Poker Authors Analyzed

Editor's note: Former Card Player Europe Bureau Chief Rolf Slotboom has read just about every poker book available, and in this series of columns, he analyzes one poker strategist at a time. He looks at the strengths and weaknesses of both the person and his products -- whether it's books, DVDs, or just articles. Extensive reviews and ratings of individual books and DVDs can be found on Rolf's site, www.rolfslotboom.com.

To say that Mason Malmuth and I are not the best of friends would be a bit of an understatement. Time and again has Malmuth attacked my works, sometimes with reason -- but just as often, without. Whenever I used to respond on 2+2 to what I viewed as unfounded criticism and could actually prove that I was right, I usually found myself getting criticised for something entirely different or unrelated. Either way, this seemed to be a bit of a lose-lose situation, so I decided to just let things be -- and for whatever reason, I nowadays actually seem to be appreciated at that site by a significant minority.

So, even though Malmuth has no problems criticising other writers (as I said, in my case, often with reason, as in the beginning of my career especially, my writings did contain some clear flaws), when he gets criticised, the attacks are almost always said to be "personal" and "completely out of line." This occurs even when the criticism is actually right on the mark (for example, when I criticised his analysis of the way he would play A-J for top pair, top kicker in no-limit hold'em, as described in Poker Essays I, or when I spotted a clear mistake in the application of the counting outs method in Ed Miller's Small Stakes Hold'em book).

Of course, the fact of the matter is that Malmuth is known for both groundbreaking and high-quality material. Usually, his advice is top-notch, and especially when it comes to limit hold'em, the works by Mason Malmuth and David Sklansky have been the standard for many years. Their analytical and often math-oriented approach (Malmuth received a B.S. in mathematics from Virginia Tech University in 1973, and a master's in 1975) has helped lift the level of poker analysis to a much higher level. So, even though both Sklansky and Malmuth obviously don't seem to like me much, I happen to be one of their biggest fans. When I had started my career as a true limit hold'em grinder in the best Malmuth/Sklansky tradition, I knew that my successes had, for a large part, resulted from the books and articles that they had written.

In the past four or five years or so, it seems to me that there are not that many groundbreaking new works by either Malmuth or Sklansky.However, they still do an awesome job in co-writing books with others, and their publishing company has an absolutely outstanding catalog. Malmuth, particularly, deserves credit here for his serious and dedicated approach that is always aimed at coming up with yet another high-quality product.

Next issue: Erick Lindgren.



Rolf has been a professional cash-game player since 1998. He is the author of the successful Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha, and the co-author of Hold'em on the Come. He is the creator and presenter of the hold'em four-DVD set Rolf Slotboom's Winning Plays. He is the first-ever Dutch Champion, and maintains his own site at www.rolfslotboom.com.