Should You Read Poker Books?

“Why would I read poker books”, one might ask. “Most great players haven’t read a single poker book in their life. Practice is what matters; just play and you’ll improve your game if you think about what you’re doing”.

While these points may be true, at least to some extent, they essentially stem from this simple fact; most poker books are for beginners. How come?

The author, the publisher and the suicide amateur

Most books come out via a publisher. In a nutshell, his job is to make sure the books of the authors under contract are well suited for the intended audience, then to sell them. His goal is to make money, even though that certainly does not mean that it is necessarily his sole motivation. But, if “his” books don’t sell, then he’ll close down the shop, eventually.

Since most books cost, on average, something from $15 to $30, and there is not much leeway here, the publisher wants to sell as many copies as possible; in this market, volume trumps anything else. Putting out books in niche markets may be good for the image of the company, but they don’t bring the bacon home. So, what is the largest pool of potential readers out there?

Right, this is the beginners, the amateurs and the casual players. If your goal is to sell a lot, this is your target audience. Beginners typically play by instinct; each situation is a new one for them, and they are often at a loss to know what to do. They lack a plan, and they do a lot of guessing. They generally lose, too.

As for authors, they generally want money too, but most of them look for esteem as well. This actually attracts some would-be writers; there is an element of prestige for the book writer (for one, they’re now supposed to know what they talk about, since they wrote a book about it, didn’t they).

So, if we temporarily keep the pretty cynical standpoint, the name of the game is to make the beginner buy the book, and to make him like it too (so that he praises it, which is good for sales and the author’s ego).

Striking the right chords

Making people like your product so that they buy it is a science, and it is called marketing. However, it goes without saying that marketing has not much to do with quality; in other words, the marketing wizards make us like pretty bad stuff on a regular basis. They know how to strike the right chords. In our case, a book should be:

• Simple: it must be easy to understand and follow.
• Comprehensive: beginners like systems that they can apply right out of the box.
• Assertive: this gives them confidence. They hate it when authors or coaches are undecided.
• Convincing: the reader enjoys thinking he now got the hang of it. It can involve simple sales tricks like “that’s the beauty of it” or “if he does this, simply do that, you cannot lose using my style” etc.
• Easy to read: if it is poorly written or dull, people won’t finish it, and they won’t like it.
• Nice author: a lot of people prefer a book from a nice author, that can be looked up to.

Consequently, many beginners will like books that are not that good actually. Authors often advocate an extremely solid, nitty and nutpeddling style that won’t help the reader to improve in the long term — even if he’ll avoid going broke in the short term. Other times, important discussions are eluded in favor of simple recommendations, so as not to “cloud the issue”. But, as a rule, these books cover only basics.

Has the bubble burst?

These last few months, poker book sales have somewhat tapered off. It may be due to the saturated market: too many books with similar content, for the same kind of readers. There now seems to be an effort to put out more original material, like, psychology-oriented books, or non-NLHE works.

But the most significant event has been the ebook trend: several well-known players have self-published their book in electronic format, deliberately ignoring the mass audience. Many of these ebooks turn out to be quite interesting, even if they are much more expensive than their traditional printed counterparts.

At least, it proves that there is a place for advanced, practical material.

Time is money

Let’s go back to the initial arguments “most great players haven’t read any book” and “just play to learn”. Again, there is some truth in them, but the point is: how long did it take them to get there, and how long is it going to take you?

Good books will provide you with enough material to significantly accelerate your learning process, focusing sooner on what matters. Perhaps you could figure it out on your own, if you devote enough time and energy to it. Forums can certainly help, but there is often a lot of noise and it also takes time to track the interesting topics. Reading a good book trades part of the required time and energy for the price of this book.

Thus, the question is, how much time does a book save you, and how much money does this time represent? It varies according to your level, but there is no reason why the equation should not have answers for positive values.