Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book for those Hectic Fast Tournaments! , 27 April 2007
I'm a huge fan of Harrington's three books on Tournament Poker, and have modelled my approach around much of his advice with some success, although generally on multi-table SNGs or paced tournaments with fewer players. However, I've been on the look out for a similar book from another source to broaden out my approach, especially with the more aggressive nature of online and smaller stakes poker than Action Dan generally writes about, and especially those fast tournaments with hundreds or thousands signed up to them. I think I've found it with this new Arnold Synder book. It's well-written, moves into many advanced areas of strategy and with its emphasis not necessarily on the cards you hold, but such issues as position, betting, stack size, blinds etc. I think it both complements and builds on the text-book approach of the Harrington and Sklansky books. I also like the fact that the book starts with the basics but then effectively moves into more advanced advice.
At the heart of the book is the view that tight play at some point (either when the blinds are rising or your stack is falling) is not an option if you are going to have any chance of winning big in a large multi-table tournament. Arnold reckons you need to be considering all-in moves much sooner than implied by more 'conservative' textbooks and also that late position is almost more important than the cards. I have to say that the aggressive approach goes against my more natural tight, steady approach to large tournaments, but he rightly states that as luck plays such a large part in fast tournaments, you need to keep the foot on the gas if you want to get into the serious money rather than just survive beyond the bubble.
As always, if you get an early boost to your stack, then it becomes easier to take chances with late raises and start to bully the smaller stacks, even if you occasionally have a set back or two. What Arnold does stress is that your stack has to stay competitive otherwise you'll eventually be blinded out at some point. Don't survive, play to win it and if you're not competitive, your really wasting your time and are better putting your efforts into the next tournament.
In the book he shows a graph of his tournament winnings for a period of time. I've no idea how accurate or contemporary it is, but it shows periods of 10-20 tournaments when he has no money finish, but that when the cards and the strategy come together, he wins big and that keeps the overall income gradient rising! It's an interesting approach and one you might want to try if you find you are getting nowhere in big tourneys or even freerolls despite playing 'correctly' from a Tight-Aggressive approach.
It's relatively early for me to fully assess Arnold's approach and find out if it proves profitable for me in the long-term (my review is based on the quality of the book), but I'm already encouraged by finding that I've already gone very deep in an on-line larger tournament recently as a result of using the strategy, which has more than compensated for going out quicker than normal in another few (thereby probably not wasting valuable hours when I could be elsewhere, no doubt). The 'Formula' is not for most SNGs or tournaments, but it could be worth a try on a few modestly-priced large fast tournaments in the near future.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cards dont matter, 27 Jun 2007
This is an excellent book that shows you how to pick up hands when you have absolutly nothing.
A great book, easy to read and understand, though putting his strategies into practice takes some guts.
A must for all serious poker players who want to move up the ladder.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Want to Win?, 3 Feb 2007
Before buying this book I read about it on the various forums, and for the very reason that the strategies suggested seem to go against established thinking, I decided to buy it. The book arrived on the Tuesday I read it and on the Sunday played a [...] NL hold em tournament on Party Poker with 1035 other entrants. Using just the position strategy I was able to steal the blinds 22 times out of 30 tries. Ultimately I came first, as much a surprise to me as anyone, I won $1088, so the book has paid for itself and then some. Combine this book with the thinking from Harrington 1-3, and you will learn to keep your head above water when the cards dry up as they surely will.
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