4 comments about Play These Hands With Me (Better Bridge Now).

1. It's a shame Play Bridge with Reese and this book are out of print because they're classics. Some books give you rules and group hands into topics and chapters. These are different. You pick up a bridge hand with the late, great Terrence Reese, and follow his thoughts and choices through the bidding. When the bidding is over, the opponents lead, dummy comes down and you follow his thinking through the play of the hand as he develops a plan and builds up a picture of the hidden hands card by card. The method is simple but the results are dazzling, entertaining and instructive. Play Bridge with Mike Lawrence and Play a Swiss Team of Four with Mike Lawrence use a similar style - also wonderfully done - but Play Bridge with Reese is probably the best of the four.



2. This is a great book to for intermediate or even advanced player. It addresses the thought process of the expert (Terence Reese) on his bidding and declarer play on a wide variety of hands. Some of the bidding conventions are now outdated, but even for today's ACBL bridge player it is an excellent learning tool to improve one's declarer play, as well as an enjoyable bridge read.



3. What does an expert think about?
   How does he go about testing his hypothesis?
   Don't worry if the bididng is a little old fashioned, look deeper, at the problem, and the tools (bidding) the author had at the time.



4. I much prefered the authors other book: Play Bridge with Reese
   
   1 - I didn't like his attitude. Regardless of his skill, he does not seem like someone I'd care to play with.
   
   2 - the bidding is outdated and franky bad. Some of Reeses ideas would be rejected today. Its *VERY* hard to try and figure out teh shape when an opponent makes horrible bids like opening 1 NT with a spot singleton spade. Thats a horrible bid, and you are better off using the few minutes you have during each hand to think abiout a realistic set of hands.
   
   3 - A number of the hands involved some non simple squeezes. They are not all that common, and even advanced players would be better off if they used their time looking at other types of problems. I think teh selection of problem types was just not that good. Soem problems were good, some were fair, some were poor.
   
   I think one of the reasons this book got so much acclaim is Reese was one of the first authors to use this style. Since there are now many otehr books that also present the reader problems in this format, thsi book has not aged well. I would recommend reading many other play of the hand books before this. (Eddie Kantar, Mike Lawrence, Kelseys Test Your XXX, Win the Bermuda Bowl with Me, Danny Roth)
   
   The book isn't bad, its just not a great book. Read it, but don't expect it to be as good as its hype.

No comments about Beckett Unofficial Pokemon Price Guide #3 (Beckett Unofficial Guide to Pokemon).

2 comments about The Caesars Palace Book of Sports Betting.

1. If you never have been to Vegas and want to know a bit about sports betting, this is not a bad book. However, there are some superior books out there.



2. Great information. Very helpful.
   
   Best Gambling Portal http://www.increasedodds.com

No comments about Saints and Sinners: The St. Titus Bridge Challenge.

5 comments about Pressure Poker: Poker Strategy and Tools to Improve Your Game.

1. I own over 60 poker related books and dvd's and this is only the 2nd book I have ever sent back. It is just a compilation of information from other books, and a bunch of useless information (how to build a poker table?? don't they sell those in several stores??). Please save your money for one of the myraid other poker titles that will actually teach you something. It sure has a NICE TITLE, and a review from one of his friends, but don't let either sway you.



2. The truth about this book lies somewhere between those early five star "publisher's fluff" reviews, and the guy who says the book is worthless. There is some good material in the book. I liked the discussion of the various software tools for online-poker. (Although much or all of this can be found on the internet.)
   
   "Pressure Poker" is a technique or strategy that is currently a hot topic in the poker world. So you would think a book with this title would explore that topic rather throughly. Unfortunately there are only about 5 pages on that topic. So I felt the title was misleading.
   
   People who have never played online poker before (a vast number of people) will find a lot of good intoductory material here. Those already in the know, may consider it to be filler. But I did find a few interesting ideas that I had not seen in print before. So I would not say the book is unoriginal.
   
   Not a bad book. If it were priced comparably to other books of it's size, I could have given it 4 stars. But for the price, you can buy the great "Harrington on Holdem" and still have some change left...



3. I'm a pretty stubborn person and don't like to take advice from people, but this was the first poker book I bought since I got so much detailed and helpful advice from doubleas' blog site (it's still the only poker book I own). Yes, I lost $ when I started playing poker online, but have been much more successful since reading Scott's book. He does cover a lot of the basics, but also expands into the other realms of poker which most people should find interesting. There is no such thing as the perfect book, so I'm not sure what some of the complaints are about. If you aren't interested in a certain portion of the book...just skip it...there are plenty of other interested readers who would enjoy the topic you are unintersted in anyway. So hats off to Scott for covering a wide-range of poker and including his buddies in the guest chapters. I find that very honorable, unlike someone else commented. Best of all, the book contains his strategies that have made him, and countless other players, successful poker players. If you don't find the book helpful, or think it's "useless", or even sent it back, then you're not understanding it's content well and not appreciating what the book can do for you.



4. Very helpful book for understanding tournament play. Fresh, new insights were very valuable.



5. I found this book to be full of superficial advice. "Oh, and you can play poker online, too. There are even tournaments online. The advantage of tournaments are that you know what your max loss might be, going in, as it's limited to the entry fee." That's not a real quote, but you get the idea. Having read the chapters, my first thought was "Really? Really? Now why on earth did you spend the time to put this book together?"
   
   If you find someone who says to you "Holdem? What's holdem?", you can give him this book. But if he doesn't say that, you can't give him this book. He already knows everything in this book. And so do you.
   
   I do believe the book should have been properly labeled "For the most raw beginners only". If that had happened, I wouldn't have bought the book. Many people, who are just barely past the Beginner Stage, wouldn't buy the book. They are seeking Intermediate Stage advice, and this book isn't it. For the most raw beginner, this book might offer something. It certainly offered nothing to me. Don't spend the money, in my opinion. Buy something else.

No comments about New Instant Guide to Bridge: Acol Bids, Responses, Leads and Plays (Master Bridge).

5 comments about Powerful Profits From Blackjack (Powerful Profits Series).

1. I have all the blackjack books. While the mathematics are usually sound, and the theory is always accurate..these books never did what was most important....TURN ME INTO A WINNER!

   I requested my yearly statement back from the Grand for 2003 and they show me at a net loss of $105. Thats for the ENTIRE year! Now consider that I always hide Green Chips and Black chips whenever possible before cashing in at the table to conceal my true winnings, and consider the 33 night of free hotel stays, the endless free meals, the free shows, the free trips on the casino plesure boat etc. and I was a BIG winner in 2003! My first winning year ever.

   I owe all of that to Victor's Blackjack book. He offers a method of play that will actually allow you to win without counting cards, without risking getting barred from the casino, and without all of the mathematics involved in the card counting strategy.

   The wagering differential is the most amazing concept I have ever seen. I logged most of my play from 2003...I shoudl have logged it all, but I didn't. But from my records I only had 3 losing sessions in 2003 at the Grand.

   What more can I say. This book pays for itself.




2. I don't know what the other reviewers are smoking, but this is one of the worst Blackjack books I have read. Might as well take your 10 or 15 dollars and just throw it away. This book is almost 100% just random babbling, all words and no numbers. A HUNDRED AND NINETY PAGES INTO THE BOOK, BASIC STRATEGY IS THE ONE AND ONLY THING HE HAS ACTUALLY COVERED. I was disgusted when I looked at the page number and saw 190, realizing all this idiot had done was talk about what he was going to teach for over half of the entire book. He stretches five word sentences into page and a half long explanations to fill up space, and he does it quite well. This book is ridiculously stupid, I STRONGLY suggest reading almost any other book.



3. 
   My comment is not only about this great Blackjack book, but also about the reviewer identified as "munkmunk." All readers of that person's review of this book, or any other, should take note of what he says in the opening line to his review of "Playing Blackjack as a Business," by L. Revere, also posted here at Amazon. In that review, titled by "munkmunk" as "Sexist, thief, egomaniac?", the first line of his review says:
   
   "Not being "of age," and therefore not playing in a casino, I cannot say how much money one could make with these strategies."
   
   By his own admission, "munkmunk" is not of legal age to gamble. Therefore he is unable to understand the real world of the casino, and how and why strategies in this book, and the other by L. Revere, are applicable to those environments. Being so obviously out of touch with the reality of the world of Blackjack play in the casino, since by his own admission he cannot so legally play there being too young, this makes it plainly obvious that this young person merely has some anger of his own to grind, and seems to enjoy lambasting good books and the hard work by their authors. Amazon should perhaps be more careful, and not allow underage persons to so shamefully misunderstand books of these adult subjects.
   
   Additionally, we should all remember that the real world of the in-casino blackjack play is nothing like the "theoretical" world of the statistician, or mathematician. Furthermore, we should also understand that the minds of the very young often cannot grasp realities in either the "theoretical" or the "real world," and thus have significantly skewed opinions on something whose intended purposes obviously escape them, and whose principles are far too advanced for their undeveloped minds to as yet conceive.
   
   It should be obvious to everyone reading these reviews by the young "munkmunk" that they are a form of teenage angst, sadly directed at the authors of these good books on Blackjack.
   
   This book is a serious work about a serious subject, and extraordinarily well written -- but it is written for adults who will play in real casinos -- and not for angry children with a computer and nothing better to do than to express their ignorance in a public forum like these postings at Amazon.
   
   Read this book for yourself, and you will know why the other reviewers, including myself, have found this to be such a terrific, fresh, new look at a great old game.



4. 
   This book by Victor H. Royer is one of a great books about Blackjack. If you are serious about knowing the real truth of what Blackjack is all about, then you must have this book.
   
   Here you will find not only a terrific history of this great game, but you will find invaluable information about how the game is actually played in the casinos of the 21st Century. What you may have heard about Blackjack in the past, or perhaps read as recently as the last century, is no longer the case. What you see on TV about the various Blackjack card counting systems is also no longer possible under the majority of situations and circumstances, such as are the real truth of the modern casino.
   
   What you should know is Royer's tiered wagering method, and his new Modified Basic Strategy - MBS. If you want to give yourself the right chance to win money, then this is the book for you. It will pay for itself many times over in just your first trip to a casino.



5. Gambling is an iffy proposition without some real knowledge. To learn one must play 100 times (+) and hope that LUCK is in the house or things can get depressin real fast or one can go to the source of knowledge. This book teaches the unitiated some fundamentals and strategies with wich to approach the table with a fair amount of confidence and with the right bankroll, for they say that without the proper amount of cash you are bracing yourself for defeat. Mr. Royer strikes as one of the good guides, he certainly knows his subject and his overall writing is quite enjoyable. After reading Mr. Royer's book I went to Las Vegas (my favorite!) and put into practice what I had learned from this book. I had my bearings about me and it lasted the better of 2 solid hours, in which in a 5 dollar table with the right conditions (Favoring the Player as much as possible, but of course!!)I won 185 dollars, after having lost and won my fair share of both. The point I am making is that without the book I definitely would have lost much more and not won anything. I gave him 5 stars for 4 did not quite do the job.
   I walked out a winner and realized that this is something I am actually enjoying. I always favored dices but Blackjack is a lot of fun!

5 comments about World Poker Tour(TM): Shuffle Up and Deal.

1. This book is a fair primer on poker on it most basic level, but chances are if you're buying the book, it's because you've been watching WPT and are already familiar with the game to some extent.
   
   If you're really a beginner, this book is a fast read and will get you started, but please don't end your education here. There is very little in this book on theory, and important topics, if addressed at all, are not covered in depth. There are a few good stories, and there's plenty of advertising reminding us to watch WPT on TV and, of course, to play poker online at the site that Mr. Sexton endorses (and in which I believe he has some ownership). He reminds us over and over how GREAT it is to win! NO DUH!
   
   If you really want to learn about poker and take your game to the next level(s), get your hands on anything by Sklansky. Read them all. Cover to cover. Twice. Then again. It will take a long time to absorb it all, but it will be worth it. When you do, you'll then have to decide what style of play is best for you. For example, I found it discouraging that Mr. Sexton advocates the "fit or fold" strategy on the flop, only to read Sklansky tell us that "fit or fold" is "terrible advice."
   
   Buy this book if you must (it's a light read that you can knock out in an afternoon), but know going into it that you're not even scratching the surface of what poker is all about.



2. If you don't know the rules and are interested in poker, this book is for you. Even if you are experienced, it is a fun read. Just don't expect to learn anything new.
   
   The extra dvd is very well put together and great for someone just starting out.
   
   If you really want to learn poker though, pick one of the many other books considered "must-reads"



3. This is a good book, mainly for people above the raw beginner level, but still below the intermediate level. A lot of good observations about the differences between tournament poker and ring games. Probably a little "over the head" of raw beginners.



4. If you are a poker player, then this is a good book to read. It has everything you need to become successful. If the book doesn't do it for you, then there is a DVD that could really help your game.



5. How did they take something rarely televised and make it have more viewers than most basketball games? This book talks about the business plan, the financing, getting casinos to grant them exclusive rights to TV poker, how they mention the casino at least twice in each show, how they use the 16 cameras and graphics to make you feel like you are a player at the table. I loved learning that sometime they redo the commentary 3 times to make the show more exciting. There are bios of some of the early WPT veterans. There are inside stories about playing home games with stars in Hollywood. Did you know that Mike Sexton was able to be a pro poker player playing in cash games six nights a week in North Carolina? I always thought that poker pros had to be near a casino. I feel that these stories are worth the price of the book. This book is a good intro book for beginners, but more experienced players will not learn any poker strategies. However, you should consider reading this book for the stories and for the insights into starting an international sporting organization from scratch.

No comments about Bridge / Bridge, The Club Series: Introduccion al Bridge / Introduction to Bridge.

No comments about Psychological Strategy in Contract Bridge: The Techniques of Deception and Harassment in Bidding and Play.