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Summary: This book is available from Orloff Press
Review: Orloff Press announces that a completely re-designed edition of Herbert Yardley's classic The Education Of A Poker Player will be available in December, 1997. Zipporah Collins, noted Bay Area book designer, has re-designed and reset the entire text for Orloff Press. A striking new cover by artist and designer Taylor Little was commissioned for the re-introduction of this timeless book.
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Summary: Uncanny insight to the game
Review: Right from the start, from his very first awakeining of the game until it's cold calculating & unbeatable play, he shows us the "real education" of how one becomes a great player. The stories and insight are uncanny and if you play the game you will understand and appreciate what Mr Herbert O. Yardley is offering.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth it for the stories alone!
Review: This book is worth reading just to read Yardley's stories about playing poker in small-town Indiana before World War I. The popular image of a happy, law-abiding Midwest (as in for example "The Music Man") gives way to a sinister picture of drug addiction, abortionists, and high-stakes gambling in the back streets, where men could and did lose their farms or businesses in one afternoon. Converted to today's dollars and considering that this was just one small town, the amounts won and lost at Monty's are staggering.I'm no poker expert, but it seems to me that while Yardley's detailed advice is dated, his fundamental themes (know your opponents, don't bet bad cards, know the odds, don't be afraid to raise) are timeless.
Rating:
Summary: Worth it for the stories alone!
Review: This book is worth reading just to read Yardley's stories about playing poker in small-town Indiana before World War I. The popular image of a happy, law-abiding Midwest (as in for example "The Music Man") gives way to a sinister picture of drug addiction, abortionists, and high-stakes gambling in the back streets, where men could and did lose their farms or businesses in one afternoon. Converted to today's dollars and considering that this was just one small town, the amounts won and lost at Monty's are staggering. I'm no poker expert, but it seems to me that while Yardley's detailed advice is dated, his fundamental themes (know your opponents, don't bet bad cards, know the odds, don't be afraid to raise) are timeless.
Rating:
Summary: Worth it for the stories alone!
Review: This book is worth reading just to read Yardley's stories about playing poker in small-town Indiana before World War I. The popular image of a happy, law-abiding Midwest (as in for example "The Music Man") gives way to a sinister picture of drug addiction, abortionists, and high-stakes gambling in the back streets, where men could and did lose their farms or businesses in one afternoon. Converted to today's dollars and considering that this was just one small town, the amounts won and lost at Monty's are staggering. I'm no poker expert, but it seems to me that while Yardley's detailed advice is dated, his fundamental themes (know your opponents, don't bet bad cards, know the odds, don't be afraid to raise) are timeless.
Rating:
Summary: The museum piece of poker books
Review: What a golden oldie! Scenes from Wild West taverns, magnificently fallible opponents, all that stuff from the Far East - and good hands always win. Fun to read, and comforting in a way, but if you want to learn poker, get something else, unless extreme frustration from expecting to scoop up cash every time you play well is what you want. Half of the decent casino players today would shred someone playing according to Yardley, if the antes didn't do it first. But that's not really what the book's about in 1999.
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Summary: Worth It's Weight in Gold
Review: While a young Air Force officer in Viet Nam during 1965, I gained a copy of Herb Yardley's guide to a successful lifetime of poker playing. Over the past 30 years I've put Herb's basic strategies and disciplines to work. Many of my SAC alert buddies and Thursday night Rotary card friends have become unwitting benefactors because I have played "lodge poker" to my great advantage. Herb's tips have made my purchase of a retirement motor home much easier. I've read many poker books, but this is the BIBLE.
Rating:
Summary: A good read, and maybe even educational
Review: While I have my doubts about the truth of some of the stories, their intrigue and artistry make amends for whatever license Yardley took with the facts. He was obviously quite a character and self-promoter, and debates continue to this day over exactly how valuable his contributions were to US cryptology and intelligence... if any. His other major work, The American Black Chamber, caused a major stir when it was first published in the 1930s (including at least one Congressional debate)--and is an equally enjoyable read.
The book is rather thin, and it's certainly not a wondrous tome of poker strategy. However, it was a welcome contribution in an age when there was a dearth of serious books on any gaming strategies, let alone gambling. It's a very readable introduction to some basic poker knowledge, much more so than many modern works on the subject.
His strategy advice mainly focuses on playing the odds, and he repeatedly emphasises that people (he calls them "simpletons" or "suckers") who blindly gamble without taking probabilities into account will soon be parted with their money. That's good advice even today; I don't know how well his recommendations would work against more sophisticated modern players, but it's a decent place to start and should stimulate some new ideas in novices. And his advice, basic as it is, would definitely give an edge to the typical "kitchen table" poker player.
If you have any interest in poker or "spy stuff" (the half-true kind), it's worth reading at least once. You might even learn something.
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