CardSharp

Author: Mason Malmuth

Publisher: 2+2

In a similar vein to his previous Poker Essays, Poker Essays Volume 2 is a collection of columns that Mason Malmuth wrote for Card Player magazine.  Indeed, you might confuse them for the same columns found in the original Poker Essays, because many of the topics are the same and a small amount of the material is even directly reprinted from the previous work.

Overall, I liked the previous book in spite of its flaws because the premise of thinking about poker was good and the good material vastly outnumbered the bad.  But this one just got on my nerves.  It seems that Mason decided to engage in a bit of literary trolling, as his essays largely focus on points that were controversial from the previous essays.  Since he has been proven wrong on nearly all his controversial stances by subsequent events, he comes off looking rather silly.  In particular, the section on game structure now reads like a chronicle of bad poker thinking.  To be fair, in the second (post-boom) edition Mason acknowledges that he made mistakes in the footnotes.

There is some good material in volume 2, mostly relating to the play of hands.  But I’m not sure it’s numerous enough or good enough to make the book worth the cover price.

Rating: 2 stars