[LL] “The next book I read was Warwick Dunnett’s Poker Wizards: Wisdom from the World’s Top No-Limit Hold’em Players“, Leroy the Lion stated.
[RR] “So it’s actually done with magic?” Roderick the Rock queried.
[LL] “Sure,… if you define ‘magic’ as hard work, aggression, and observation.
Dunnett interviewed Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu, Dan Harrington, Marcel Luske, Kathy Liebert, T.J. Cloutier, Mike Sexton, and Mel Judah, asking each of them a predetermined set of questions about how to play poker, so this book is a bit of a Groundhog Day, with the same topics mostly repeating nine times:
- The Making of a Poker Wizard: what it takes to become a top poker pro.
- Tournament Strategy
- Aggression
- Starting Hand Concepts
- Specific Hand Strategy for No-Limit Hold ‘Em Tournaments
- Tells
- Playing Online
- Psychology
- Money Management
For consistency, the tournament scenario starts with a full table of players with 10,000 chips and blinds at 100/200. Your opponents play reasonably well and moderately aggressively.
Many times the pros give similar advice, but sometimes they don’t.”
[RR] “Isn’t that confusing?”
[LL] “It can be. In the final chapter, Dunnett briefly summarizes the players’ responses to each question, which I suppose leads to the best way to use this book — skim everything once to get the lay of the land then go back and reread the sections of the pros whose styles you like the most, since it’s impossible to follow all of the advice at the same time (for example, Ferguson and Harrington play much tighter than the others).
The good news is that sometimes a particular pro has ideas that the others simply didn’t think of. Ferguson is the only player who discusses game theory, Luske and Liebert are the only two who cover cash game strategy, and Sexton alone elaborates on bluffing.
And the second to last chapter is very different from the rest, with mentalist and lie detector Marc Salem exploring ‘How to Read People and Detect Lies’ in much more detail than the poker pros had examined tells. The material in this section is pretty strong, although none of it is groundbreaking.
Overall, Poker Wizards was an easy read with some good tips, but it didn’t leave me spellbound.”
| Title | Poker Wizards: Wisdom from the World’s Top No-Limit Hold’em Players |
| Author | Warwick Dunnett |
| Year | 2008 |
| Skill Level | Beginner |
| Pros | Biographies and good advice from some very strong poker pros. |
| Cons | Repetitive with sometimes contradictory advice. |
| Rating | 2.5 |