Play Poker to Win

In 2005, HarperCollins released an updated version of the 1973 book Play Poker to Win by "Amarillo Slim" Preston. Aside from the obvious references to more recent events such as the internet era of poker and players such as Phil Hellmuth and Robert Williamson III, most of the text could be from the original version.

Amarillo Slim was known as a specialist in no-limit short-handed and heads-up poker games, so it is unsurprising that his focus is on psychology, position, and game selection. If you're looking for technical information to polish your game, this is probably not for you. If you want some insight into how someone might play the player instead of the cards in short-handed big-bet poker, this volume might have some use. This book also has entertaining anecdotes, such as several key hands from the 1972 World Series of Poker, which Slim won, and the factoid that the players only bought in for $5,000, with Jack Binion adding $5,000 for each of them to get a nice round number for publicity. This book also has one of the few discussions in print about no-limit single-draw lowball (albeit mainly of the A-5 rather than 2-7 variety).

It's worth a read if you're a completist who wants to survey all of the poker literature, but most players might feel it a waste of time if they don't want to read anecdotes and thoughts on defunct games like five-card stud. If you want funny Amarillo Slim stories, you're better off picking up Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People. This book is not recommended, but it also doesn't carry a big, fat warning label to stay away. It's more a matter of having inapplicable information than having inaccurate information.