Title: Championship No-Limit & Pot-limit Hold’em – The Bible to Winning Hold’em Tournaments and Cash Games
Author: T.J. Cloutier & Tom McEvoy
Facts: The book contains 287 text pages. The book is published by Cardoza publishing and is available for purchase on Amazon.com for just $5.
About the authors
T.J. Cloutier is one of the best tournament players in the world. Maybe even the best of them all. He has been awarded player of the year several times. At several occasions we have been able to see him at the final table in both the world poker tour and the world series of poker. Tom McEvoy is also a great tournament poker player. He have written several books about poker and are also ranked among the best players in the world. So those writers should now what they are writing about!
Review
This book is a bit different since it covers both no-limit and pot-limit Hold’em and also both tournament play and cash games. Probably because T.J. and Tom don’t believe that there is such a big difference between the different situations.. Instead the teach you to play Texas Holdem in a way that you should be able to play winning poker no matter if it is in a live home game or at the world series of poker. T.J says that you should play according to his book not how he plays himself. So if you see him at the world poker tour. Don’t count on that he follows his one advice.
Also the book is written the way they talk in Texas. Totally against what your English teacher told you in school they don’t turn into writing language. We don’t believe we had seen that anywhere else. And frankly it’s hard to know if it’s good or bad. It just comes down to a taste. If you are used to study academic books and articles you probably will find this book a bit strange.
We don’t rank NL PL Championship Holdem as high for strategic and theoretical value, but it’s a fun book to read. There is a lot of stories about the old days when guns and crimes were a part of the every day poker. The second last chapters are also funny to read. It’s called “Tales from T.J.” and it covers a lot of old episodes from his life as travelling road poker player. The last chapter is a conversation with T.J. written by Dana Smith. We are not big fans of that, but some people probably enjoy reading it and it gives a special touch to it. The downside is that the first time you read the book you get the feeling of someone who wants to tell the world how good he is. This goes hand in hand with the best poker player’s enormous egos. They know that they are the best and to put it in print is just a great way to show the rest of the world how excellent they play.
The reasons to read this book is spelled pot-limit and live games. T.J. teaches you the importance of reading your opponents. He believes that you need to get a general idea about the opponents you are facing really fast and then take advantage of your read. Who is playing loose, who is afraid? These are the kind of questions you need to ask yourself al the time. The first chapter in the book are about getting to know your opponent. They put it first because it’s the most important thing.
I haven’t seen that many other books covering Pot-limit. Pot-Limit is right in the middle of limit and no-limit it requires a special kind of play. So if you are looking to play pot-limit online or live this might be one of the books you want to study.
Read on to review some of the industry’s other best poker books.