This book is flat out terrible. If you need a book to tell you starting hand rankings that would be obvious to even a novice, go ahead and buy it. If you are looking for sound advice skip this one. The grammar was so poor I decided to see what editor would possibly allow the mistakes, surprise the author published it himself. ...

This may be the worst poker book ever written. The stylistic problems are legion. If that was the only problem, I could overlook it. The fact is that there is simply no useful, understandable information to be found here. You're better off with Sklanksy, Malmuth, Jones or Krieger.

Apparently well-intentioned but inept presentation, this is
a step backward in poker publishing. The English syntax alone
is disqualifying. Disappointing, because the world needs a
great book about low-limit high-low split.

Very thin. Don't buy this book. There are too many other good video poker books out there to waste a cent on this book. I would suggest something from John Grochowski.

I agree with the other eviewr... this i nothing more than an ad for the more "advanced books" the author sells. Save your money. This is garbage.

This entire book is simply to basic to be of much value--unless you need someone to tell you where the coins go into the machine. The content struck me as an intro (and advertisement) for the more "advanced" books advertised on the last page--namely the playing strategies you probably thought you were getting this round.

There's better information on the web.

The hand is improperly set in the picture on the cover.

Should be a pair of aces up front, with 2 pair back (queens and aces). The hand set in that manner is unbeatable, but not guaranteed a winner.

One gets the feeling that the author is a competent poker player but has never really played strip poker. The photo opportunity for a book like this was completely missed. It would have been much more interesting had the results of a game in progress been photographed instead of cutsy models in absurd costumes. The book was a disappointment.

The author, a self described "professional gambler", simply doesn't understand the game of video poker. While he jokes about being a high school dropout with "street smarts", he unfortunately doesn't understand anything about probability theory or the expected value of return calcultions required to optimize the return on what potentially can be one of the few potentially profitable casino games. In short, his advise on how to play video poker contain many mathemetical errors if optimizing return is your goal.

First he starts by telling you should play table blackjack instead, but if you are too timid to try to learn blackjack, you can minimize your losses by playing video poker his way. He doesn't seem to understand certain video poker games are positive expectation games (unlike blackjack, unless you can track the cards). His advice will quickly turn a positive expectation game (e.g., Duces Wild has a 100.7% expected payback if played flawlessly) into a negative one. One glaring example of his ignorance is "play the minimum for awhile until you see how he machine is paying". The fact is the greatest expected return is achieved by always playing max coins. He doesn't seem to understand each hand is a completely independent event from the prior hand. Some of the hands he says to "hold" are just wrong.

Parting shot: if the author is such as clever professional gambler why does he need to write books like this to make money?

I was looking forward to this book on Omaha Holdem for several reasons: a) there are very few books on the game available and b) Bob Ciaffone has written some good books on other forms of poker. But this book gets a thumbs down and here's why:

1) It's way too short at just 106 pages. That just isn't room to even begin to go into Omaha Holdem.

2) There's very little information here: Page one is devoted to the "Popularity of the Game." Page two "The Rules". Page 3 "The Showdown." Pages 4-5 "Origin of Omaha." Pages 6-8 are about community card poker. Pages 9-13 are about betting and the blind structure. Page 14-15 are about learning to read the board in Omaha (you must use 2 cards from yourhand and 3 from the board). Pages 16-18 are about "Should you learn Omaha?". Pages 19-23 are about comparing Omaha and Texas holdem. And remember, this book is only 106 pages long so there's no much left for actual strategy.

3) Pages 91-97 are about tournaments.
4) pages 98-101 are about "Future Ideas for Omaha".

I simply found that there was barely enough information to even get started. For some reason this book is shorter than any of Ciaffone's other books even though Pot Limit Omaha
"represents the ideal form of poker" to the author. I wish there were more information here but there simply isn't. Buyer beware, this book is short, not in-depth, and will provide only the very basics of beginning Omaha.

I play poker for a living. If you follow the advice in this book, you will lose money over the long run. In fact, this book contains some of the poorest advice ever written on the subject of winning at low limit hold'em. I own over 100 poker books and do not recommend this book.

The useful thing about this book is two pages of tables that show the odds of improving after three, four, five and six cards dealt in 7-card and 7-card high/low split. And there are some good basic points, partially explained, about the different betting rules when fighting for a split pot. However, there are a number of basic useful rules that are omitted (presumably those were covered in his "Intro" book, now out of print) AND he explains that "there are likely some errors" in his statistical tables for "I am not a trained mathematician."

The problem is that the material is poorly written and organized, partially explained and loaded with white space and off-the-topic comments. It is a small book with large, 12-point type and lots of blank space. I counted only 24 pages that actually contained poker information. Writing about "Fifth Street" when drawing on a low flush draw:
"Quite often the fifth street decision is a big one. When a great starting hand has caught some help and still has a chance to sweep, you are pressed to figure the odds and decide if you should continue. Supposed the A-3-6 of hearts has caught a black seven and a diamond queen. Should you play?
"You have counted four hearts that appeared, so there are six not accounted for. One other player has a better low porch than you have. Two fours, one two, and three fives have appeared. It is clear you now have a one-way hand since you only have about a 4% chance for a flush.
"This is one example of the pressure of fifth street. You do not have a good one-way hand, but it might make you a few dollars. You have to decide if it is worth the risk."

You also have to decide whether to buy this book--and that should be an easy decision. ...

If you find a secret here you've been living in a cave. Reviews of game types are interesting, but you'll not find illustrations of the machines, or the odds, or the various underlying deal algorithms. The editing is poor (e.g., slots are in isles), and advice like "play the machines that give the best odds." Duh!

With all due respect to Marten Jensen, he does not deliver the simplification and consolidation promised in the book. I bought the book for 2 reasons: (1) I'm a new Las Vegas resident who wants to enjoy the casino scene, but I want to play intelligently; and, (2) having graduated with a degree in Mathematics, I am curious how the odds and payouts work in these machines.

I will focus my comments exclusively on Jacks or Better Video Poker content (my game of choice, and as far as I read, once I realized the shortcomings of the book. )

Mr. Jensen identifies play strategies based on the various payout amounts of machines, collapsing 12 possible payout schemes to 2 strategies (excluding the Not Recommended to play strategy.) After an hour of analysis, I concluded the two play strategies are identical -- the only differences that I found are that the same hand is given different descriptors between the two strategy charts (what is described as JQ, JK, QK and JA, QA, KA as 2 separate hands in one strategy is simply described as 2 High Cards in the other, each with the same play strategy), and that he omitted a possible hand in one of the strategies (he describes what to do with a 4 card Inside Straight with 3 or 4 high cards, but he neglects to offer advice for any other type of 4 card Inside Straight.) My conclusion -- if Mr. Jensen recommends a Jacks or Better machine at all, he really means to tell me to play them all the same.

He further advises taking his book to the casino with you to match payout schemes on the machines to the charts in his book, rather than taking the time to reduce the various play/no-play strategies to a simple list of questions. I was able to reduce 12 charts to 3 simple questions to determine if (using his approach) you should play a machine or pass on it.

Finding such puzzling omissions and inconsistencies in this book makes me question the fundamental validity of his numbers and his strategies. He may be absolutely right (I'm not going to bother to do the math to double-check his assertions,) but I am left with enough lingering doubt that I'll pass on his advice and buy a different book and see what it says.