Championship Hold'em [Paperback]

Although Tom McEvoy and T.S. Cloutier are world class players this is not a world class poker book. They repeat themselves a lot and and even contradict themselves a little, and they do ramble on. One gets the sense that somebody miked them up and had them just talk about how to play various hands in various positions in various circumstances, mostly limit hold'em and in tournaments.

For the not really booked up player this might be exactly right, but for the experienced player a lot of the advice is old hat. McEvoy and Cloutier recognize as much because on a couple of occasions they apologize for the repetition and advise the reader to take what they're saying as a "refresher."

There is more than some merit to this advice. Anybody who has played poker for any length of time knows that you can go through stages where you drift from correct play to careless play to downright bad play. You are winning day after day, and you start to get overconfident and play more hands than you should. Next thing you know you're raising with ace-rag and calling with J9 offsuit and leading into the flop with second pair, no kicker. Reading this book will get you back to reality and tighten up your loose play, because believe me McEvoy and Cloutier do NOT play rags. Well, except when they know you're going to toss...

Generally, just about everything they say is correct or at least debatably correct. Nonetheless I want to take exception to a couple of things, and to point out where what they say is only part of the story.

Here's a good example. Cloutier says, "I never--and I emphasize never--call a bet on the end just because of the size of the pot. (p. 213)

Well, if the pot is ten grand and your only opponent coyly pushes fifty bucks into the pot, you're gonna call. And when I say "you" I mean T.J. Cloutier as well. You're also going to call if it's a limit game and your lone opponent flips his last dollar chip into a five-hundred dollar pot. What Cloutier really is saying is that he reads the other player and the action. He recalls what experiences he has had with this player while he considers what his opponent's likely hand is, and that all of these considerations are more important than the size of the pot.

Here's another. Cloutier says, "If there is more than one other player in the pot and you try to bluff on the end in limit hold'em, you might as well just donate your money to charity instead." (p. 215)

In a sense this is just an exaggeration to make a point. But if you look deeper you can see that this cannot be right. True, trying to steal the pot with a bet on the river is a losing proposition in limit hold'em. However, if everybody only bet the goods on the river there wouldn't be much of a reason to call except in those cases where it's unclear who has the best hand. Furthermore, if you NEVER bluff at the pot on the river, you are--in the nicely expressed words of David Sklansky--"giving away too much information."

Here's a third: Cloutier describes a situation in which you raise preflop with AJ and the flop comes rags and you have two opponents who check to you. You bet and they toss. Cloutier says, "You might have the best hand, don't get me wrong, but you're still bluffing with the best hand." Actually, what you're doing is semi-bluffing. You have two overcards, and a not unreasonable expectation that you do indeed have the best hand at the moment. Why give a free card for one of your opponents to snag a pair?

And then there's the "free card" play. Cloutier makes the very excellent point that "If you're going to make this play, you had better be drawing to the nuts. You don't want to be drawing to a jack-high flush and raise to get a free card in a multi-way pot."

Amen to that. However, when you are in last position and raise with a four-flush on the flop you are making a play for a half-priced card, and if the play works, the card you're getting for half price is the river card NOT the turn card. (You can simply call and see the turn card for the flop bet.) You pay an extra flop bet (half the size of the turn bet) in the hope that everybody will check to you on the turn and you can check to see the river for "free"--or actually for the flop bet you raised with. Another point to understand here is that when you are drawing to the nuts and there are three or more players in the pot with you who will just call, you are actually getting proper odds for your raise.

All in all an interesting if not entirely instructive book. One of the best features is their advice on how to play twenty "practice tournament" hands from AA to some rags including 75 unsuited. There's some good advice on tournament strategy and how to play in various kinds of games, tight, loose--no fold'em hold'em--and how to play against various types of players, maniacs, super tights, etc. There are some interesting poker stories. One of the best is about Cloutier being dealt AA in a $100/$200 hold'em game in San Jose. The flop came A-Q-9. T.J bet and got called by one player. The turn was a five. Again it was bet and call. The river was a four. Cloutier doesn't give the river betting, but you can be sure it was something like bet/raise!/call because he concludes by telling us that the Asian businessman he was playing against showed him three-deuce!

I first heard about this book when I read Jim MacManus's Positively Fifth Street last summer. By the time that I finished, the manual was out-of-print, but it has since been reissued. Its re-release is most likely due to the Hold'em craze, but, I believe, that its excellence made it difficult for its publishers to ignore.

Overall, I'd place this one right behind Doyle's Super System, Number 1, in terms of educational and helpful works concerning tournament poker. I know this to be the case because I just returned from Vegas two days ago and finished reading it during my plane flight over. Championship... was fresh in my mind during the games that I played on vacation.

I signed up twice for the 30 dollar, 30 person daily tournament at the Mandalay Bay. The first day that I attended, I wound up making it to the final table and finishing seventh--two spots out of the money. I had enough chips to allow me to coast to third or fourth place but, when Big Slick, a King/Ace of Hearts, fell into my hands, I had the sensation of hearing T.J. Cloutier whisper into my ears, "This is exactly what I meant."

My mind immediately scanned back to page 299 where he states that what you do with Big Slick, and how you play when the other player holds it, makes or breaks you during tournaments. Here, Cloutier shares that it is also known as "Walking Back to Houston" as it has so often broken the players who held it. I knew that folding it would have been cowardice--particular with three spots vacant at the table.

The flop fell three suited and A, 8, K. I had two Aces and two Kings. The guy across from me went all in with a few more chips than me. I followed suit. He didn't bet before the flop and I thought he had two 8s or a small pair going in. I was wrong. He had J, 10. When I turned my cards over, the table gasped. I had him, until a Queen fell on the River and he made a straight. It was I who was walking back to Houston. I dragged my way back to the Tropicana in a haze, but T.J. was right, Big Slick would have made or finished my tournament.

That's the way the book is though. It is a play-by-play analysis of what one should be doing during tournament Hold'em play and I thought it incredibly valuable. It's much better than the Sklansky books as it's not as tight and I found it to be infinitely more realistic. It adapts to the changing conditions of play.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that Tom McEvoy has to be one of the most underrated of all the pros. You know, he won the World Series of Poker back in 1983 but he is not given any coverage by ESPN. He really deserves an expose. Tom's point of view is quite valuable and I enjoyed the insights he shared, independent of T.J.'s. I have to state that the book is worth the money that you'll pay. If you want to save a few bucks, it's available from the Amazon z shops. All the buyers that I've made purchases from have been reliable.

One of 3 books on poker I bought. Good read and very comprehensive. Would recommend it to anyone. Its got something for everyone. I've started playing online in the last two months and its been really helpful. You can dip and choose from sections, or just read it cover to cover. Good examples and well laid out. This book will improve your poker playing.

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