Editor's pick

Beginners book on Tournament Texas Hold'em

Product

Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em by T.J. Cloutier & Tom McEvoy

Hits

  • Advice from two proven champions
  • Very good book for the beginning player
  • Includes "practice hands"
  • Entertaining

Misses

  • Not much for the intermediate/expert player
  • No clear hand ranking
  • The structure is a bit sloppy, making it difficult to read
  • The authors leave out a few important concepts and don't elaborate enough on certain topics
  • A bit outdated as the book was written before the great poker boom

Review

The authors, poker champions T.J. Cloutier and Tom McEvoy, use a conversational tone throughout this book, making it reader friendly. The downside is that this chatty structure sometimes makes it hard to tell if the advice comes from Cloutier or McEvoy. On the upside, the reader often get two points of view on how to play.

Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold'em brings up topics ranging from satellite play to post-tournament stress. It advocates a tight playing style liable to benefit the beginning player. To get a more complete picture of tournament play, however, PokerListings.com strongly recommends reading other books on tournament poker (check out other reviews in the Editor's Pick section).

A good complement is Super/System by Doyle Brunson, where a completely different No-Limit Hold'em strategy is elaborated. In addition, Dan Harrington's books on tournament No-Limit Hold'em are an invaluable counterpoint.

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