Expensive Reading in Deutschland

 I’m a sucker for good poker books, videos, and software. High on my wish-list for a while now has been Dynamic Full Ring Poker (DFRP) by James “Splitsuit” Sweeney, who is a well known poker coach and online video instructor. Sweeney's book has been getting a lot of buzz lately as being the next big thing in poker instruction material, so naturally my interest was piqued a few months ago when the book finally hit the online store....

....but I didn't buy the book at that time. Why?

Answer: its outrageous price tag. The basic book costs $90, either in paperback or in e-book format. This is a lot of dough, and I really hadn't planned on ever spending that much money on a single poker book.... 

...but  then I ran pretty well this weekend on the felt....

 ....so I decided (more or less on a last minute whim) to take some of my weekend profit and plow it back into the book, figuring I needed some new/entertaining/informative poker reading material to take with me on my hop across the Atlantic to Germany.

So, now that I own DFRP, is it really worth that high of a price of admission?

Answer: I can't say with 100% certainty yet, as I'm only about a quarter of the way through the nearly 400-page book. But that said, the material I've read thus far is pretty good. Actually, it's pretty damn good. In fact, it's been pretty eye-opening so far. I've read a ton of poker books, watched hundreds of hours of poker videos, and spent way too much time surfing poker forums. Said another way, I'm relatively well-educated on the subject of poker instruction. Rarely do I learn something astoundingly new when I read a new poker book, but occasionally I do pick up a tip or trick that can improve my game.

Well, if the first eighty pages of DFRP is any indication, I'm going to be learning a lot of new and powerful things. Already, I've picked up a couple of "a-ha!" concepts that have actually been a source of leaking in my game. Things like how *not* to play AK when facing an EP raise, for instance; or VPIP "original" ranges vs. "continuation" ranges; or stack to pot ratios explained in simple terms; or player types and tendencies when facing 3-bets. And that's just the beginning. In short, this looks to be a goldmine of advanced poker concepts to mine. Very, very cool.

Now, there are some caveats to keep in mind if you're considering purchasing the book for yourself. Firstly, it's not a beginner's book. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say it's not for intermediate players. Unless you're very familiar with poker ideas and jargon such as flatting, balancing, polarized ranges, and set-or-jet concepts, the book will likely be confusing to even an experienced player who hasn't spent a lot of time on poker forums or read many technical pieces on the game.

The book is also riddled with typos, grammatical errors, and the occasional misstatement that can be misleading or confusing to the average reader. It really could have done with a professional copy- and content-editing job, but alas it wasn't. It's clearly written by a professional poker player; i.e., *not* by a professional writer. Said another way, this is not a book for the feint of heart, or feeble of mind. In fact, I'd suggest that intermediate-level players save their $90 and invest it instead in a couple of months of online training videos, plus spend some serious time in the 2+2 or FlopTurnRiver forums. Once you've mastered some of the intermediate concepts and skills, consider coming back and purchasing DFRP. You'll thank me later.

Until then.... auf wiedersehen, und...
All-in for now....
-Bug