Have Poker Books Helped or Hurt Poker?

From everyone's mouth spouts a different answer. First, the casinos and card clubs have been helped immensely by the introduction of the many good poker books. I believe they have helped create many new players. Also, after reading the books and hopefully learning something, players tend to play better. So, how is this good for the card club?

Well, better players hold on to their money longer and keep the games going so that the clubs get more money in charges. The better players also come in and help start the games. Having the average skill of their customers increase would seem to be good for their business.

The good poker books have even helped the top professional players. Despite what some say, almost all have read the best books and have profited from the material. Some of those from the newly created pool of players find their way into the bigger games too soon and become prey for the champs; thus, it's to the professionals' benefit to have good material out on the market. All it might mean is that they have to occasionally play a little longer to get the money, because some of the new players tend to play better than expected.

The middle-limit players are both helped and hurt by the books. Many new players start getting into these games and some actually play quite well. You see, after studying the best books, you can become fairly accomplished with just a small amount of real experience (at least a lot less experience than it used to take). So, those players who improve move up and take advantage of their new skills and keep pace with the world. This group improves its win rate due to the new players and wider choice of games. Those who become stagnant and don't study fall back in the pack and either go broke or just slow down their winning ways. The players trying to make a living in this group really need to work on keeping their game in top shape.

The lower-limit players have some great news and some bad news. The great news is that there are now more games going than anytime in history. A lot of this is from poker becoming legal in places where it was never allowed before.

In fact, the poker explosion has happened all over the world. Games that can be beaten by good players are now spread in most countries, and poker has become a world force in the card industry. Furthermore, since there are games within reach of most of us, it becomes possible to make money wherever you live.

The rest of the good news for small-stakes players is that due to the high quality of some of the poker books, many players are able to beat the house charges and become winners. This was thought to be impossible before. Of course, just reading a few books doesn't make you a winner, but it gets you started on the right path. If you truly devote the effort to it, the task becomes easily attainable for those possessing a modest degree of card skills and dedication.

Unfortunately, some bad news awaits a large group of players who choose not to read, study, and improve their games. What has happened is that many if not most of the new players are much better than the players whom people played against some years back. Then, people new to the game sat down and nearly always lost all of their money quickly. What that meant was that if you just played tight, you could get some sure money whenever you found a game. That was the "old style."

Today, this is no longer the case. The old-style tight players who waited for cinch hands and didn't play a hand well all the way through (but knew that over time the new players' money was going to be lost) are no longer a threat. These people are, and have been, getting lost in the dust. What they need to do is bite the bullet and do their homework. Only then can they partake of the new rain of money that's falling in on them.

When David Sklansky wrote Hold'em Poker in 1976, I saw the beginnings of the poker revolution. It's hard to believe that at that time, there was only one hold'em game that was regularly spread in Las Vegas, and it was not even legal yet in California as well as the rest of the country.

As players improved, games spread. Sklansky's original book probably had the biggest impact on the growth of hold'em and poker as we know it today. Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, which originally was written in 1988 (and in which I lent a little expertise), was another big shot in the arm.

At the same time that players got better, the weaker ones began to disappear. But, the net result was more games from which to choose and more money in action.

In 1992 when I wrote High-Low-Split Poker, Seven-Card Stud and Omaha Eight-or-Better for Advanced Players, there were few Omaha eight-or-better games being spread anywhere. Soon thereafter, many cardrooms, and certainly the bigger ones, had the game going, and its popularity cannot be denied. Was it my book or other books about this game that caused the growth? I can't say for sure, but I would bet my britches that when people read and learn, they want to practice their newfound skills.

On our website forums at www.twoplustwo.com, this topic has been debated, and the consensus is that books have helped the growth of poker. In the future, it will remain to be seen how poker books and the Internet will influence the continued surge of this wonderfully competitive game throughout the world.

Good luck.