Poker Book Review : '1000 Best Poker Strategies and Secrets' - Published: 8/2/2006
Two time World Series of Poker ladies championship winner Susie Isaacs has released her first poker instructional text called '1000 Best Poker Strategies and Secrets'. This book is filled with various poker playing tips, sayings and advice with the goal to improve the poker skills of all readers, regardless of their current level of play. While the tips are helpful, factual and sure to improve the abilities of unexperienced players, the challenge for many readers will be to identify which situations in their poker games are applicable to the tips they have studied and learned.
After a brief synopsis of the book contents and some current poker history, Susie starts with a poker basics section containing nine poker fundamentals followed up with a 16 page poker term glossary. With sub-sections created for the three levels of player; beginner, intermediate and advanced, tips are divided among the games of Holdem, Stud, Omaha, Hi-Lo, Razz, and Draw. After covering a few more tips on miscelaneous poker topics like tells, home games, internet poker and table protocol, the book ends with short biographies and advice from many world reknown poker pros including Doyle Brunson, Mike Caro, Jonny Chan and others.
As with many tip books of this nature, many readers would benefit by reading another poker instructional text outlining their game of choice beforehand, so that they have more context to apply to the tips given. While some tips are straightforward and universal, others like #18 which advises how to play big cards on low flops, are correct in most scenarios but can be costly in tough games depending on the players and the stakes. While players of experience can easily identify when this tip will prove useful, beginners may take it to heart and be betting their overcards into obvious traps.
The poker tips that can be appreciated the most in this text are the ones that relate to the aptitudes and attitudes needed to become a winning player. While this type of tips are mostly found in the intermediate sections of each chapter, this form of advice applies to broad scenarios and is often over-looked in many more formal instructional poker books. It's also nice to see that Susie integrates the knowledge of fellow poker pros throughout the chapters, for example tip #344 shares Doyle Brunsons thoughts on bluffing and #422 has tournament advice by Tom McEvoy.
An inherent advantage found within this books writing format is that there is no prolonged concentration or commitment needed to learn some poker advice. Each tip can be absorbed at the readers own leisure without having to review the entire chapter, making it an ideal text for bathroom readers or travellers on the go. While there is some doubt the tips found within will transform the game of any advanced players, they can certainly be used to supplement the knowledge of beginners in conjunction with another standard poker strategy book.