Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker

The Essential Guide

By: Jonathan Little

Narrated by: Jonathan Little

This new, expanded, fully updated and revised edition of Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker is a landmark in poker publishing.

Originally published in two volumes in 2011 and 2012, this was both a critical and commercial success. Over the last decade, the understanding of poker has changed dramatically and this new edition fully reflects current thinking on the game.

This book will give listeners a thorough understanding of everything they need to know about playing tournaments, and Jonathan Little is undoubtedly the person best qualified to impart this information.

The book is split into seven sections:

1) How Tournaments Work - This explains why tournaments are a highly profitable form of poker and examines the basic concepts that need to be mastered.

2) Playing Deep Stacked - This deals with situations where (most) players have stacks of 50 big blinds or more. All situations are dealt with, including pre-flop and all three post-flop streets. There is further information on general topics at this stack depth.

3) Playing Mid Stacked - This deals with situations where the basic stack depth is between 27 and 50 big blinds. These situations are tricky, because with the shorter stack, players are often going all-in. This means that very clear adjustments are required compared to the deeper stack strategies.

4) Playing Short Stacked - This section focuses on play below 27 big blinds. Now play is almost exclusively focused on the possibility of players going all-in. Knowing the correct ranges and plays here is vital to maximise your chances for tournament survival.

5) The Late Stages - As the prospect of serious prize money looms, huge adjustments need to be made. How to play on the bubble and concepts such as risk premium and the Independent Chip Model are fundamental to maximising your chance of landing a major prize and they are all thoroughly explained.

6) Hand Examples - This will test your understanding of everything you have learnt so far.

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The clear narrative of Mr. Little is remarkable.

A very clear picture of an ideal poker tournament. Now I'm going to the tables more confident than before.

Not a book for beginners

This is not a book for beginners. Most of the author’s analysis focuses, quite properly, on “range” – meaning that you have an idea of what hands, from weak to strong, your opponent might have, based on the action so far. Comparing that range with your own hand gives you an idea of your mathematical chances. If you don’t already have some knowledge and experience in assessing an opponent’s range, you should start with some other book.

If you’re comfortable thinking about ranges, this book is valuable. It gives good advice for a succession of specific situations. Although the discussion is in the context of tournaments, most of it is applicable to ring games as well. The main exception is the section on adjusting to payout implications, i.e., how a tournament’s prize structure should affect your strategy, especially in the late stages. The author points out adjustments that are sometimes counterintuitive (wait, fold pocket kings preflop?).

You can listen to this as a standalone audiobook. In addition, however, the author makes frequent reference to charts that are available (no extra charge) on his website. For some passages that I listened to while grocery shopping or brushing my teeth or the like, I listened again later when I could look at the cited chart.

Top notch

Great listen. Would listen every day while walking the dog and enjoyed every minute of it