When I went from an online tournament and SNG player to a live cash player I decided I needed a crash course in cash game play. My cash game history had previously consisted of $20 buy in home games and 1 or 2 losing sessions on Bodog before I took up tournaments exclusively.
Of course David Sklanskys ‘Theory Of Poker’ is a must read for any aspiring pro. I had actually already read it since its relevant to tourneys aswell. If your totally new to poker I suggest reading it once and hoping to learn a thing or 2, then pick it up again 6 months later when you have a better understanding of the game. It’s a definite tough read for a novice. ‘Professional Poker’ by Mark Blade, and ‘Poker Winners are Different’ by Alan Shoonmaker are also good books that I had previously read.
When It came to learning cash games the first book I purchased was the lesser known ‘No Limits’ by Chris “Fox” Wallace & Adam Stemple. I knew about the book because “Fox” was an instructor of a live weekly online poker seminar I used to frequent at pokerxfactor.com. I really trusted Fox because I knew his backstory as a cabdriver who worked tirelessly to become a pro poker player thru studying and felt I was following a similar path. He’s a great instructor who is super easy to understand. He actually has a 4 or 5 part series of articles on pocketfives.com called poker college that are really helpful for anyone starting off.
As a book ‘No Limits’ will set the basic groundwork for your game. It doesn’t suggest many fancy plays or hero calls but what it does it teach you how to play basic ABC poker…and that’s all you should really need to do when first starting off at live 1/2 . After reading this book I went from feeling lost at 1/2 to understanding things 10x better and having TONS of confidence that I was going to become a winning player.
The 2nd book I read was ‘Professional No-Limit’ Hold Em by Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta & Ed Miller (more on Miller later). This book was written more for online games and I did not find it to be quite as useful as ‘No Limits’ but its still very good. The most important concept found in this book which is not found in any others is the section on SPR’s (Stack to Pot Ratios). Just knowing this concept alone eliminates several difficult poker decisions on a daily basis. I suggest ponying up $30 for this book, it will pay for itself many times over.
The next book I read was ‘Decide To Play Great Poker’ by Annie Duke & John Voorhaus. I did NOT really have high hopes for this book going in but I was really proven wrong. A lot of what is written here cant be applied TOTALLY to 1/2, however it gives a great understanding of WHY we do the things we do. The main thing that really accelerated my game early on was Annies take on fast playing when you flop a monster hand to get max value. That’s a concept that was lost to me coming over from being a tournament player. However the mathematical theorys that she explains about preflop raising sizes should NOT be applied to your standard 1/2 game IMO. Believe me I tried. All in all I would recommend this book.
The next book I read was ‘Read Em and Reap’ by ex FBI agent Joe Navarro. Navarro is a body language expert and applies all his knowledge to actions at the poker table. If you want to skip buying this book you can actually read most of his articles at bluff.com. I found this book to be quite useful at first. It teaches you tricks to hide your own tells. One of the most accurate tells learned from this book is definitely the player leaning forward when he has a strong hand tell. It almost always holds up.
After a small downswing in October I was sick of playing my typical ABC game all the time and sought some ‘out of the box’ reading material. I stumbled upon a thread in twoplustwo discussing Angel Largay’s lesser known book called ‘No Limit Texas Hold-Em’. A lot of people were complaing about Angels advise and were bashing this book but it had just enough positive reviews for me to give it a shot. The book is freaking awesome! The book is geared towards crushing live short stack games (even a little shorter than I typically play) but it still hit’s the mark incredibly. I found a ton of useful info including setting up table images and why calling is never the best option. I couldn’t reccomend this book more.
After my first 6 months of playing live I got ‘Elements Of Poker’ by Tommy Angelo for Christmas. This book is absolutely invaluable. Once you’re a winning player this book will take you above and beyond what you were making before. The book doesn’t teach you how to plays hands but focuses on all the tiny intracasies of what you should be doing at the poker table to separate yourself from the other regulars who aren’t capitalizing on this information. Things like table changing, lopping off your C-game, and reciprocality are some of the main ideas to be taken away from this book. This book is HANDS DOWN a MUST HAVE for anyone serious about making a living at this.
Apart from reading books I have scoured the internet for poker advice and articles to elevate my game. Of course you should be on twoplustwo.com on a regular basis. Even if you aren’t contributing to discussions it’s a great place to find out what works and what doesn’t for other people. The Poker Theory forum and the Live Low Stakes NL forum are where you should spend most of your time. When I first started out I found a tip that if you went to the Low Stakes forum and just gave your advice on 5 hands daily that it would elevate your game significantly. That’s exactly what I did and it worked. Its basically an exercise in getting you to think deeply about hands and poker situations while your away from the table. This exercise helped my game very much. Just look at somebodys question and make sure you don’t look at anyone elses responses before you post your opinion…that way you wont be influenced. Then afterwards you can see if people are agreeing with you or if your thinking is off. Its an excellent way to get better.
The final most important piece of reading material I have immersed myself in over the last 10 months is ANYTHING written by Ed Miller. If you read all of Ed’s works and understand him you should have no problem crushing low stakes games. You can find Ed’s work on his website Pokerauthority.com. I haven’t subscribed to his site but he has plenty of valuable freebies up there to learn from. He also has a column in Card Player magazine that is just amazing. I seriously advise going back and looking for all of his articles and make sure you pick up every issue of card player. He wrote a few Ebooks which are good and actually has a new one coming out next week on expanding your game past ABC poker. His Small Stakes E-Book is geared towards online 6Max play so that wouldn’t be the 1st book I’d read but his Hand Reading book is pretty awesome. All in all its just a smart idea to get familiar with his works.
‘The Mathematics of Poker’, ‘Caro’s Book of Poker Tells’, and Matt Lessingers ‘Book of Bluffs’ are 3 other books I have read in the last year. None of which I would HIGHLY recommend to beat low stakes but are still good to have in your poker library. Math of Poker just gives me a head ache and the other 2 books focus on games other than No Limit a little too much to highly recommend. Navarros book is more modern and relevant than Caros’ IMO.
I'm not saying you have to read every single thing here overnight but if you take the initiative to start reading all the quality literature on poker you are doing something that most of your opponents aren't. That alone should provide you with a significant enough edge over you opponents at the low stakes to make reasonable money.
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