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Mason Malmuth's Poker Essays Review at a Glance
Overall Rating:
4
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# of Pages:
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262
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Year: |
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1996
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Suggested Retail Price: |
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$24.95
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About Mason Malmuth
Mason Malmuth was born and raised in Coral Gables, Florida. In 1973 he received his BS in Mathematics from Virginia Tech, and completed their Masters’ program in 1975. While working for the United States Census Bureau in 1978, Mason stopped overnight in Las Vegas while driving to his new assignment in California. He was immediately fascinated by the games, and gambling became his major interest.
After arriving in California, he discovered that poker was legal and began playing in some of the public cardrooms, as well as taking periodic trips to Las Vegas where he would play both poker and blackjack. In 1981 he went to work for the Northrop Corporation as a mathematician and moved to Los Angeles where he could conveniently pursue his interest in poker in the large public cardrooms in Gardena, Bell Gardens, and Commerce.
In 1983 his first article, "Card Domination — The Ultimate Blackjack Weapon," was published in Gambling Times magazine. In 1987 he left his job with the Northrop Corporation to begin a career as both a full-time gambler and a gambling writer. He has had over 500 articles published in various magazines and has authored or co-authored 14 books. These include Gambling Theory and Other Topics, where he tries to demonstrate why only a small number of people are highly successful at gambling. In this book he introduces the reader to the concept of "non-self weighting strategies" and explains why successful gambling is actually a balance of luck and skill. Other books he has co-authored are Hold ’em Poker For Advanced Players, written with David Sklansky, and Seven-Card Stud For Advanced Players written with David Sklansky and Ray Zee. All the "advanced" books are considered the definitive works on these games.
His company, Two Plus Two Publishing, has sold over 400,000 books and currently has 26 titles to its credit. These books are recognized as the best in their field and are thoroughly studied by those who take gambling seriously.
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Introduction to Mason Malmuth's Poker Essays
There's more to poker than the obvious matters of odds and bluffing, as poker master Mason Malmuth--himself a professional mathematician--discovered long ago. Now Malmuth shares his insights and expertise in a collection of bite-sized essays on every aspect of the game in its various forms. This is no book for beginners. It assumes you already have a firm grounding in poker. However, good players who want to become great players will find this an invaluable source of profitable wisdom covering general concepts, technical matters, structure of play, strategy, psychology of image, tournament play, and card room matters.
Poker is an extremely complicated game. This is especially true if your form of poker is either Texas Hold'em or Seven Card Stud. In addition, the typical opponent that you will face has gotten tougher as the years have gone by. As a result, those of you who just play tight (also known as playing ABC) are unable to win more than just a small amount at the lower limits. As a result, to win at poker in today's modern game requires not only numerous skills, but also a lot of thinking about the game.
This text contains many of the author's ideas on poker and related subjects. Topics covered include General Concepts, Technical Ideas, Structure, Strategic Ideas, Image, Tournament Notes, In the Cardrooms, and Poker Quizzes. In addition, advice is offered on jackpot games, handling pressure, why you lose, fluctuations, bankroll requirements, differences between stud and hold'em, too many bad players, limit versus no-limit, thinking fast, weak tight opponents, the best hold'em seat, playing short handed, playing loose or tight, appropriate image, being an alternate in tournaments, taking advantage of tight play in tournaments, behaving professionally, the future of poker, and much more.
The book is designed to make the reader do a great deal of thinking about the game. In fact, very few readers will agree with everything the text offers, but the information provided should help most people become better players.
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Mason Malmuth's Poker Essays Reader Reviews
Overall Rating:
4
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 “Malmuth's Poker Essays” by grapes, 18 Jan 2005 |
Limit:  No Limit: Tournament: Other Highlights:  Overall Rating: |
Also see my longer review of volume III
in this series.
This book is a collection of essays from
Malmuth's columns in poker magazines,
including the excellent Card Player.
As the author or co-author of many of
the definitive books on poker games and
ideas, with advanced degrees in math and
extensive study in psychology along with
multiple decades of experience as a
poker pro, Malmuth is eminently
qualified, and almost all of his books
deserve your attention if you are at all
serious about improving your poker
game.
I have read (and reread) just about all
of his writing, and this book is no
exception. Divided into several
sections, this book covers important and
relevant ideas in poker, in short (2-4
pages each) essays, that don't really
fit well into a pigeonholed topic. The
book doesn't repeat ideas from other
sources, but rather expands on them, or
discusses a new twist on a particular
idea.
The nature of short, separate essays
lends itself well to reading in small
chunks or all at once - you can benefit
from this book with just five minutes.
And, the reading is entertaining and
interesting - no small feat for a book
with filled with complex ideas and
accurate technical ideas.
This is one of a handful of poker books
that I, and many other professionals,
refer to and reread again and again.
This book probably should be used to
supplement the other great poker
literature and not stand by itself.
Also see Volumes II and III in the
series, each includes his best writings
over about a five year period. Highly
recommended.
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