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 enlarge | Author: David Sklansky
Publisher: Two Plus Two Pub.
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $12.18
You Save: $17.77 (59%)
New (33) Used (39) from $12.18
Avg. Customer Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 3784
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 276
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 1880685000
Dewey Decimal Number: 795.412
EAN: 9781880685006
ASIN: 1880685000
Publication Date: December 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: PLEASE READ ENTIRE COMMENT: Slight moisture damage on top and bottom of book, some stains on top of book, some wear on cover, corners and edges. Pages in good conditon, corners are bent, covers are slightly scratched and bent
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good For Beginners and Intermediates October 26, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a must read for any serious beginner to intermediate player. Most advanced players will probably have knowledge of the biggest part of the topics covered but it's never bad to refresh yourself.
Essential information covered is pot odds, implied odds,draws and the free-card concept, among other things.
 Out of date - there is a new game in town October 18, 2007
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
I hate to give such a great book a negative title and mediocre review but the fact is that this book is just no longer relevant. Had you bought this before the poker boom you would be golden. The best piece of advice you can get from this book is the basic theory. Other than that the whole book is geared around limit cash games. We all know that NL tournaments is where it is at right now so I would check out Dan Harrington's books first.
 Required poker foundation August 7, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Sklansky's Theory of Poker is no longer the newest book on advanced poker thought, but it remains required reading for both the average and the more experienced player. While some of the specific hand-analysis and tactical advice has been updated or superceded by more recent and also excellent books by the likes of Harrington or Gordon, the basic concepts do not change, and Sklansky is an insightful analyst, as well as an excellent teacher. The attentive reader will find his time and thought well rewarded.
According to Sklansky's Theory of Poker, the game is one of mistakes - the point is to induce mistakes in your opponents' play while avoiding mistakes in play yourself. The basic nature of poker, in any of its forms, implies that you have imperfect and limited knowledge of the value of the hands your opponents hold, and they have limited knowledge of yours; it is because of this limited knowledge that mistakes can take place.
Mistakes and errors are simple to define. If you had perfect knowledge of all hands, you would play your own hand in a certain, mathematically correct way. To the extent you play your hand differently, due to lack of knowledge or deception or whatever, you have made a mistake. Sklansky teaches various ways of inducing those mistakes in others, and also how to correctly analyze your own hand and options for play.
Sklansky draws on multiple forms of poker for examples; not just Hold 'Em, but also 7 Stud, 5-card Draw, Razz, etc. For the player only familiar with Hold Em this may be a little confusing at first. The book is meant as a theoretical examination of principles built into all poker games, and is not really a how-to-play for Hold Em or any other form of poker.
Sklansky's writing is dense in the sense that he does not beat around the bush or waste time or fill his book with fluff. The book is not light reading, and probably should not be your first book if you are not thoroughly familiar with the play as well as the language and jargon of the game. It cannot be skimmed. But there isn't a player out there who would not benefit from a careful reading, and would not benefit more from re-reading again six months later, this book.
Granddaddy August 5, 2007
This is the grand daddy of all poker books. if you only get one book, this should be it. teaches you to think for yourself in poker situations
Powerful information! May 30, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Theory of Poker presents ideas that have the potential to improve your game significantly. There is a reason why this book is consistently named by almost everyone as one of the best poker books out there. In fact, I would go as far as to say if you haven't read this you are probably not playing the best poker you could play. I had seen several of these concepts discussed elsewhere, but it wasn't until I read this that I fully understood the power of calculating pot odds/estimating implied odds, semi-bluffing, and raising in many different situations. These are powerful concepts, and Sklansky backs them up with mathematics.
Many of the concepts presented in this book are not intuitive, but once Sklansky takes you through some examples, you will kick yourself for not having used them before. He provides sufficient evidence to show that these strategies really do work.
It is important to understand, and I think this book does a good job of explaining, that you will get beat when you implement these strategies. That is inevitible. But if you keep at it, you will come out ahead in the long run.
This book is probably not the best book for beginners. This actually was the first poker book I read, but I wish I had more of a fundamental knowledge base before I read this. I tried to implement several of these strategies in my game, but I found that I lacked the proper context to really understand why they worked and in which situations. But once I practiced, read some more, and then came back to this, it was extremely useful.
In short, if you are serious about improving your poker game, this book is absolutely essential. Read a couple of beginner books first and practice a lot, and then check this one out. You will be very pleased that you did.
The only reason I don't give it five stars is because many of the examples concern games that I am really not interested in and don't care to learn (at least not now). I understand that Sklansky wrote this as a general poker book, and he did so back in '94, but most poker players today are interested in Hold Em. So examples that used Stud or Razz to illustrate their point weren't as useful as they could have been. I do know that Sklansky wrote a book specifically on Hold Em though, so not a big deal.
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