
Apart form its current publications, John Blake Publishing has a sizeable back list of acclaimed sporting titles. These include biographies of stars such as Roger Federer, WG Grace, Fernando Torres and Frankie Dettori. For more information, visit www.blake.co.uk


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Poker Book Reviews
The 10 latest and best poker books with savings of up
to 50% on the cover price.
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The Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker
Release date: 01st May, 2000
Publisher: Two Plus Two
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £11.69
You Save: £1.3 (10%)
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Variously described as 'one of the greatest poker books ever written', or just plain 'brilliant', for those wanting to understand the difference between a 'Loose Passive' and a 'Tight Aggressive', Schoonmaker tells all... (read review)
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The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson by Carlton Stowers
Release date: 01st September, 1988
Publisher: Paperjacks
List Price: £various
Our Price: £various
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Few men cheated Al Capone and lived to tell the tale - Titanic Thompson was one of them. Born Alvin Clarence Thomas, the son of a incorrigible Arkansas gambler who ran off just months after the boy was born in 1892, 'Ti' was destined to follow in his father's footsteps and then become the most notorious gambler of an era fabulously rich in such characters... (read review)
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The Poker Tournament Formula II by Arnold Snyder
Release date: 08th July, 2008
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
List Price: £16.95
Our Price: £14.41
You Save: £2.54 (14%)
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Far from avoiding controversy with this follow-up volume, Snyder gives a few cages a quick rattle by opening his introduction with the headline 'Most Of What You Know Is Wrong', and makes the case that, while there's some great advice in other poker books, the authors are "handicapped by being a bunch of poker players, or worse, mathematiciansÖ a tournament is not a poker game, and the mathematics of tournaments is not the mathematics of poker." (read review)
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Texas Hold'em Odds by Catalin Barboianu
Release date: 01st October, 2004
Publisher: INFAROM
List Price: £17.00
Our Price: £16.15
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Those with very modest numeracy skills will find this book incomprehensible, and tend to say that it 'requires a PhD to follow it', which isn't really true. But it's fair to say that, if you find the idea of reading Probability for Dummies daunting, you really shouldn't be going here... (read review)
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The Biggest Game in Town by Al Alvarez
Release date: 03rd March, 2003
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £6.74
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Just as Herbert Yardley blazed a trail in the wit-and-wisdom field with his Education of a Poker Player and Doyle Brunson set the benchmark for how-to-play guides with Super System, Al Alvarez opened the batting for the I-was-there report with this little gem. And we say 'gem' because this volume was not just a first - it remains one of the very best... (read review)
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Zen and the Art of Poker by Larry W Phillips
Release date: 10th December, 1999
Publisher: Penguin Putnam
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £8.99
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A thought-provoking series of mini-lectures on the mental state(s) required for tackling the game, including patience, detachment of ego, the controlled use of aggression and a willingness to use your opponent's momentum against him. And if that sounds more like a martial art than a game, you've pretty much got the hang of what the book is about... (read review)
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The Education of a Poker Player by Herbert O. Yardley
Release date: 01st August, 2005
Publisher: High Stakes Publishing
List Price: £29.78
Our Price: £9.99
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This granddaddy of poker memoirs shows its age in some of the games discussed ('Betty Hutton' anybody?) and the absence of TV and computers in the narrative. But its writing is as sharp as if it had been penned yesterday, and the plots are gripping... (read review)
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Poker Winners Are Different by Dr Alan Schoonmaker
Release date: 05th March, 2009
Publisher: CITADEL
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £7.25
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As a flight of fancy, we'd like to think Schoonmaker is a doctor of poker-ology. The truth is much less comedic but no less impressive. With a Ph.D. in psychology, his background centres around industrial psychology, but as his earlier best-selling books have shown, he's been known to hold court on the subject of poker. The two are inexorably linked... (read review)
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Life's a Gamble by Roy
Release date: 26th February, 2009
Publisher: Bantam Press
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £9.09
You Save: £3.9 (30%)
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"Life's a gamble" could almost be a slice of Nick Hornby fiction, tinted with some gritty Tony Parsons-like realism. More flight of fancy than autobiographical, it's character and geniality draw you in and scatter a sense of romanticism about the place... (read review)
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Secrets of Sit 'n' Gos by Phil Shaw
Release date: 31st October, 2008
Publisher: D&B Publishing
List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £11.49
You Save: £3.5 (23%)
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The phrase "no nonsense approach" is more often than not a sloppy crutch for the journalist in dire need of an emergency clichÈ, but Shaw truly delivers a no nonsense approach. The book sets out coherent strategies that cover all aspects of the sit 'n' go genre... (read review)
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Secrets of Professional Poker 1 by Rolf Slotboom
Release date: 31st August, 2008
Publisher: D&B Publishing
List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £10.49
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What you're able to draw on here are 60 articles that have been written over the course of a decade. There is no shortage of experience and anecdote. From turning professional in 1998, Slotboom has witnessed the advent of online poker, the bourgeoning popularity of short handed games and a shift to more loose-aggressive play and he embraces these developments... (read review)
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Tournament Killer Poker By The Numbers : The keys to No Limits Hold 'Em Success by Tony Guerrera
Release date: 22nd January, 2009
Publisher: CITADEL
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £10.99
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The book offers a relatively prosaic approach which gently guides you by the hand and schools you in the art of adaptability. The message that you must adapt when facing different opponents and how you pull that off is loud and clear. Guerrera doesn't so much bark instruction at you as offer gentle but insistent persuasion as if bewitched by a state of hypnotic suggestion... (read review)
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More Hold 'Em Wisdom for all players by Daniel Negreanu
Release date: 09th September, 2008
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
List Price: £9.95
Our Price: £7.49
You Save: £2.46 (24%)
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Written fluidly in four major sections, the author delivers an impressive fifty new concepts and strategies that promise to benefit you in both cash games and tournament play. With his likeable tag, Negreanu adopts a similarly affable tone with his writing style. Indeed when we're told he disagrees with "eight out of ten" TV poker commentators, you can almost see the wry smile etched on his face... (read review)
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The Poker Mindset by Ian Taylor & Matthew Hilger
Release date: 05th April, 2007
Publisher: DIMAT
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £10.65
You Save: £1.34 (11%)
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It's unusual for a book which focuses on how poker should be played not to make any reference to individual hands, specific cards or chip counts, although it's for this very reason that The Poker Mindset is such an interesting read... (read review)
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Your Best Poker Friend: Increase your mental edge by Dr Alan Schoonmaker
Release date: 01st October, 2008
Publisher: LYLE STUART
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £7.25
You Save: £4.74 (39%)
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In his latest book, Schoonmaker first identifies and then explains a number of emotional and psychological forces that affect poker players' decisions. This is straight forward enough, but usefully, he suggests methods for dealing with them, a number of which are quite unusual... (read review)
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Ghosts at the Table by Des Wilson
Release date: 04th October, 2007
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
List Price: £17.99
Our Price: £12.59
You Save: £5.4 (30%)
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One element of poker we sometimes forget when playing in an online freeroll or sit-and-go is just how much violence surrounded the game in its evolutionary days. Wilson is excellent at describing this and several of the characters who appear to have enjoyed getting involved in a fight almost as much as playing - or cheating... (read review)
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Poker Nation By Andy Bellin
Release date: 01st January, 2003
Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £8.99
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Among the wealth of often dry poker instruction manuals dealing with strategy and instruction, from time to time, you may happen upon a title which, (shock, horror) actually tells a story. Poker Nation is one such tome, an autobiographical account of how one guy, while studying for a Masters degree in astrophysics, fell in love with poker... (read review)
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Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo
Release date: 10th December, 2011
Publisher: Booksurge
List Price: £29.95
Our Price: £20.04
You Save: £9.91 (33%)
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Beginners could read this outstanding book (now in paperback) and gain much from it, but it's really aimed at those who think they know poker already... (read review)
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Kill Everyone by Lee Nelson, Tyson Streib & Kim Lee
Release date: 17th December, 2007
Publisher: Monarch Books
List Price: £31.99
Our Price: £31.99
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This highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling "Kill Phil" has not disappointed. It manages to blend of real-time experience, poker maths and computational horsepower... (read review)
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Tales of a Degenerate Poker Player by Derek Kelly
Release date: 06th December, 2008
Publisher: Box Events
List Price: £12.25
Our Price: £12.50
You Save: £-0.25 (-2%)
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Full of irreverent tales of famous poker players, gamblers, gangsters and a group of odd people who indulge in the "Devil's Diversion", this is a book with a serious theme, but one that is also certain to make you laugh... (read review)
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Oops! I Won Too Much Money by Tom Schneider
Release date: 30th December, 2005
Publisher: Brown Books
List Price: £11.40
Our Price: £7.70
You Save: £3.7 (32%)
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Schneider has assembled a thoroughly entertaining collection of essays and tales in Oops! I Won Too Much Money. At the book's core is what Schneider calls his "winning wisdom" which consists of what he has learned during his life, business career, and subsequently as a poker pro... (read review)
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The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman
Release date: 01st January, 2004
Publisher: Arrow Books
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £5.59
You Save: £3.4 (37%)
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Prof Wiseman explores the minds of lucky and unlucky people and concludes that there are several principles involved with turning bad luck into good, a topic close to the hearts of any poker player who has ever experienced a bad beat... (read review)
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Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice by Mike Caro
Release date: 27th November, 2007
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
List Price: £16.95
Our Price: £12.99
You Save: £3.96 (23%)
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Like each of his previous dozen tomes, Caro's latest offering will find its way onto the bookcases of players at all levels, ostensibly because it resurrects strategies that might have been forgotten, misinterpreted or simply ignored... (read review)
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The Mathematics of Poker by William Chen
Release date: 04th June, 2009
Publisher: CONJELCO
List Price: £23.99
Our Price: £13.04
You Save: £10.95 (45%)
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We've all come across the scam merchants, bluffers and those, like our City villain, who talk a good game, but ultimately, if you want to be a successful poker player, you simply must understand the game's maths. This is the definitive work on the subject... (read review)
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The Poker Face of Wall Street by Aaron Brown
Release date: 27th July, 2007
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £8.39
You Save: £3.6 (30%)
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Against a background of financial turmoil such as we're currently experiencing, stock market traders often talk in terms of limiting risk, turning a steady profit and keeping their heads down. It's a not dissimilar approach for poker players, but Aaron Brown, a Morgan Stanley executive director and poker enthusiast who specialises in quantitative finance, says the secret to winning is to embrace risk... (read review)
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Power Hold 'Em Strategy by Daniel Negreanu
Release date: 17th June, 2008
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
List Price: £22.95
Our Price: £16.07
You Save: £6.88 (29%)
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Just over half the text has been written by other people, although his co-contributors do know a thing or two about poker themselves. Evelyn Ng, Todd Brunson, Erick Lindgren, Paul Wasicka, and David Williams... (read review)
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Poker Face 2 by Ulvis Albert
Release date: 01st January, 2006
Publisher: Published by the author, Latvia
List Price: £105.00
Our Price: £35.99
You Save: £69.01 (65%)
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The book was first published in 2006 and only 2,000 copies of the Collector's Edition (signed by Alberts and dedicated to his Latvian father.) exist. The original version, published in the early 1980s is so rare now that copies sell for $1,500... (read review)
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Play poker like a pigeon and win by Anonymous
Release date: 01st January, 2008
Publisher: Lyle Stuart
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £9.95
You Save: £1.04 (9%)
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Regrettably, "Anonymous" is not the first author to consider this subject and his book is littered with inaccuracies and plain bad advice...
(read review)
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Poker Night by John Vorhaus
Release date: 30th August, 2004
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
List Price: £5.99
Our Price: £5.99
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Vorhaus weaves and expands upon how to host a regular home poker night; after reading it, some might say it sounds considerably more difficult than becoming an exceptionally proficient player and scarper back to those strategy-filled tomes... (read review)
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How to win the World Series of Poker (or Not) by Pat Walsh
Release date: 30th May, 2006
Publisher: Plume Books
List Price: £8.74
Our Price: £6.57
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Ever since Tony Holden wrote Big Deal, the tale of an established writer setting off to Vegas with the intention of becoming world champion, he has spawned a plethora of copycat titles to the point where it has become an established literary genre, almost akin to a Michael Palin travelogue... (read review)
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Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business by David Apostolico
Release date: 20th April, 2007
Publisher: Prometheus Books
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £8.57
You Save: £8.42 (49%)
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Apostolico makes several further convincing arguments by maintaining that consistent winners at the poker table, like successful business executives, have learned when to take chances, when to bluff, how to read opponents and the importance of position... (read review)
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The Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells by Randy Burgess & Carl Baldassarre
Release date: 31st May, 2006
Publisher: Triumph Books
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £11.69
You Save: £5.3 (31%)
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In many respects, Mike Caro's classic "Caro's Book of Poker Tells" remains the definitive work on the subject, yet it's interesting to note that despite the incredible number of poker-related books published since it was first published, few have sought to develop Caro's themes. Now Burgess and Baldassarre (B&B) endeavour to do so... (read review)
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Million dollar hold em by Johnny Chan & Mark Karowe
Release date: 01st December, 2006
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
List Price: £19.95
Our Price: £17.95
You Save: £2 (10%)
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Such is the relentless, production line-nature of new poker-related titles that you might by now expect to see two-year-old books as giveaways on the front of corn flakes boxes. This rule does not apply to Million Dollar Hold 'Em, published in 2006 and written by Johnny Chan and Mark Karowe. The reasons for this are simple: the content is excellent, the book is well written and its advice remains relevant... (read review)
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The rules of poker by Lou Krieger and Sheree Bykofsky
Release date: 30th March, 2007
Publisher: Stuart (Lyle)
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £4.95
You Save: £5.04 (50%)
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Players would be foolish to assume they know every one of poker's rules and the beauty of this particular tome is it's small enough to fit inside a jacket pocket. This means it may be produced with a flourish just as arguments are becoming heated... (read review)
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Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen
Release date: 30th March, 2012
Publisher: Citadel Publishing
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £7.71
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There is no doubt that readers will pick up more than their fair share Hansen's bluffing techniques and discover how to win when their hand is worth about as much as Ed Miliband's dwindling credibility... (read review)
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Beyond Traps- The Anatomy of Poker Success by James McKenna
Release date: 01st August, 2007
Publisher: Stuart (Lyle)
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £6.39
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As a qualified therapist, McKenna knows about the human psyche; as a poker player, he knows how to put that knowledge to work. This accounts for his assertion that successful players should do more than merely identify another player's habits... (read review)
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Texas Hold 'Em: Begin & Win by Paul Mendleson
Release date: 08th August, 2005
Publisher: Elliot Right Way Books
List Price: £5.99
Our Price: £3.99
You Save: £2 (33%)
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Begin & Win should immediately eliminate basic errors from your game. Helpfully, he also offers advice upon how to play a selection of hands without becoming too involved and covers virtually every aspect of poker... (read review)
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Poker Tournament Formula by Arnold Snyder
Release date: 01st November, 2007
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
List Price: £13.95
Our Price: £9.34
You Save: £4.61 (33%)
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Arnold Snyder's Poker Tournament Formula has proved incredibly popular ever since it was published in 2007; rarely has a book been discussed so widely among poker players in online forums - and with good reason... (read review)
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Make a Million from Online Poker by Nigel Goldman
Release date: 13th February, 2006
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £5.00
You Save: £2.99 (37%)
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This latest addition to the burgeoning poker library claims to "hold the key to financial success" at poker and while every new book has to try and sell itself, it's fair to say that while it provides general advice, it's not entirely comprehensive... All the same, this book offers some handy hints to those who fancy taking their chances at online poker during the festive season's 'downtime'. After all, how many times have you already seen 'Jason & the Argonauts'? (read review)
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Big Deal by Anthony Holden
Release date: 05th August, 2002
Publisher: Abacus
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £8.99
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The author recounts tales of the eccentric characters he meets on his twelve-month long journey along with all the detailed action of the exciting games he ends up playing along the way. This is a truly fantastic read and has to be my favourite poker book of all time... (read review)
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Caro's Book of Poker Tells by Mike Caro
Release date: 01st March, 2010
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
List Price: £16.95
Our Price: £11.18
You Save: £5.77 (34%)
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Caro is essentially a theorist who has written about many of poker's most important concepts, which probably explains why he acts as a consultant to some of the world's leading poker players... (read review)
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Your Worst Poker Enemy by Alan Schoonmaker
Release date: 07th June, 2007
Publisher: Stuart (Lyle)
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £6.99
You Save: £5 (41%)
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This book could differentiate you from your peers - not least because you've been sensible enough to read it. Dr. Schoonmaker is big enough to admit he is no world class player, yet he turns in regular profits precisely because he knows which games he can win and where he's likely to take a beating... (read review)
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Serious Poker by Daniel Y Kimberg
Release date: 04th June, 2013
Publisher: CONJELCO
List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £9.92
You Save: £6.07 (37%)
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Kimberg maintains that so-called bad beats are, in fact, nothing of the sort. His explanation is designed to reduce blood pressure levels and prevent outbursts likely to alienate your mates... (read review)
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Take me to the River by Peter Alson
Release date: 18th September, 2007
Publisher: Atria Books
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £6.99
You Save: £4 (36%)
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Readers may initially approach Peter Alson's work with some trepidation, although unlike a number of others who have decided to put their poker thoughts to paper, Alson does have pretty decent poker credentials... (read review)
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The Poker Encyclopaedia by Elkan Allan and Hannah Mackay
Release date: 18th October, 2007
Publisher: Anova
List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £12.74
You Save: £2.25 (15%)
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We had some doubts about the publishers' decision to coat the original imprint of this book in green flock (so it feels like table felt - geddit?). Few concerns about the content, though. (read review)
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The Education of a Poker Player By Herbert O. Yardley
Release date: 18th October, 2009
Publisher: High Stakes Publishing
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £8.99
You Save: £1 (10%)
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The volume's instructional pages (for stud and draw) are few, and fairly basic. Its real value lies in the tautly written anecdotes of rural poker in turn-of-the-century America, with players who literally 'bet the farm', and sophisticated, cosmopolitan games in the Far East during World War II, where spies of opposing nations crossed swords at the poker table. (read review)
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For Richer, For Poorer by Victoria Coren
Release date: 18th October, 2009
Publisher: Canongate
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £10.18
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Anyone who is fond of Vicky Coren's highly intelligent yet soothingly chatty writing style will find everything that they might hope for in her latest offering. (read review)
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The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King by Michael Craig
Release date: 07th October, 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £6.42
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When, in 2001, an unfamiliar face appeared in the Bellagio's high stakes poker area looking for a bigger challenge than he had been facing at the casino's standard tables, no one could have guessed that what was about to unfold would be one of the biggest poker games in history. Not even the stranger knew that.... (read review)
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52 Great Poker Tips by Lou Krieger
Release date: 17th July, 2009
Publisher: Batsford
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £4.54
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A leading poker guru gives you the essential tips to win at Texas Hold 'Em poker at any time, whether at home, at a tournament or playing online. (read review)
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Amazon’s top 6 best-sellers
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