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Book Reviews
by Nick Christenson
Internet Poker
by Lou Krieger and Kathleen Keller Waterson
ConJelCo 2003
ISBN 1-886070-17-2, 202pp, $14.95
“Internet Poker” begins with the standard introductory material chronicling the advance of online poker and providing some information describing what this book is all about. The authors then move on to provide an overview of nature of playing poker online, including information about which sites are most popular (at least at the time the book was written), and informing the reader how online poker generally works. The next section covers the game of poker in general, explaining the basic concepts such as betting, blinds, antes, how the game proceeds, split pots, etc.. The authors then provide about five pages of strategy information on several of the most popular poker games that are played online. Due to their brevity, these descriptions are necessarily incomplete, but they’re pretty decent as far as 5 page descriptions go. I especially liked the information on playing 7-stud/8, as this gets across some important concepts in an economy of words. The section concludes with commentary on the play of sample hands from the demo versions of Wilson’s “Turbo” poker software, which is provided on an included CDROM.
The subsequent section, titled “The Nitty-Gritty of Playing Online” contains the real meat of the book, in my opinion. It is here that the authors provide us information about how to evaluate various different online casinos and games, selecting a screen name, funding an online account, and similar issues. This information is very useful for those who don’t have any experience or confidence online.
The final section covers a number of issues, including record keeping, legal issues, and money management. In the chapter titled “Guaranteeing Yourself an Honest Game,” Krieger and Watterson discuss the right issues, and on the big topics I think they’re absolutely on the right track, but much of the information they provide comes up short in detail. As one example, while I believe the dangers posed by opponent poker players also being computer hackers is minimal, I don’t think the authors exploration of this topic does a good job of explaining why this is the case. I know that the average reader of “Internet Poker” doesn’t want a detailed exegesis on the nature of Internet security, but I think most players could benefit from being better informed on this topic.
Similarly, regarding legal issues, while anything written in a book would be immediately out-of-date, some guidance would be useful. As of the time of publication, is it or is it not legal to place a wager over the Internet from a computer in the state of Nevada, for example? Where can I turn for up-to-date information on this topic? There’s very little here in the way of useful guidance.
Even though in some places the book doesn’t go as far as I’d like, the information they do provide seems well-considered. This book is primarily aimed at those readers who are new to poker altogether and want to play online. A secondary market would be those who have played in live poker games but are uncomfortable about playing online.
I believe “Internet Poker” will prove satisfactory for both audiences, but will be most appropriate for the least experienced players. For those who have some experience playing poker online, there are a few good tips, but this isn’t the book’s primary audience. Still, since it’s very reasonably priced, there may be enough information included to make the book worthwhile. There’s still plenty of room, though, for an advanced book on the topic of Internet poker.
This article was published in the Sep 22nd 2003 edition of Poker Player.
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