The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky discusses theories and concepts applicable to nearly every variation of the game, including five-card draw (high), seven-card stud, hold ’em, lowball draw, and razz (seven-card lowball stud). This book introduces you to the Fundamental Theorem of Poker, its implications, and how it should affect your play. Other chapters discuss the value of deception, bluffing, raising, the slow-play, the value of position, psychology, heads-up play, game theory, implied odds, the free card, and semibluffing.
Many of today’s top poker players will tell you that this is the book that really made a difference in their play. That is, these are the ideas that separate the experts from the typical players. Those who read and study this book will literally leave behind those who don’t, and most serious players wear the covers off their copies. This is the best book ever written on poker.
About the Author
David Sklansky is generally considered the number one authority on gambling in the world today. Besides his ten books on the subject, David also has produced two videos and numerous writings for various gaming publications. His occasional poker seminars always receive an enthusiastic reception, including those given at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
More recently, David has been doing consulting work for casinos, Internet gaming sites, and gaming device companies. He has recently invented several games, soon to appear in casinos.
David attributes his standing in the gambling community to three things:
1. The fact that he presents his ideas as simply as possible (sometimes with Mason Malmuth) even though these ideas frequently involve concepts that are deep, subtle, and not to be found elsewhere.
2. The fact that the things he says and writes can be counted on to be accurate.
3. The fact that to this day a large portion of his income is still derived from gambling (usually poker, but occasionally blackjack, sports betting, horses, video games, casino promotions, or casino tournaments).
Thus, those who depend on David’s advice know that he still depends on it himself.
Review By: John M. Thompson
“Every time you play a hand differently than you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; every time you play a hand the same as you would have if you could see all their cards, they lose.” [This is an excerpt from what Sklansky humbly termed the fundamental theorem of poker.]
Statements like these will probably leave the average player, new to reading about his or her game, somewhat puzzled, but this is the main value of this book. It gives you a set of terms to describe conditions and actions in a poker game, and then tries to make you think about what you do and why. In the beginning, Sklansky says that this book does not try to answer, “What do you do in this particular situation?,” but “What do you consider in this particular situation before determining what to do?”
It uses examples from every form of poker found in a casino, but it does not deal with any one form in particular. For this, a few good choices include the ‘Advanced Players’ series from Two Plus Two Publishing, and ‘Super/System’ by 1976-1977 World Series of Poker Champion Doyle Brunson and his collaborators. Sklansky’s object is to show that winning poker comes down to correct determination of your odds given cards seen and unseen, the size of the pot in play and the effect of less tangible, psychological factors on the odds set by the first two elements.
It’s not the easiest reading, but the language therein will be used by most serious players of the game in discussions away from the table. Get ‘Poker for Dummies’ by Lou Krieger and Richard Harroch first, as well as a basic text for your favorite game, like ‘Winning Low-Limit Hold’Em’ by Lee Jones. After a few months of play, open this book to reevaluate your game and what you thought you understood about poker.