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Doyle Brunson
Super System

$49.95

(8.5)
When this book was first published, it must have been a shock to the poker world, because no top player had ever before given away so many secrets, and the book has long been considered the poker bible. Some things are a little bit dated, though (because of the blind structure changes in limit hold’em, for example). The no-limit section is monumental and a must-read for every serious big-bet poker player, although the extremely aggressive style Mr. Brunson advocates requires a combination of lots and lots of poker experience, natural talent, courage and heart (probably a bit more than can normally be expected from most players).

It needs to be said that as groundbreaking as the book must have been when it was released, it has lost a significant part of its value. This because many of the games discussed are rarely played anymore (draw poker), or because the structure of the games may have changed (limit hold’em with two blinds now instead of just one). This makes the strategic analysis less useful. Plus, many of the excellent concepts from this book have already been taken one step further, for instance by David Sklansky and more recently also Ed Miller.

The no-limit hold’em section by Doyle Brunson is still of remarkably high quality though – precisely the reason why it has appeared almost unchanged in Super System II, with just a few minor corrections to his initial strategy. Doyle’s highly aggressive approach, for a large part based on picking up lots of pots with nothing, installing fear in his opponents, and as a result having the appearance of a very lucky player, is absolutely delightful to read. I always love it when an author doesn’t just give some rules of thumb how you should play, but rather explains into depth how he plays, and why. Sometimes it’s a bit hard too follow, for instance because Doyle consistently calls the flop the “turn”, but his actual advice on how to play no-limit hold’em cash games is pure gold. Having said that, it is important to note that with the recent no-limit hold’em Internet boom, some major changes have taken place to the way this game is played – not just online, but also live. And these changes have seriously affected the usefulness of Doyle’s strategy.

· No-limit hold’em cash games often have capped buy-ins nowadays, meaning that the very deep-money games that Doyle talks about have become almost non-existent. With the money more shallow, it has become much more difficult to successfully pull off Doyle’s extremely loose-aggressive style of play.
· The opposition has become more knowledgeable, and less passive. This means that in contrast to when this book was written, people are now more apt to play back at “bully players”. The success of Doyle’s approach is for a large part based on the premise that people will not reraise him all that often – but nowadays, players would often do just that.
· The strategy as described in the book depends for a large part on deeper thinking and better knowledge of percentages than the opposition, and on trusting your own reads. However, especially new or inexperienced players are not likely to have these abilities just yet – meaning that for them, following Doyle’s extremely risky advice may actually be a recipe for disaster.





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