Doyle Brunson's Super System, A Course in Power Poker
Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson is one of the grandfathers of poker. He became a legend after winning the Main Event ($10,000 No Limit Hold'em) of the World Series of Poker twice running in 1976 and 1977. He published his ‘Super System’ in 1978 (!). Since he considered himself to be the best No Limit Texas Hold'em player in the world but not, however, the best Stud, Lowball or Limit Hold'em player, he collaborated with other great players of the time to write this book. This tome of a book has 555 pages, so unless you are a book worm, keep your hands off it. Its contents include the following:
-- Doyle Brunson – a short biography, 17 pages
-- General principles of poker strategy, approximately 30 pages
-- Draw Poker strategy by Mike 'Crazy Mike' Caro, about 75 pages
-- Seven Card Stud strategy by David 'Chip' Reese, about 45 pages
-- Lowball (including Razz) strategy by Joey 'Howard Hughes' Hawthorne, about 75 pages
-- High-Low Split by David 'Einstein' Sklansky, about 90 pages
-- Differences between Limit and No Limit Hold'em, about 15 pages
-- Limit Hold'em strategy by Bobby 'The Owl' Baldwin, about 70 pages
-- No Limit Hold'em strategy by Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson, about 100 pages
-- General poker statistics, approximately 50 pages
Super System is known as the Poker Bible because it was the first book to really scrutinize the strategy of the various types of poker. In the mean time many new books, containing hundreds of pages, have been published dealing with just a single topic so Super System is certainly not a book that treats the subject matter in depth.
Doyle Brunson has subsequently said that he would not have written the book had he been aware that his whole game was destined to change. He teaches the reader how he won millions by playing aggressively. The title of the first editions of the book was 'How I made over $1,000,000 playing poker'.
This book can be highly recommended to those who want to get to know the different variations of poker. The 'general' Texas Hold'em player must be warned that more than half the book is not related to the Cadillac (or Rolls-Royce) of Poker. But hey, who does not have a Bible at home?
