How to Play Poker: And Other Gambling Card Games

As a novice poker player, I was looking to find a book that explained the general concepts of poker and also specifics on the popular variations without getting drowned in tables upon tables of odds and blah blah blah. The book covers Draw, Stud, Hold 'Em and Omaha poker, along with a small section that covers other card gambling games like baccarat and blackjack. The section on blackjack even has basic strategy tables for memorization. The book opens with some poker history and then goes into general rules of the game, ranking of hands, time limits, seating, dealing, betting limits, wild cards, etc. Then the book goes into the specifics of Draw Poker. The section on Draw poker in my opinion is great. I really liked how the book clearly explained how draw poker is played. The sections on the arithmetic of poker were very helpful with some odds tables and a brief section on expectations (comparing pot odds with card odds). Plus there were several strategies for before and after the draw. Very helpful and clearly explained. The same goes for the section on Stud Poker, with both 5-card and 7-card being covered. The sections on Hold 'Em and Omaha are short but sweet with strategies outlined for before and after the flop without burying you in useless charts of odds. The strategies also consider position and your hole-cards. There are also several pages on bluffing techniques and poker etiquette. For someone starting out in poker I would highly recommend this book. I use it a lot more than the other poker books I bought to expand my knowledge of the game.