Tournament Poker for Advanced Players

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Very Basic and out of date - Don't bother - Rated
The concepts of this book are very basic and seem to pre-date the recent explosive growth in poker and also poker knowledge. Topics like the gap principle (you need a better hand to call a raise, than to make a raise, duuh!) are explained in reverent tones as a great insight for the advanced player. Excuse me, your average player in a $5 internet tournament has already worked this one out. Avoid.

What's the difference between tournament and cash games? - Rated
If you have a decent working knowledge of the basics of poker, you will get a lot from this book especially if like me you want to move from cash games to tournament play. Some concepts like the Gap Concept and how they alter during the tournament, how the value of chips alters etc. seem really obvious, but only when someone points them out to you. Other concepts such as when to go all-in when short stacked seem counter intuitive too, but you can't argue with Sklansky's well reasoned logic.
Before this I was an OK mid-level cash game player, but tournaments...I could never get beyond the last 10%. I was a survivor, but I always just ran out of chips and got bullied into submission. After reading this book and altering my mindset (the harder part!) it began to make sense and I've made the finals tables at several pretty large online tournies (9th in a 2500+ field being my personal highlight, especially as I was only put out by a very bad beat) and won several smaller ones. It's also helped my cash-game as I now understand where some of my opponents are coming from and can more easily put them on hands and work out how to play them.

Great Book! - Rated
I've read Sklansky's Tournament Poker for Advanced Players a few times now. Each time I've read it I've found something useful that I hadn't noticed before. I am an experienced mid limit poker player. I play a lot of 15-30 Holdem and Seven Card Stud. However, I would really prefer to play tournaments as a professional. I know how to play poker. I was looking for a book that explaind the nuances of Tournament Play. Sklansky's book does all of that. The "Gap Concept" is something that is known among experienced poker players. But Sklansky puts it on paper and explains it's effect during tournament play. His explanation of the Gap Principal is worth the price of the book alone. Sklansky also does a good job in explaining the value of chips and how that value changes throughout the tournament. He goes on to expalin when it is advisable to be aggressive and when one should sit back and try and survive. The book is definitely written in general terms and must be read a few times to glean the important information contained within. If you plan on giving Tournament Poker a shot and already know how to play poker well this is a book for you.

Advanced Player? - Rated
I have been playing poker for some time now and own a number of poker books. I bought this book as I believe myself to be an advanced player. However I dont think that this book has anything to offer to an advanced or even slightly better than average player as all of the concepts, plays and strategies are very basic and should already be known by anyone who has played regularly for about 6 months.

Ultra-reliable information - Rated
David Sklanksy is actually a very funny man (if you don't believe this look for his wry cardplayer articles about his experiences as a young player). Of course, this book is not very funny at all; it's written in the reassuringly dry style of all his other 2+2 efforts, but everything in the text is gold.

It is obvious from this book why Sklansky is the leading theorist in poker: his ideas are insightful, and his writing is authoritative and so thoroughly researched that the reader has complete confidence in each point. For the UK player this is Sklanksy's most important collection since the seminal "Theory of Poker". (If you play mid-limit stud or hold'em then "...for the advanced player" is as important.)

Do you think you know everything in here already? If you are a typical UK tournament poker you've got a lot to learn from this book. You probably know the "Gap Concept" between hands that can call a raise and those that can raise, but you aren't aware of situations where you should refrain from eliminating players (page 80). I'm certain that this particular play is unknown to the small-buyin tourney player as I get a strategy lecture for using it.

This is the book that contains Sklansky's controversial article "The System" (page 122). In it, he implicitly attacks the no-limit structure in hold'em tournaments and gives case studies of amateur players neutralizing most of the professional's edge without post-flop betting. Subsequent articles (e.g. from D. Neagranu) have endorsed the message that Pot Limit is the more skillfull game, so perhaps "The System" presages the end of NLH's supremacy. (The Cadillac of Poker was driven to the top of the gambling heap by the Texas Road-Gambler's dominance of '70s poker, and might be considered a historical accident. If the championship events had been decided by the Californian players we'd all be studying NL lowball; which might be the game-of-the-future because its more TV friendly. In fact, some of the examples here are taken from lowball.)

I have to quibble with the Sklansky/Malmuth house style. The fifth chapter is a deliberate rehash of the preceding material in the guise of "Questions & Answers", and to bulk-up the page count they re-use their old trick of inserting large images of the cards instead of describing them. However, if there exists any chance that you don't know everything already, an investment in this book will prove very profitable.