TJ Cloutier - Championship No Limit and Pot Limit Holdem

I purchased this book because it's one of the few that discusses specific strategy in No-Limit tournaments (it also addresses Pot-Limit Hold'em, but I don't really know how many people use that style for Hold'em... Omaha and Stud, maybe, but not Hold'em, usually). Now, before you all buy it as the definitive guide to winning your buddy's weekend $15 buy-ins, just be aware that this book is addressing high-stakes tournaments against tough opponents who are thinking the same way you do. Most home games involve people who want to gamble and have fun. This book isn't for those kinds of games.

The book turned me off at first. Tom McEvoy and TJ Cloutier spend many pages talking about their wonderful careers and, as great as they may be, I'll buy a biography if I really want to know. Eventually, they get to the good stuff. Now, they continue to throw in personal experiences, which work a lot better as examples of strategies rather than "look at me I'm great" chapters.

Cloutier is a very tight tournament player, a style used by many players because it works. Because of this, he only goes into detail about playing premium hands: AK, AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, and KQ. He doesn't bother much with other hands that most people play because he doesn't feel that they hold much value when the betting gets so high. This might seem a little narrow-minded, but Cloutier does such a good job breaking down how to play each hand that you won't even notice. If you don't know how to play any of the above hands after reading this book, then you have problems.

Unfortunately, some of the other sections involve a lot of, "oh, this is real important", but how to do it is never addressed. For instance, Cloutier stresses over and over again how important it is to "read" your opponents and pick up on their tendencies so that, when they raise, you know exactly what they have. However, he never really explains how to do this. No tips or anything, just "hey, make sure you observe your opponents". I think we all know this, but we need guidance as to what the best approach is to gaining this information. Many hands never make it to a showdown, so you need other methods of reading players. My assumption is that you can either do this naturally, or you can't. Cloutier can, and very, very well.
One good thing Cloutier does is keep a strong, consistent theme throughout his section, emphasizing the need to protect and build your chips over time, not in one hand. Amateur players seem to have a hard time understanding this, instead they try to double up every time they get a half-decent hand. Cloutier's super-tight style might be a turn off to some, but he shows you why it works. You don't have to follow it, but you can't argue with the results.

Overall, definitely pick up this book if you plan on playing in tough tournaments. It's a hit-or-miss style that many people won't find particularly interesting, but those who want to play at a high level will find the advice invaluable.

M. Lenhart "yeltzen" Pittsburgh

Poker Book Review: How To Win The Championship by TJ Cloutier

TJ Cloutier has been playing poker since FDR introduced The New Deal, and well he has made a darned good living off of it, taking down more first place finishes in major tournaments than any other player. You often see TJ’s name amongst many of the more youthful, internet trained players placing in competitive live tournaments.

This isn’t TJ’s first poker book. He co-wrote one of the first tournament poker books with Tom McEvoy just before poker and the WPT took television in a new direction. That book failed miserably in offering specific tournament strategies. Instead it was more like self promoting for two pros that had won in the past, but seemed to either be holding back or incapable of explaining intricate strategies in plain English.

Ironically, plain english is exactly TJ’s problem with this new book. After just reviewing John Vorhaus’ new Killer Poker Book (online 2), TJ’s writing really put me to the test of patience. It was like going from a taste sensation provoking French cabernet, to a stale, warm American light beer.

It seems I wasn’t the only reader of TJ’s first book who thought it was short on strategy, because TJ addresses such concerns right at the top of this new book. Describing inquiries directed to him asking for more specifics. Good I thought, maybe we get some juice here, but TJ spends a whole chapter saying in a most basic, but over emphasized way that, you’ve got to play good solid poker. Has he learned nothing? The rest of the book is excruciatingly demeaning. I would surely rather be reading some self hyped Hellmuth prose.

This book claims to help you get to the final table and then play to win at the final table. As for getting there, read above and here again, play good solid poker. Anything deeper than that is simply not to be found in this book. Further, once you get to the final table instead of explaining good strategy TJ “analyzes” a final table he was at during the $5000, 2005 WSOP. One of the hands that he won, he was all in behind, got lucky and tried to explain his reasoning saying, you got to take a chance once in awhile. Brilliant! And as far as analyzing hands go, please leave that to the expert, Dan Harrington.

If you don’t believe how bad a book can be, read some of these profound subtitles:
Always maintain a positive attitude.
Adjust to your opponents’ style of play.
Always make quality decisions.
Plan carefully when you have a medium stack.

Hey TJ, thanks for coming out.

It quite comes down to this. Some poker pros and their publishers view these boom times as a way to take advantage of newcomers to the game, anxious to improve their game. I am not saying publishers shouldn’t be opportunistic. That is fair game in the poker economy. It’s their job. It is my job however to warn you of pure cash grabs, and this is one of them. If you want to learn tournament poker see Dan Harrington, John Vorhaus and Phil Gordon.

by Marty Smith @ PokerStrategy Articles

Phil Gordon
Dan Harrington
Phil Hellmuth
John Vorhaus