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Mason Malmuth's Poker Essays Volume 3 Review at a Glance
Overall Rating:
4.5
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# of Pages:
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270
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Year: |
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2001
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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 Volume 3
Poker is a game which many people play, but in which few excel. To be successful requires a great deal of work and study, and a deep understanding of those concepts that govern winning play. Yet it is fairly easy to win at poker. All you need to do is learn to play tight, and stick to easy games — usually those prevalent at the low limits. But there is a problem with this. While this is a winning formula, it won’t allow you to do much better than "minimum wage." But there are a small number of players who do much better than this. These are the experts who have mastered the proper skills and have done their share of thinking.
This text contains those essays the author wrote from 1996 through early 2001. Topics include: General Concepts, Technical Ideas, Strategic Ideas, In the Cardrooms, Hands to Talk About, The Ciaffone Quiz, and Two More Quizzes. In addition, advice is offered on which game to play, controlling steaming, marginal hands, selecting the best game, bluffing, unusual strategies, raising with suited connectors, keeping poker honest, reading hands, checking aces, and much more.
As with the first two books in this series, Poker Essays, Volume III is designed to make the reader do a great deal of thinking. In fact, very few readers will agree with everything this text offers, but the information provided should help most people become better poker players.
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Mason Malmuth's Poker Essays Volume 3 Reader Reviews
Overall Rating:
4.5
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 “Malmuth's Poker Essays 3” by grapes, 18 Jan 2005 |
Limit:  No Limit:  Tournament: Other Highlights: Overall Rating: |
It came highly recommended by a winning
player in my ...10/20 stud game, and I
haven't been disappointed.
The essays are taken from Malmuth's
writings in Poker Digest and other
magazines over the past few years, as
with the first two volumes. I thought
the first volume was excellent, and the
second was very good. This is by far the
best.
Poker Essays III, in my opinion, now
joins "The Theory of Poker", "Super
System", and the "for Advanced
Players" series on the list of the most
important poker books.
As usual, Malmuth succeeds admirably in
forcing the reader to think about many
aspects of their game most players are
usually unaware of. He discusses, for
example, specific flaws in many average
players who overrate their own
abilities. And the last two sections are
wonderful additions to this volume:
"Hands to Talk About", and then
quizzes. The "Hands" section discusses
specific hands/situations in depth, to
try to bring together all poker ideas
into making a decision. The quizzes
section includes two of his own, one
hold'em and one stud, and one
previously published by Bob Ciaffone
(whose book "Improve Your Poker" is
also on my short list of great poker
books). There are 50+ essays in the
book, and I found all of them
interesting, thought-provoking and
relevant. One of the things I like best
about Malmuth is that he finds topics to
write about that are completely ignored
or forgotten by most players but that
are either directly or indirectly
relevant to winning play.
As with Poker Essays I and II, I'm sure
I'll be rereading this book several
times over the years.
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