Books on poker tournament strategy

Recently a group of my friends has started a regular poker night, NL hold 'em tournament style, with blinds going up every half-hour (usually) so we can finish in a few hours. This is very friendly, casual stuff ($10 buy-in usually, 6-10 players), but a lot of them have been playing for a long time, so they kind of know what they're doing, or at least act like it.

I would like to improve my game to be, at the very least, not a fish. I know the basic rules and that's pretty much it. Now this game is very much about luck, clearly, given the fast pace and the fact that there are suckers like me (and a few other inexperienced players) playing starting hands we should never even think about :). But as with many things gambling, in the long run skill shows itself.

Snyder's recent book (The Poker Tournament Formula) sounds like it would fit the bill quite nicely for this situation, and I might even be able to parlay those skills into some low-level tournaments in card rooms and when I go to Vegas.

I know there have been umpteen books written about poker, any votes for Snyder's book, or suggestions of others, from the proficient poker players here?

I got a couple boxes full of poker books I'm trying to sell. PM me if interested and I'll see what I got in regards to tournament poker.

Look at Daniel Negreanu's Power Holdem Strategy.
There are a couple sections from him and other players about basic tournament strategy that will probably help you.

"Kill Everyone" is great about about the shove or fold game:

http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Everyone-Strategies-Tournaments-Sit-n-Gos/dp/1935396307

Dan Harrington's excellent series is by far the best set of books on poker tournaments.

Do you mean kill Phil? Kill everyone and raisers edge are more complete and solid books, when played well a little bit looser style they advocate is profitable, but rather dangerous for a beginner, it gives you lots of opportunities to make mistakes. The professional tournament poker series by Jonathan little is the best imo.

Quote: sodawater

Dan Harrington's excellent series is by far the best set of books on poker tournaments.

. I would disagree with this. They're solid books for fundamentals of tournaments, and were the best 5+ years ago. Advocates a tight aggressive style, which is good for beginners. But creates exactly the type of player that a skilled LAG player will manipulate and exploit. Good for learning fundamentals.

I'll echo the Kill Everyone advice. It's a very good book, much better than Kill Phil overall, though Kill Phil may be more of what your looking for.

I've read a lot of poker books and have found a handful of useful sections in some of them.

That said, the time I spent reading those books would have been better spent on a poker forum, talking to other players, or watching a training video.

I'd encourage you to find some training videos made for beginning tournament players made by a solid tournament player(could be someone who grinds $5 tournaments online) and join a poker forum. Both of which you can probably do for free.

The best information I've found wasn't in a book.

I'd say find some training videos and/or join a discussion forum, get a basic understanding of how to play tournament poker, and put some hours in SNG wiz or a similar program.

I have about 20 poker books. I learned something from every one of them. I learned nothing beats tens of thousands of hands of experience on top of all the books.

"How To Win Poker Tournaments" by Tom McEvoy might be worth a look. It's probably long out of print so you will probably have to look for a used copy.

Here's a link to my old collection of poker books: http://www.edcollins.com/poker-books

Having played a thousand or so micro-limit ($5 or less) TH Tournaments I will say this, Micro-limit TH tournaments are the most viscious snake-pit in poker. Everyone is way over bankrolled, and for 5 bucks or less get an hour or two of tourney play. Be viscious, daring loose, tight, or tilted. Micro-limit has it... up to 6000 contestants at only 50c +5c, thousands for $1 + 10c.

My own history indicated I was a better micro-limit Hi/Lo Omaha player, and recouped the snake-pit losses, gaining final table status on several occasions (best finish 3rd three times $5, and 2nd twice in $2).

And then came UIGEA, and thats it.

harrington's books are good. They walk you through the logic and math behind most hands.

Personally loved Poker Tournament Formula (own and read both parts) but it's not really too relevant to what you're describing. It assumes you know more than you probably do, and it is geared towards larger scale tournaments. It also makes some claims that are somewhat contreversial in the community, although the logic is sound and it's not overly controversial.

Depending on the structure of your tournament, the most important things to cover are basic poker strategy stuff (read The Theory of Poker by Sklansky) and the next most important thing is to understand the ICM (Independent Chip Model.)

The contreversial aspects of Snyders books has to do with how it downplays the importance of ICM during several stages of larger field tournaments, at least according to some. (He even admits part of his purpose is to show that he thinks other people were overplaying its importance.) Either way, I don't think anybody would argue that it isn't extremely important to consider in single table tournaments, in fact, it's often the biggest part of your decision making process.

Quote: Boney526

Personally loved Poker Tournament Formula (own and read both parts) but it's not really too relevant to what you're describing. It assumes you know more than you probably do, and it is geared towards larger scale tournaments. It also makes some claims that are somewhat contreversial in the community, although the logic is sound and it's not overly controversial.

Depending on the structure of your tournament, the most important things to cover are basic poker strategy stuff (read The Theory of Poker by Sklansky) and the next most important thing is to understand the ICM (Independent Chip Model.)

The contreversial aspects of Snyders books has to do with how it downplays the importance of ICM during several stages of larger field tournaments, at least according to some. (He even admits part of his purpose is to show that he thinks other people were overplaying its importance.) Either way, I don't think anybody would argue that it isn't extremely important to consider in single table tournaments, in fact, it's often the biggest part of your decision making process.

Yeah I've read the beginning of PTF and have realized it's not super relevant to our tiny home game, since there is only 1 table.