Should I pay or should I go?
I have reviewed many ebooks since seanpoker.net is up, and there is a controversial topic I deliberately avoided to some extent so far: their price. Naturally I would say it if I felt a book was anywhere near worth its price (up to now it did not happen), but that still leaves a wide margin as far as the value per buck is concerned.
Yesterday, I received a message from “Joe Smarkz” via the contact form (thanks, Joe), and it sums up pretty well some of the concerns about this question. Here are some quotes:
“High priced ebooks are get rich quick scams by the authors. If you can sell a book for $950 to 500 people, you make $475.000.00. That is there only motivation.”
It is quite reasonable to be wary of such schemes, since they happened and still happen in many areas. You want to be careful with your money. However, to be wary is one thing, and to call someone a scammer without solid arguments is quite another one. Yes, the authors of these ebooks can make good money if they sell enough copies, but there are a lot of people in the world who legitimately make money pretty quickly (sportsmen, artists, business men), and it is particularly true in the poker world.
Click to read more...
Solid book for serious PLO beginners.
Pot-Limit Omaha Poker — The Big Play Strategy came out in early 2008, and except from Rolf Slotboom’s Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha, there was no up-to-date Pot-Limit Omaha book on the market back then. PLO had not yet attracted the interest it is starting to get today, and both the author and his publisher were probably not sure how the book would do, in that context.
Jeff Hwang, the author, was not really known in the poker community prior to his book. The short bio on the inside back cover says he is “a semi-professional poker player and investment analyst who regularly writes about the gaming industry”. Anyway, I am not one to judge a book by its inside back cover; the content trumps everything else, right?
The book counts 317 pages and 9 chapters, the two last ones dealing with Omaha Hi-Lo. After the introduction, four prerequisites to make the most out of the book are mentioned: some Hold’em experience, having already read a book before, knowing the rules of the game and having “an open mind about what it takes to win at Omaha”.
Click to read more...
Rolf Slotboom & Rob Hollink on 6max games.
Three years after his first PLO book, Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha, Rolf Slotboom gets back to our favorite four-card game, with his new book dedicated to short-handed (6max) games. His previous PLO book was clearly full-ring oriented with shortstacking being the core of his strategy, so it will be interesting to see how Rolf adapted to 6max games.
This time, Rob Hollink, a high-stakes PLO player, contributed to the book with a whole chapter on the big games he plays. On the menu: more than thirty hands with durrrr, Ziigmund, Patrik Antonius or OMGClayAiken!
This is enough to make me curious, so without further ado let’s see what the authors have to say.
The book is 330 pages, divided into six chapters. The first five chapters are penned by Rolf, and Rob Hollink wrote the last one.
Click to read more...
