Product Description

Meet ""PearlJammer"", ""Rizen"" and ""Apestyles"". These top guns of tournament poker are frequent winners in today's highly competitive online scene, as well as in live tourneys. Step-by-step, they reveal their decision-making processes, using hands drawn from actual play-not examples contrived to fit a particular poker theory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108654 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 423 pages

About the Author
Eric 'Rizen' Lynch

Eric 'Rizen' Lynch is recognized as one of the top tournament players in the world in both live and Internet play. In just two years at the World Series of Poker, he has seven cashes, including a 2nd and 3rd place finish. He finished 26th in the 2006 main event, winning $494,000, his biggest prize so far. His lifetime total for cash finishes in live tournaments is a little shy of $1 million. Online, Eric has over 50 wins, made 300 final tables, and has won over $1.5 million. In 2007, he won one of the major Sunday tournaments, beating out thousands for a prize of $156K.

Jon 'PearlJammer' Turner

Well-known for his online prowess, Jon 'PearlJammer' Turner, who also plays online under the name 'PearlJammed', actually got his start playing live games in Raleigh, NC, and then later in Las Vegas. He won the 2007 Internet Player of the Year award, tracked by InternetPokerRankings, after a 3rd place finish in 2006. Over the last couple of years, PearlJammer has amassed an impressive online resume: He has over 100 wins, made 600 final tables, and won almost $2 million. In 2007, he placed second in one of the major Sunday tournaments to win his biggest online cash prize of $100,000.

Jon 'Apestyles' Van Fleet

Jon 'Apestyles' Van Fleet started playing professionally in 2004 after graduating from college, and quickly moved up the ranks in the online poker world. He ranked in the top 20 in both 2006 and 2007 at InternetPokerRankings. Jon has made close to $2 million playing in tournaments online, including over 350 final tables and 70 wins. His biggest online cash to date is $135K when he finished 2nd in a major Sunday tournament.

Customer Reviews

Best book I have found for online MTTs
I have been a fan of Rizen since I watched his Million win recording on PokerXFactor, so this book was an obvious one to try. I have read about half so far and it is excellent.

The book consists of detailed analysis of around 200 hands played in online MTTs by three of the most successful online players. They each analyze their own hands. I have not yet got to the last section where they each give their take on the same hands, played by the editor Matthew Hilger.

They all write clearly and interestingly, explaining the reasons for their actions very well. They assume the reader understands basic theory such as pot odds etc, so for someone like me who owns lots of poker books there is plenty of new food for thought. Their styles are noticeably different, which adds to the interest.

This book covers the phases before the tournament bubble, with a second volume planned to deal with the in-the-money period.

Strongly recommended for experienced online players, but not for beginners.

Still reading and enjoying!
I'm halfway through this book now and must say I'm more than content with my purchase. I've read a number of poker related books and played > 1000th tournaments (mostly online but also live). I'm still eager to learn more; I see myself as perhaps a little over novice.
The book is written in a pleasant, easy to read style. The three "players" are experienced, well known, intelligent and creative. Sharing their knowledge in this book is definately worth readng in my opinion. A lot of different situations and tournament types are used as examples. It also handles some of the mistakes we all (even the seasoned pro's) make.

Conclusion: I would rate this a 4,5. Easy / pleasant to read, easy to understand and "think with the writers". I have the feeling that, despite having read my number of books, I'm still picking up clues from this book as to how to improve my game.

Marco

Insight into how the top pros think
This book is similar to "Every Hand Revealed" by Gus Hansen (also highly recommended). The key differences are that where the Hansen book was one player talking the reader through a tourney from start to glorious finish, this book is 3 players commenting on a selection of hands which have been chosen to illustrate important topics in MTTs e.g. stealing blinds; continuation bets; building a big stack; short-stack strategies; deep-stack play; playing draws and bubble play. Each of the 3 authors writes one chapter and the final chapter consists of the 3 of them discussing hands played by Matt Hilger.

What I took away from this book was a selection of points to consider during play rather than a collection of "how to" rules. As the authors demonstrate, there are many viable approaches to playing MTTs and part of the poker learning curve is discovering what works for you. Hence, although the book is an easy read, I'd suggest that you need 50 or so MTTs under your belt before it becoms usefull; complete beginners would probably be better off with something like The Poker Tournament Formula V2 (V1 is for STTs).