Review: Amarillo Slim's Play Poker to Win

Amarillo Slim is an American Poker legend and among the most recognized names in gambling and poker in the world.  His new book (due on bookshelves November 1st, 2005) contains a unique mixture of story and strategy and is worth the price of admission on the strength of his storytelling alone.

Play Poker to Win is a fairly short book (as poker books go) at a modest 173 pages, and Amarillo Slim attempts to cover just about every poker game you'll play (and many you won't like 5 card lowball draw).  As such, the strategy portions of the book are a bit hit and miss and only lightly touch on some subjects and miss many important ones entirely.  Some of the advice in the book is dangerous to beginners--like calling decent raises with small suited one-gap cards in a no limit game.  While the professionals will make this move they are also able to get away from their hand in many situations a novice player won't.

If your goal is simply to "Play Poker to Win" and you can only afford one book, this probably isn't the right one.  However, if you have been playing poker for a while and also enjoy reading some memorable poker stories from one of the game's greats then it's worth taking a peek at this book.

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