Title: Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games
Authors: Lou Krieger, Kathleen Keller Watterson
Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games by Lou Krieger and Kathleen Keller Watterson introduces readers to the wonderful world of internet poker by covering everything from explaining how to sign up to an online poker site to legal and security concerns.
It should be strongly noted that this book covers the extreme basics of both poker strategy as well as online poker how-to's. As an experienced online player myself, I finished this book with no new knowledge gained. However, Internet Poker is geared towards players who have never played online (or even poker!) before, and thus I will continue this review with those players in mind as the main audience reading this book.
Internet Poker begins by explaining just what online poker is, including a brief history of how it evolved. It then goes on to explain the extreme basics of what poker is and how to play, basically explaining what 'chips' are, the various hand rankings, pots, side-pots and so on.
Chapter 6 and 7 make up the majority of the book, and the latter chapter is used in conjunction with demo poker software that is on the CD which accompanies the book. Chapter 6 explains the rules and basic strategy of 'The Five Most Common Internet Poker Games' including: Seven Card Stud, Texas Hold'Em, Omaha High/Low Split, Omaha High, and Seven-Card Stud High/Low Split.
Readers are then asked in chapter 7 to play 125 predetermined hands on the demo software (25 hands each poker game) with the book. Readers play each hand, then read the corresponding 'follow-up' in the chapter to see if they played the hand correctly. I found this a very innovative way of learning poker, as it gives a direct hands-on approach as opposed to simply 'reading the rules', and lets you learn and play at your own pace as opposed to learning the rules by playing online.
Internet Poker goes on by explaining common online poker actions such as 'sitting out' and 'note-taking'. It finises by going over legal and security concerns, money management, and record keeping.
To summarize, Internet Poker, while not suitable for experienced online players, is a suitable and useful tool for people interested in learning how to play poker online, even if they've played in brick and mortar casinos before.
