By
K-ROb |
Published
Dec 16 2005, 05:25 AM
Tournament Poker and the Art of War–
by David Apostolico
This is the most
intriguing poker book I ever happened across. Author David Apostolico
correlates the text of the Chinese classic and no limit poker strategy.
Sun Tzu's The Art of War has stood as a classic on military strategy
for over 2000 years. It’s teaching are hailed today by athletes,
politicians, and business leaders. In his introduction to Tournament
Poker the author quotes Sun Tzu “If you know the enemy and you know
yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt.” Then adds, “You need
to study, analyze, and ultimately, out-play your opponents." His
introduction is a prelude to a wealth of information, for the novice
and expert player.
For those unfamiliar to the name David Apostolico, Andy Bloch lends his opinions, of the author, in a well versed forward.
Apostolico
believes that , in order to be a successful tournament player, one must
attain the mind-set, of a warrior. He opens his book with what he terms
the Ten Principles.
From: “Principle One: Understand all the
potential consequence of your actions so that you may properly balance
the competing goals of survival and chip accumulation.”
To: “Principle Ten: Poker is the art of deception.”Apostolico uses these ten principles, for the framework of his writings.
Tournament
Poker and the Art of War is laced with informative nuggets that
players, of all levels, can incorporate into their own strategy. Many
of these are direct quotations of Sun Tzu in captions above the page,
or sometimes in the body of the text and then discussed as to it
applies to poker.
Most winning tournament players will tell
you, No limit games require well directed aggression and well timed
situational play. Apostolico references these ideas throughout the
book. If you are a beginning player, you will not find any information,
on hand selection. You will also not find much on Pot odds or winning
hand percentages. But, you will learn how to play situational poker,
and what force a big stack can carry and how to manipulate a
small stack as you progress through a tournament.
Being a first
year player, I always relied on my starting hands, never realizing that
hand requirements are only one piece of the puzzle. Table image and my
analyzing my opponents actions were foreign terms to me. I saw a ripe
pair of pocket cowboys and thought I was going to win the pot. Then an
ace would hit the board and I would muck my kings to a raise. Surprise,
the late postition raiser flashes 78 suited and my ears turn red. But,
after reading
Tournament
Poker and the Art of War, I don’t fall for
that type of bluff anymore and neither will you. If you’re a rookie
player this is a must have for your library collection. Even the
advanced player will be able to take much from this well written piece
of poker literature. At a soft cover price of $13.00, it will pay for
itself in no time.
To buy this book on Amazon.com click here :
Tournament
Poker and the Art of War