Less Known Poker Books to Play Professional Poker
If you want to play winning poker, you can’t ever let your game become stale. Poker is a game that takes a lifetime to master, there’s always more that can make you a better player. In this regard, Poker Books are a great resource to help you strengthen your skills and give you valuable insights on poker combinations and here are some of them that have revolutionized Poker.
- Every Hand Revealed- Gus Hansen
From the mainstream publishing house, Kensington comes as a book that might surprise a few people. It’s written by Gus Hansen during the height of his success as a three-time World Poker Tour champion. One of poker’s most unorthodox players, in Every Hand Revealed, Chip Reese (who wrote the book’s foreword) states, “He’s brought original thought to an age-old game.
Many of his ideas on how to play poker have made me take a second look at some conventional strategies I thought to be true.” This page-turning book is straight and to the point. Critically acclaimed and groundbreaking, yet still largely under appreciated, Every Hand Revealed merits a spot on this list.
- The Body Language of Poker- Mike Caro
Mike Caro is a leading authority on poker strategy. He writes articles about the science of
online poker and gives seminars around the world. Caro first wrote The Body Language of Poker in 1984 and updated it 10 years later with new photos and deeper analysis. It’s not as relevant today, but it was groundbreaking for its time and was referenced often during games.
With 277 pages of photos and explanations, this book packed in a lot of information about various poker combinations and revealed that the real money isn’t necessary to be made by looking at the cards, but rather watching and studying your opponents.
- Poker Essays- Mason Malmuth
If you’re interested in improving your game, you should check out Poker Essays by Mason Malmuth. Unlike most books about poker, this one isn’t just strategy; it also discusses the future of the game and offers lots of advice geared towards advancing your overall game. It was first published 20 years ago, but many of its concerns and predictions about poker have come true since then. Mason turned out to be mostly right.
- Winning Poker Systems-Norman Zadah
It’s probably fair to say that most readers have never heard of this book. Even serious players would have a hard time identifying it but those who know it well should be able to appreciate it. Released in 1973 when there were virtually no poker books on the market, this was a groundbreaking first step in what would later become a foot race to lay out the best strategy for winning.
While terribly dated now because it mostly addresses obsolete poker games like five-card draw and lowball (which were the only legal games played in California at the time), it was the first book to chart starting hands and stress the importance of the position.
- Winning Low Limit Hold’em- Lee Jones
Many players consider this one of the best poker books and the Bible of Limit Hold’em. It’s been around for decades and it’s still a best seller today. Perhaps what makes it so popular is that it’s so easy to read and understand, even though it packs in tons of useful strategy advice. The author didn’t want his readers to feel like they were reading a textbook, so he wrote it in an informal style.
After this book was published, Jones went on to become the Site Manager for PokerStars.com, which became the world’s largest online poker site. He was hired for this job because he knows how regular poker Straight players think and act, which comes across in this excellent strategy book.
- Harrington on Hold’em- Dan Harrington
This is the best-selling poker book in history, having now surpassed 300,000 copies sold. The 1995 world poker champion perfectly timed his book’s release—the height of the poker boom—and has since earned a reputation for authorship and fierce independence (one of the few highly-respected icons not to affiliate full-time with anyone). He co-authored this book with Bill Robertie, a master chess player and game theorist.
