Poker Articles

In the 21st Century, we learn how to play poker via similar means.  There are dozens of strategy books and Web sites.  We all play at the same online or bricks-and-mortar poker rooms.  Anyone with intelligence and heart can start with nothing and make millions without leaving the comfort of their own home.  There are very few players left who learned on the road, their wits getting them from one town to the next, the previous night’s winnings in their pocket.  The most famous of the remaining road gamblers, one of the greatest ever, wrote a book of stories and anecdotes to reflect how he went from a poor kid in West Texas to the “Texas Dolly”, Doyle Brunson.  Originally published as “According to Doyle” a few years after the original “Super/System”, this collection has been reprinted under the title Poker Wisdom of a Champion.

For a poker player or gambling buff, it’s the perfect “bathroom reader,” and I mean this in the best way possible.  The book is organized in eight parts: “Poker for the Wrong Reasons,” “A Winning Lifestyle,” “Bad Beats,” etc.  Each part has several chapters with two- to three-page stories selected to illustrate lessons that made Brunson the player and person he is today.  In just a few minutes, you can pick up a self-contained anecdote to most likely put a smile on your face as well as improve your game.

Most of the chapters aren’t strategic in nature.  Brunson isn’t writing about how to play A-K pre-flop or how to spot a bluff on the river; all that knowledge was put into “Super/System”.  “Poker Wisdom” shares the life of a gambler from learning how to consider a proposition bet to game selection to managing your money.  You’ll hear stories from home games, back rooms, private country clubs, and the bright lights of Las Vegas.  Boyhood to two-time World Champion: it’s all in the book.

The most tantalizing and fascinating aspect of the old days is the larger-than-life characters which seemed to be around every corner.  They inhabit every page of this book – not only the names you know like Moss, Pearson, Slim, and Baldwin, but characters previously unknown (and to be honest, very possibly fictional).  Brunson does a really wonderful job of sharing the spotlight with his fellow friends and competitors to make the history of the game come alive.