The Best Poker Books Will Never Be Written

In 1979, Doyle Brunson wrote his hugely influential book “Super System”, which lifted the lid on some of the more advanced and aggressive strategies used by poker professionals. In so doing, Brunson helped dispel some of the mystique associated with the game and made the game accessible to a whole new generation of players. At the time of its writing, Brunson was 46 years-old and at the top of his game with 6 WSOP bracelets under his belt, meaning he was taking an big risk revealing some of the secrets which had contributed to his success. As Doyle later disclosed, composing “Super System” cost him more money at the poker tables than he ever earned from writing the book.
Of course, the game has moved on significantly since then, in no small part thanks to Doyle Brunson’s tireless efforts, and in 2003 Chris Moneymaker sparked the “poker boom” after winning the World Series of Poker, having first qualified for the $10,000 Main Event via an online poker site. As a result, the market has since been flooded with a plethora of poker books seeking to explain ever more details about the game, and promising to make the reader a much better player.
However, many of the writers are not even winning players themselves, and could actually make whoever reads their books a much worse player as a result. That is the message given by Canadian poker legend Daniel Negreanu, currently ranked number one on poker’s ‘All Time Money List’ with $30,686,159 in winnings, and 6 WSOP bracelets to his credit. Elaborating further in his fullcontactpoker article, Negreanu also noted that books written a few years back will now likely contain outdated information and strategies “that worked then, but would be totally outdated now,” Negreanu went on recommend that readers should check out a players credentials before trusting their judgement, but ultimately it seems that the best information will still rarely be revealed to the public in a book. As Negreanu explains:
“The truth is, many of the best poker books will never be written. Its rare for a top player in the highest stakes games to divulge his strategies. He is typically going to make a hell of a lot more money by keeping his strategies to himself versus sharing them with the world. It does happen occasionally, but it’s still quite rare.”