Pick Up Your Poker Game

Book Review:
Pick Up Your Poker Game
by Adam Slutsky
2011, Turner Publishing


Pick Up Your Poker Game by Adam Slutsky will hit the bookstores sometime next month. It is a slim paperback that according to the dust jacket will benefit you “Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a bare-bones beginner.” Such something-for-everybody pronouncements are usually a sign that the book will contain a lot vague generalities - and such is the case with Pick Up Your Poker Game. While I’m neither a pro or a beginner, I did glean a few bits of useful advice. Unfortunately most of what is written here is common knowledge to all but the most novice player, and what advanced advice he gives on aggressive play would be dangerous for a beginner to try.

Let’s start with the positive. Slutsky does a good job explaining why the aggressive approach is often best - something I’ve heard many times but had never had explained to me. By focusing on the importance of getting information from your opponents, Slutsky rightly rejects the passive approach because it does not force your opponent to make decisions - providing you with no valuable information. But I don’t think a novice player really has the ability to use this information well - or even understand it. I fear the beginning player will come away from this book trying to play the aggressive style without knowing how to do so effectively.

The book is organized into 52 short chapters - each one a specific piece of advice. While I like this approach, I have to say that the central idea of each chapter gets lost in sentences that spiral off hither and yon. Slutsky, primarily a magazine contributor, seems to have had difficulty “padding out” each chapter to three or four pages. I would have preferred him to say what he had to say in clear, simple prose. For example, where a good writer would have written “If you are worried your eyes are giving you away, wear sunglasses” Slutsky chooses to write “However, for those players who cannot hide their “retinal emotions,” the protection that darkened shields provide is invaluable.” Huh? Such purple prose is both annoying and distracting. He frequently repeats himself - not to drive home an important point but to fleash out what should have been a series of four magazine articles into a book. All the good points he makes get lost in the “one wishing to maximize one’s financial returns at the green felt would do well to” and “conversely, simply taking the opposite approach will not necessarily yield positive results.” Blah, blah, blah. I had visions of Ernest Hemingway rising from the grave and beating Adam Slutsky to death.

For all this I might still have been able to give this book a qualified reccomendation were it not for chapter 29: Beware the Player Who Has Nothing to Lose where Slutsky gives very bad advice - that you should avoid playing at a table where some nut is taking every hand to a showdown. That’s exactly the table you should play at! Slutsky makes his case by telling the story of some shlub who takes too much of his bankroll to a $25/$50 game and gets all in with AA only to be beaten by some fool playing a garbage hand. Slutsky thinks this story illustrates that one should avoid playing against maniacs. He should have used this story to illustrate the importance of bankroll management. It is foolish to avoid playing against maniacs - ultimately they loose more than they win and you should always put yourself in the position to take some of their losses. You are putting the law of averages on your side.

Worth a read if you are willing to pick and choose what to believe and what to reject but with so many better poker books out there, why bother?