Hello my name is dirkb. Yakshemash !

Because I have been asked several times recently which books beginners should buy to get into poker, I am making this post so I can then link to it. Tired of typing the same thing over and over again.

There are literally hundreds of books on poker today, and although I cannot claim to have read all of them, I have at least looked at most of them but only find a few worth recommending :

- Middle Limit Holdem and How good is your Limit Hold'em : These are two excellent books on (you guessed it) how to play Limit, using mostly example hands. The first book is from 2002 so a lot of its content is outdated in that the play it recommends is too weak/tight and as such more suited to the far less aggressive style of a few years ago, but nonetheless you should buy and read both since the first one will give you an idea of basic concepts and the second one has actual strategic content besides ABC poker.

- Harrington on Hold'em. An excellent three-book-series on how to play Tournament NL Hold'em. Harrington was the first to formulate several now commonly known concept such as the number 'M'. If you don't know what 'M' is, buy these books. If you do, you should probably buy them anyway - or at least number 3 since it's pretty entertaining and contains lots of Ivey-esque example hands.

- Phil Gordons Little Green Book- It isn't the most complete strategy guide out there, but he does manage to point out lots of things that are important both for tournament play and cash games in not too much space, with some insight into how he personally plays. I would say the first books I mentioned above are necessities but this is a good buy if you are serious about filling your unused braincells with poker. I just saw there's a little Blue Book now too heh. No idea how good it is, but I did just order it.

- One of a Kind is a book on Stuey Ungar, arguably the best poker player ever. It actually has little to do with poker but it is a good read anyway.

Ok, that's it. No, really. I didn't just forget SuperSystem or SS2 or any of the Sklanskys (although the recent one on No-Limit Hold'em is pretty good, I just think Phil Gordons book is better) or (hahaha) Caros Book of Tells or any other 'classics'. I just don't think they're that useful. Of course it can hardly hurt to read any of them, and there's a bunch of poker 'literature' that's not actually strategy advice that I personally find entertaining, like the above One of a Kind or Jim McManus' Positively Fifth Street.