Live Poker Blog and Podcasts

One way to avoid making mistakes in life is to learn from those of others. If you haven’t already, pick up “One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey ‘The Kid’ Ungar, the World’s Greatest Poker Player”.

It is generally agreed in the poker community that Stu Ungar was the greatest poker player in the history of the game, certainly the greatest no limit hold’em player. It is estimated that he won over $30 million in his lifetime, including the World Series which he won three times (1980, 1981, and his “comeback” win in 1997).

When he was found dead a year later in 1998 from a drug overdose, he could not pay for his own funeral. Ungar’s story illustrates that it is not the opponents at the table that are so much of a problem: it is those that are inside. Rather instructive for all of us.

The book itself is a great read and hard to put down. Doyle Brunson says: “I knew Stuey Ungar well and played with him many, many times. He was one of the most remarkable characters to ever sit down at a poker table.”

“Reading One of a Kind not only brought him back to life for me, it vividly re-created a time and place that we’ll likely never see again. For anyone interested in understanding and unraveling the legend of poker’s most creative thinker and tortured soul, this is the real deal!”

If you like DVDs, check out The Highroller, Stu Ungar’s story. The movie does not come anywhere near the quality of the book, but it is still worth watching.

Was Stu an idiot or a genius? Strangely, those two do not seem to be mutually exclusive.

Suppose you know you will be stranded on a deserted island and can take only one poker book with you. What would you take?

The question is of course hypothetical: you are not likely to find yourself in this situation. Yet, it is interesting to think it through. Which book is likely to maximize your understanding of the game? What is the ultimate “poker bible”?

David Sklansky’s “The Theory of Poker” comes close for many players, and with a good reason. Never mind Sklansky’s poor writing. The book is filled with insightful discussion of the most important considerations such as expectation, hourly rate, the fundamental theorem of poker, the ante structure, free card, pot odds, effective pot odds, implied pot odds and reverse implied odds, deception, semi-bluffing, raising, check-raising, slow playing, loose and tight play, the importance of position, reading hands, psychology of the game…etc.

You name it. The list could go on. Every single important aspect of the game is covered. The book addresses the game in a sophisticated way:

“Beginning poker players sometimes ask, ‘What do you do in this particular situation?’ There is really no correct answer to that question because it’s the wrong question. Rules of thumb that say to fold one hand, call with another, and raise with yet another simply won’t get a poker player beyond the beginning stages. The right question is: ‘What do you consider in this particular situation before determining what to do?’” (The Theory of Poker, xi).

Poker is a game of incomplete information that requires a careful consideration of many factors. Sklansky succeeds in not only elucidating them but also in showing how they relate together. Some factors are more important than others, but no single factor is usually the sole determinant. Good poker is a matter of thorough rational analysis backed up by solid, tested principles.

In one interview, Greg Raymer, the winner of the 2004 WSOP Main Event, stated he would not be able to win without Sklansky’s Theory of Poker. You can’t go wrong by checking it out for yourself.