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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

May 3, 2008

More Fodder for the Fans

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." - Dr. Seuss

Have you noticed yet that the number of new poker releases from book publishers has decreased dramatically in the last several months? While the independent specialty houses continue to churn out a title or two with some frequency, the major players appear to be looking for the next hot topic to cash in on.

This shouldn't be surprising because tastes change; people change; trends diminish as new ones take hold.

So what is a serious student of the game to do to get a reading fix? More to the point, what does a newbie do to learn more about his or her new favorite pastime?

Remembering when the number of poker books in existence was countable by a pre-school child, I'm amazed at how many titles became available in the years since televised poker became fashionable. Many of these books were written by players who learned the game by playing and not by reading. By the same token, many of these writers also read each other's work, not to scope out the competition's writing talents but to pick up nuggets of information that would help their own game.

That, readers, is where you should be looking next.

Forget about paying dearly for intense works that overwhelm you with concepts and strategies. While these tomes serve a purpose, they often leave you with information overload. Players who have spent the equivalent of a half a dozen years at the game, often condensed to a year because of the availability of fast-paced online gaming, might need the precise approach these latest books provide while others might experience something akin to brain freeze with these uber technical texts.

If you are new to the game (but I believe few of you are) or if you are stuck in a poker rut that has you breaking even or steadily losing, here's a thought. Pick up a book, perhaps a beginner's book or one written within the last 10 years, possibly even one that's been in your library for a while. Read it quickly or just scan the table of contents. If it has an index, go there and scroll down the entries with your eyes. You're searching for something that clicks in the recesses of your brain; something that says, "Hey, man. This looks like it can help." Then go there and read.

Your focus isn't to digest an entire book. Your approach should be to find the golden nugget that you can put into action the next time you're at the table.

Let's say, for example, you find something that explains how to play middle pair in middle position. That's usually the spot that gives players the most heartache. Once you find a chapter or section in a book that deals with this concept, pick out a smaller portion of that text. Unless you're succinctly focused, don't try to digest the entire buffet of examples. Pick one and think it out. Deal it on a table for yourself and visualize how a hand might play out for you. Then, take that to the table and focus on it for the next week of play.

Now when you are in that situation, reach back into what you learned from that one little segment of text and put it into action. Do it for the equivalent of a week. When the concept is totally ingrained into your play, when you don't even have to think about it to use it, then go back and start over with your next problem area and repeat.

If you think there's nothing in a particular book that you need, pick out an area you believe you have under control and read that. Chances are you will find something amiss in your psyche that wasn't apparent.

What you are looking for are small steps that when mastered make a path. Once you've traveled some way on these stepping stones, you should see a marked improvement in your bottom line.