Serious Poker

A complete introduction to casino and cardroom poker, for everyone from complete poker novices to experienced players who want to take the game more seriously. It covers everything from the basics of strategy and cardroom rules and customs to more esoteric topics like tournament play, poker math, cheating, record keeping, and much more.

The author recounts his experiences on the lucrative Wall Street bond market of the 1980s, where young traders made millions in a very short time, in a humorous account of greed and epic folly.

Rough sex, black magic, murder, and the science-and eros-of gambling meet in the ultimate book about Las Vegas James McManus was sent to Las Vegas by Harper's to cover the World Series of Poker in 2000, especially the mushrooming progress of women in the $23 million event, and the murder of Ted Binion, the tournament's prodigal host, purportedly done in by a stripper and her boyfriend with a technique so outré it took a Manhattan pathologist to identify it. Whether a jury would convict the attractive young couple was another story altogether. McManus risks his entire Harper's advance in a long-shot attempt to play in the tournament himself. Only with actual table experience, he tells his skeptical wife, can he capture the hair-raising brand of poker that determines the world champion. The heart of the book is his deliciously suspenseful account of the tournament itself-the players, the hand-to-hand combat, and his own unlikely progress in it. Written in the tradition of The Gambler and The Biggest Game in Town, Positively Fifth Street is a high-stakes adventure, a penetrating study of America's card game, and a terrifying but often hilarious account of one man's effort to understand what Edward O. Wilson has called "Pleistocene exigencies"-the eros and logistics of our primary competitive instincts.

Most poker players don't think they need to study ICM until they make a costly mistake at a big final table - don't be one of those players. The Independent Chip Model (ICM) is the most important strategy concept in multi table tournaments, yet very few players understand it, other than knowing they should play tighter on the bubble. Not only does ICM impact the single biggest monetary decisions you make in poker, it also influences everything in a tournament from game selection, staking, when to register, playing the early levels, the bubble, the final table and much more. Endgame Poker Strategy is the first book to take a deep dive into the subject of ICM and how it impacts how you should play in tournaments. This book contains groundbreaking insights that most professional poker players are not aware of, including: • How to adjust your play in the late stages of tournaments • When to ladder and when to play for the win • How to negotiate profitable final table deals • The optimal game selection, rebuy and late registration strategies • How to play short, average and big stacks at the end of tournaments Dara O’Kearney is a professional poker player, sponsored Unibet Pro and co-host of The Chip Race Podcast. He is regarded as one of the best satellite grinders in the world and professional poker players seek out his advice on ICM whenever they prepare for a big final table. He is the co-author of the best selling books Poker Satellite Strategy and PKO Poker Strategy. “In an era of solvers and preflop charts, game states involving ICM pressure remain one of the few unsolved and untapped areas of poker. Endgame Poker Strategy does an excellent job of clearly explaining the most important ICM ideas and effects. Whether you are a beginning player looking to build an understanding of how ICM works, or a more advanced player looking to better internalise ICM concepts, there is something in this book for you.” - Daniel Dvoress, high stakes poker player

Snyder adapts the loose aggressive fast tournament strategies of his groundbreaking first book to the big buy-in events where the real money is made. Players learn never-before-revealed concepts and secrets that shows players why cards don't matter as much as the dynamics of a tournament. Readers learn how to alter their strategy for any tournament structure and opponent, why hands must be played differently from cash games, and why players can't figure out what winners are doing just from watching them play. The book also covers optimal satellite strategy, sit'n'go strategy, methods for estimating tournament win rate and edge