There is no lack of introductory poker books. Though Stewart Reuben’s book fits into this category it is unique in two regards. First it deals with all poker variations you will possibly find in a card room; second Reuben treats limit and pot/no limit poker on equal terms which makes this book especially interesting for European readers where pot limit is the most popular form of poker. The first part of the book is dedicated to the different variations of poker: Draw, Hold’em, Seven card stud, Omaha, Lowball (Razz, London lowball, Deuce to seven, Ace to five) and High-Low poker (seven card stud 8/B, Omaha 8/B). Each chapter for the different forms of poker starts with two examples (one for limit, one for pot limit) showing how all the hands at a table are played from the beginning to the showdown. This is a clever start because a reader who is new to poker learns this way easily how the game is played. Reuben then discusses preflop and postflop strategy for every poker variation. The sections are short but dense and clearly presented. Important concepts are printed in bold face (e. g. “Avoid situations where you are a small favorite or big underdog”, “It is important to remembering the passed cards at Stud”). At the end of each chapter there is a quiz where the reader can test his newly acquired knowledge. Reuben rates all answers on a scale from 1 to 10. The questions are not too easy given the fact that this book is mainly for beginners. The problem here is that you sometimes don’t get enough information to answer the questions. Here is an example from no limit hold’em. “You hold 9s8c. The first person after the blinds has bet. It is a ring game. What should you do if you are … last to speak before the button?” Reuben rates the answers as follows: pass 8, call 10 and raise 2 points. In no limit you can call quite liberally if it’s cheap and the money is deep. So it looks like calling is the correct answer, but there is a raise from an early position player and you have no idea how much it is. If it is a moderate raise compared to the money you and the raiser have on the table a call is definitively in order because you get the high implied odds you need for your drawing hand. But let’s assume the early position raiser bets half his stack or he goes all-in, would you call with 9-8 off-suit? Hopefully not!
The second part of the book deals with general concepts like bluffing, the opposition, the mathematics of poker and tournament play. I already praised the author that he didn’t focus exclusively on limit but treats pot and no limit equally. But there are two problems with that. First it’s not always clear when the author talks about limit or pot/no limit. Sometimes you can infer it from the context, sometimes it’s obvious (“In Hold’em, aces want it all-in before the flop.” If you are not short-stacked you can’t go all-in in limit poker), but sometimes it’s not so evident and a reader might draw the wrong conclusion. Take the following extract: “It seldom pays to try to outwit a really strong player. You should try to avoid being at the same table as such opponents.” Let’s say you come to your favorite poker room and you see a table where the game you usually play in (limit, variation) is in progress. At this table are four of the best and four of the worst players sitting. Do you take a seat? Of course! If you are a decent player you figure to win much more money from the bad players than you will lose against the world class players. If the game is no/pot limit instead of limit the situation is less clear because one bad decision against one of the experts can cost you all the money in front of you. So Reuben’s statement makes much more sense in pot/no limit games. Second in a book like this where the author addresses pot/no limit as well as limit poker you would expect a chapter where the general differences between these different game types are discussed. Unfortunately there is none. There are other areas where the book is a little bit short. In a book mainly for beginners I would have liked to see a much more thorough discussion about important concepts like position, the number of players contesting the pot and the importance of the size of the antes in games like stud. Beside this criticism this is one of the best introductory texts to the game of poker. It gives beginners solid advice and it is a good starting point if you want to learn a new form of poker.

(Tristan Steiger)

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More books by Stewart Reuben:

Pot-Limit & No-Limit Poker
How Good Is Your Pot-Limit Hold'Em
How Good Is Your Pot-Limit Omaha