7-- "Psychology of Gambling" This chapter tries to characterize the types of gamblers which has been covered in other books. Again, a VERY short chapter with hardly any content. Chapter 8-- "Brain Chemistry" Completely worthless chapter. Chapter 9-- "Integrity" Again, I do not understand why this chapter is included in an ADVANCED guide for poker players. Chapter 10-- "Getting Your Education" A chapter that has 2 pages (not counting high glossy photo pages. Does 2 pages count as a chapter?) Which basically says, "don't move up in higher limits until you have figured out how the higher limits are different than what you are playing now so you can adjust properly. Chapter 11-- "Making Money" This chapter has 5 pages of content minus the high glossy photo pages. It is useful information because it talks about evaluating games and the edges involved. Chapter 12-- "Holding Onto Money" It talks about making lending agreements with other honorable players and etc. This chapter is 3 pages long and provides little content. Chapter 13-- "Hazards of Sports Betting" This chapter is 3 pages long and has nothing to do with poker therefore I am not going to say anything about it. Chapter 14-- "Protecting Yourself" There are 4 pages to this chapter and that is generous because each page has a small photo on it. Talks about spotting cheaters and etc. Not really useful. Chapter 15-- "Poker and Your Family" This chapter has 4 pages (lots of photos on the 4 pages so content is even less) and describes what having a spouse who is not supportive during bad runs can do. Not very useful. Chapter 16-- "Poker and Your Sexuality" 2 pages describing how some men will "quit good games" to chase women. Another useless chapter. Chapter 17-- "The Best Poker Player in the World" Useless chapter. You read 4 pages (again content is minimal due to photos) and at end of fourth page, it says, no one is number one due to flux of the game and etc. Chapter 18-- "Gambling and Productive Society" This chapter basically postulates an argument as to why gambling is good and should be accepted by the masses. Chapter 19-- "Mathematics of Poker" This chapters starts the section of AVANCED PLAY. Here is direct quote from page 146: "It will occasionally be helpful if you can count the number of outs you have and are able to figure out pot odds in simple situations. In limit poker, you will generally cointinue on in a hand when you have eight outs or more." This chapter is about 8 pages long (again that is not taking into account the high glossy photos) and its very high level. Not much in way of details. He states on page 147, that if you have 14 outs on the flop then you are a slight favorite in holdem. He explains the Martingale strategy. Disappointing. Chapter 20-- "Game Theory" There is about one nugget of useful information in this chapter. I will let you find it...think of it as a treasure hunt. Chapter 21-- "Chaos" Useless chapter. Chapter 22-- Different Limits" Not much content. Move on. Chapter 23-- Money Management" discusses reasons for min and max buyin strategies. Not much content. Chapter 24-- "Poker on the Internet" 3.5 pages devoted to this when most people who will buy this book will play on the internet. Just amazing that lack of thinking that went into this book. Chapter 25-- "Play Lessons" Now this chapter has some meat to it. It presents hands from different forms of poker and the thinking process involved in each one. This is very good but if you only play NL then there are only couple of hands that are reviewed at this form of poker. Chapter 26-- "Tournaments" Some useful info on couple of pages but again not much content here. Chapter 27-- "Some No Limit Tournament Hands" This chapter is good. It presents the reader with quite a few NL tournament hands and attempts to show the reader the thinking process. Chapter 28-- "Parting Thoughts" 2 high gloss photo pages with some large text on it. The rest of the book is the Addenda. There are 2 chapters in this book which are pretty good and the rest of the chapters are mostly useless. I do not understand how Mason could give this book a 10. I would give this book a 4 out of 10. However, if you were rating it on paper quality, photos and the wonderful cover of Barry then perhaps a 10 would suffice. There is no way I would pay $25 for this book again. I will not even re-read this book again because it is so bad. Almost 1/3 of the book is nothing but full page pictures. The rest of the book has lots of small pictures therefore the content is minimal. If you were to remove all the photos the text would not equal 100 full text pages. I wish I could get my $41 back because I feel duped. The hyped failed to deliver again. Just to give you a comparison, I think the Theory of Poker is a 10 out of 10. Barry's book is not a 10--not even close. cheers Boon 
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#3
07-07-2005, 01:40 PM
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Re: Review of Ace on the River
I agree with the above review in certain respects. There is very little here in the way of theory and hand play (maybe 20% of the book). If you are looking for that kind of book, this is not for you. There are countless others that serve that purpose that have been discussed on these forums ad nauseum.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Barry's book. It is certainly the only poker book I have ever seen that is worthy of being a "coffee table" book. The physical quality of this book (which many have discussed) for a poker book is astonishing. I also enjoyed reading Barry's short chapters and little snippets about poker/psychology/the poker world. It is certainly not something to base your game around, but much of it was interesting nonetheless. Plus, as noted, there are some very good hand analyses and strategies discussed. Do I need Barry G to tell me to be a good husband and father or about poker and sexuality- no. But that did not make the rest of the book worthless. All in all I am satusfied with my purchase, but I think everyone will differ on their review depending on what they want or are expecting.
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#4
07-07-2005, 02:09 PM
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Re: Review of Ace on the River
Wow, thanks for the review. After all the hype and the things i've been hearing, i was expecting this book to be ToP 2. Despite what you say, i'm still going to buy it, but maybe now i won't be so disappointed if it is in fact as bad as you say it is.
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#5
07-07-2005, 02:38 PM
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Re: Review of Ace on the River
Ugh. After looking at the chapter listing on Amazon I decided that this was not a book for me. Then, after reading Mason's reccomedation, I decided to go ahead and order it. Now, it appears as though it is exactly what I first feared. Ugh. At least it has a chapter about sex and chasing women. Thanks for the review.
Lost Wages
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#6
07-07-2005, 02:40 PM
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Re: Review of Ace on the River
Thank you for the time you spent for the review. However, perhaps you would also like to share with us, what were your initial expectations. Did you expect a pure theory book like HOH or SSH? At the end it's all about expectations. What if you would expect the book to be the worst book ever? Than you would be positively surprised. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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#7
07-07-2005, 02:50 PM
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Re: Review of Ace on the River
[ QUOTE ]
Thank you for the time you spent for the review. However, perhaps you would also like to share with us, what were your initial expectations. Did you expect a pure theory book like HOH or SSH? At the end it's all about expectations. What if you would expect the book to be the worst book ever? Than you would be positively surprised. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [/ QUOTE ] No matter what he was expecting, it sounds like the book is a bunch of fluff. I'm one of the suckers that ordered it due to Mason's review.
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#10
07-07-2005, 03:33 PM
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Re: Review of Ace on the River
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] Thank you for the time you spent for the review. However, perhaps you would also like to share with us, what were your initial expectations. Did you expect a pure theory book like HOH or SSH? At the end it's all about expectations. What if you would expect the book to be the worst book ever? Than you would be positively surprised. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [/ QUOTE ] No matter what he was expecting, it sounds like the book is a bunch of fluff. I'm one of the suckers that ordered it due to Mason's review. [/ QUOTE ] He certainly went out of his way to made it SOUND like a bunch of fluff, that's for sure. Try forming your own opinion.
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