Book review: Million dollar hold em , by Johnny Chan & Mark Karowe

Author: Simon Dexter

Such is the relentless, production line-nature of new poker-related titles that you might by now expect to see two-year-old books as giveaways on the front of corn flakes boxes. This rule does not apply to Million Dollar Hold ‘Em, published in 2006 and written by Johnny Chan and Mark Karowe. The reasons for this are simple: the content is excellent, the book is well written and its advice remains relevant.

Chan was a player in every sense long, long before online poker was a twinkle in the eye of the internet gods. If you said had been around the block a few times, you would be underestimating what he knew and had been through to reach a point where he could be crowned world champion - not once, but twice.

Chan hails from poker’s Old School. He recalls the times when poker could only be played for hard cash and when casino-based tournaments drew all kinds of characters and their huge bundles of cash in search of the action. Chan excelled in such an environment.

Together with Mark Karowe, himself no mean player, Chan has compiled an excellent tutorial for poker players who appreciate the colossal amounts of money there are to be won. This is not a book for beginners: as a minimum, you should know poker’s fundamentals and understand the basic concepts of bluffing.

The book is divided into eleven sections dealing with concepts such as folding, betting, raising and re-raising and other elements such as bankroll requirements, moving up and down in limits and peripheral matters such as keeping fit. The authors go on to explain why the first bet so often wins a pot, the secrets of betting a big hand on the flop and how to take control of a hand.

It’s the type of book which has held its value precisely because it’s so good. Accordingly, you should keep it close when playing online and out of sight when your poker-playing pals drop by.

Tags: Book Review, Johnny Chan., poker book

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 9:38 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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